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Patient care assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Janice Nash,

Marina Orobinskaia

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical patient care assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for patient care assistants based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 23.3% of patient care assistant resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a patient care assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 patient care assistant skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how patient care assistants use patients:

Assist patients in achieving independence and increased functional ability.
Protected the patients by keeping their personal information confidential.

2. Vital Signs

Vital signs are a set of values indicating different body systems' performance. They are measurements of the body's most basic functions. The four major vital signs used in medicine to assess a patient are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.

Here's how patient care assistants use vital signs:

Assisted in patient examinations and perform preliminary procedures or tests in the Telemetry Department including vital signs.
Performed direct nursing tasks including taking vital signs, administered medication.

3. PCA

PCA (Personal Care Aide) skills are the abilities to provide assistance and care to elderly, disabled, sick, or fragile individuals.

Here's how patient care assistants use pca:

Train newly hired PCA'S/Secretaries, demonstrating leadership in a fast-paced, customer focused environment.
Determined PCA program eligibility and developed Care Plans for eligible clients.

4. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how patient care assistants use cpr:

Recognized signs of cardiac and/or respiratory arrest, and initiated CPR as necessary
Certified in CPR Skills Used Customer service Peer interaction Communication

5. Home Health

Here's how patient care assistants use home health:

Provided home health care to elderly individuals, documented daily progress notes, supervised medication intake
Researched and compiled daily operation reports and patient statistical data for home health director.

6. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how patient care assistants use customer service:

Utilized effective communication skills with customer service interactions, performed effective time management skills, developed diplomacy and skills in teamwork.
Provided a high level of customer service and client relations based on outstanding communications via telephone and other communication systems

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7. Direct Patient Care

Here's how patient care assistants use direct patient care:

Performed direct patient care, increasing comfort, and providing assistance with personal hygiene rehabilitation and safety.
Provided direct patient care under supervision of a Registered Nurse for postpartum and antenatal patients.

8. Direct Supervision

Direct supervision is a term used to indicate that a person is supervising a certain task or a certain person while being physically present or in close proximity. It refers to the presence of a person and the availability of their supervision in something if it is needed.

Here's how patient care assistants use direct supervision:

Provided basic direct/indirect, age-specific and developmentally appropriate patient care under the direct supervision of the RN.
Promoted direct and indirect supervision to other employee

9. EKG

Here's how patient care assistants use ekg:

Participated in continuing education courses to develop further specialization in performing EKG's and monitoring Cardiac Telemetry.
Provided Continuous observation and monitoring of EKG patterns.

10. Catheter

Here's how patient care assistants use catheter:

Inserted and managed catheters, Monitored patients for transfer/discharge availability.
Utilized sterile technique for Foley catheter insertion.

11. Patient Safety

Here's how patient care assistants use patient safety:

Administered basic care to both in-home and hospital elderly patients* Observed strict adherence to established hospital policy regarding patient safety measures
Assist with data collection for quality improvement activities and identification of actual and/or potential risk to patient safety.

12. Phlebotomy

Here's how patient care assistants use phlebotomy:

Provided patient education, obtained patient histories, performed phlebotomy procedures, conducted urinalysis testing, removed catheters, and vital signs
Demonstrated competency in phlebotomy skills, ensuring proper and safe collection of laboratory specimens.

13. Electrocardiogram

Here's how patient care assistants use electrocardiogram:

Maintained the electrocardiogram machine and other devices.
Performed blood draws, glucose test, urinalysis, electrocardiogram test and assisted nurses administering injections.

14. Excellent Organizational

Here's how patient care assistants use excellent organizational:

Give attention to detail with excellent organizational skills.

15. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how patient care assistants use patient care:

Provide attentive patient care according to individual needs Demonstrate strong communication abilities with patients, nursing staff and other health care professionals
Provide high-quality patient care, chart accuracy, effective team collaboration, patient relations and consistent delivery of empathetic care.

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What skills help Patient Care Assistants find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on patient care assistant resumes?

Janice Nash

Professor, Director of the Undergraduate Nursing Program, Carlow University

Graduates who had internships or experience working in healthcare in addition to the required clinical courses are at an advantage. An applicant who highlights their ability to work collaboratively as part of a team and problem-solve will be noticed.

What soft skills should all patient care assistants possess?

Marina Orobinskaia

Program Coordinator, Bellevue College

Friendliness, positive energy, leadership.

What hard/technical skills are most important for patient care assistants?

Marina Orobinskaia

Program Coordinator, Bellevue College

There are no more or less important skills. You need to learn all of them to excellence and what is most important - use your critical thinking when you do them.

What patient care assistant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Amy Bruce

Chair, Program Director, University of Charleston

If a gap year is taken in nursing school, the student should try to work as a Certified Nurse Assistant or Nurse Extern. This will keep them in the field and keep their experiences and current knowledge fresh until he or she can return to school.

What type of skills will young patient care assistants need?

Dr. Linda Roney

Associate Professor, Fairfield University

New graduates need to have excellent leadership and communication skills, especially during times of uncertainty. For example, many of our 2019 graduates were deployed to float to areas of need throughout the pandemic. Because they had full, personal protective equipment on, their new work area could not read facial expressions or body language to try to guess the nurse's level of comfort with their new setting. They had to quickly learn to speak up about what their learning needs were, and how to best advocate for their patients.

Do you want to know more?

List of patient care assistant skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a patient care assistant resume and required skills for a patient care assistant to have include:

Patients
Vital Signs
PCA
CPR
Home Health
Customer Service
Direct Patient Care
Direct Supervision
EKG
Catheter
Patient Safety
Phlebotomy
Electrocardiogram
Excellent Organizational
Patient Care
Compassion

Physician Orders
Blood Pressure
Excellent Interpersonal
Rehabilitation
Companionship
Restraints
Basic Math
Telemetry
Specimen Collection
Care Plan
IV
Math
Physical Therapy
ADL
Patient Rooms
Medication Reminders

Foley Catheters
Hippa
ICU
Skin Care
Computer System
Oral Care
Senior Care
Traction
Medical Equipment
Bed Linens
Emotional Support
Allergies
EMR
Meal Prep
Informed Consent
Lab Specimens

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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