As a home health Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), you play a vital role in many lives. From making sure that your patients take their medication to providing mobility assistance, you help them achieve a sense of security and dignity in their daily lives.
You feel comfortable in the role of a reliable caregiver, but building an effective resume can leave you feeling at a loss.
Our cover letter writer and home health CNA resume templates are helping folks just like you land new jobs! Here’s what you can do to impress recruiters when you apply for your next job.
Related resume examples
What Matters Most: Your Caregiving Skills & CNA Experience
Whether you have years of experience or you’re just starting, your job encompasses many skills. Above all, it demands both mental and physical resilience. Still, your inner strength is just one of the qualities worth highlighting in your resume.
Our best tip for your resume? Get as specific as you can. Instead of a generic personality trait, such as “caring,” talk about more specific soft skills, such as cultural sensitivity and active listening.
This is also a good place to mention that you know how to use a Hoyer lift, are specialized in wound care, or that you have the physical stamina to provide comprehensive mobility assistance.
9 popular home health CNA skills
- Handling Medication
- Monitoring Vitals
- CPR
- Hoyer Lift
- Transfer Techniques
- Dementia Care
- Driver’s License
- Hygiene Assistance
- Wound Care
Sample home health CNA work experience bullet points
You work with many patients as a home health CNA, so you know there’s no set list of tasks that applies to every client. Some patients may only need companionship and medication reminders, while others require specialized care and assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs).
With such a diverse range of work experience, this is a tricky section to tackle in your resume. Focus on how your work impacted the lives of your patients, and use numbers and percentages to make your points more meaningful.
If you want to tell the recruiter that you cared for patients daily, make it more comprehensive by saying, “provided home health care to 20+ patients, including ADLs, monitoring vitals, and meal preparation.” Explaining it this way gives significant insight into your work experience.
Here are a few more examples of how to do this:
- Assisted 30+ patients with ADLs, including bathing, grooming, and feeding, maintaining a 98% satisfaction rate
- Utilized Hoyer/Geri lifts and safe transfer techniques, aiding 14 patients and reducing fall risk by 70%
- Performed daily checks of vital signs and administered oral medication to 18 patients, ensuring high accuracy
- Led the meal planning and grocery shopping for 75% of patients, complete with meticulous tracking, improving nutrition, and shortening meal prep times
Top 5 Tips for Your Home Health CNA Resume
- Certifications are crucial
- Many employers are happy to hire people without a college degree for the role of a home health CNA, but your certifications are still important. Listing your CNA certification is a must, so choose a resume template that lets you add a dedicated section for your certs, such as CPR, FA, CHHA, and BLS.
- Highlight your experience in specialized care
- Working as a home health CNA will have you helping people with a wide range of conditions. If you have experience in working with patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or those who are recovering from a stroke, add it to your resume.
- Emphasize physical stamina
- Helping someone with limited mobility can be incredibly difficult, so show you know what you’re signing up for. Talk about safe lifting, repositioning, and transfer techniques.
- Match the job ad
- Read the CNA job description and pick out skills and experiences that match it. For example, if you’re applying as a CNA for a diabetic patient, you can emphasize your skills in meal prep, nutrition, and tracking medication.
- Talk about the tools of the trade
- The more medical knowledge you possess, the easier for a new employer to send you out on your own. Mention medical tools you know how to use, such as glucose monitors, blood pressure cuffs, bedpans, urinals, or Hoyer lifts.
You often don’t need prior experience for an entry-level home health CNA position, so that’s no problem! Instead, describe the tasks you completed during your CNA course, such as feeding and bathing patients.
You can mention positions like medical assistant and nursing home caregiver. Volunteer work is also a great way to showcase your empathy.
A career objective is a good addition to a home health CNA resume, but remember to tailor it to match each job. Change the company name, past experience, and future goals as needed.
