Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) play a huge role in the health care teams regardless of the hospital type. They have highly varied responsibilities as they usually assist both the medical staff and patients alike. Therefore, many people choose to pursue a CNA job to get exposure to the nursing and health care industry. While those who want to enter healthcare usually diligently care for people suffering from different kinds of health issues, they rarely care as much about the quality of their resumes… However, a powerful CNA resume is the key to becoming a successful candidate for this type of job.
What Does a CNA Do?
Writing an effective CAN resume that will make you an attractive candidate required a good understanding of what the role entails. Without knowing the responsibilities of a certified nurse assistant, writing a resume for this position is just taking a trying to hit a bull’s eye with your eyes blindfolded. The point is you have to know what kind of skills are needed to do this job effectively. It may well be that you do not have all of the skills required but at least you can show other skills that will be relevant and/or easily transferrable to the CAN’s environment. So here is the list CNA’s responsibilities:
- Assist patients with bathing, dressing, eating, and other daily activities.
- Monitor vital signs and changes in patients’ conditions; report to assigned physicians.
- Provide special care to bedridden patients by repositioning them and taking their bedpans.
- Collect information about treatment plans from nursing professionals and physicians.
- Help transport patients and assist doctors with physical examinations.
- Examine patient’s body for bruises or other injuries; check for blood in urine.
- Clean and sanitize patient areas, change bedsheets, and assist with restocking.
Although most of their time CNAs commit to patients, there are some things they usually do for the healthcare team as well. In other words, there are some responsibilities certified nursing assistants are expected to help with (apart from their primary duties):
- Document patients’ health issues and assist in maintaining health records.
- Assist nursing personnel and physicians during medical procedures.
- Liaise between patients and physicians to educate patients on treatment plans.
- Prepare patients for medical tests, health assessments, and examinations.
CNA Skills for Resume
It is not surprising that CNA skills are extremely important for a powerful resume. However, the question is what exactly are CNA skills? What are those abilities prospective employers are after when seeking to fill the position of a certified nursing assistant? Well, the answer is simple here – relevant. Just like with any other resume, you have to carefully study the job requirements before choosing the skills to highlight on your resume. For most job openings the list is very similar (that doesn’t mean you can ignore job requirements):
- Patient care skills
- Bedside manner
- Interpersonal skills
- First aid
- Patient transportation
- Medical records
- Physical examinations
- Patient education
- Time management
- Empathetic care
- Administrative skills
- Care plans comprehension
- Medical terminology
- Vital signs monitoring
- Safety regulations
- Medical equipment
CAN Resume Sample
CNA Jobs
When you have your resume ready to go, it is time to find some job openings. Now there are plenty of job search engines out there with thousands of CNA jobs. It will take some time to surf through them and choose those you can go with. For your convenience, we have chosen a couple of websites with the list of CNA jobs:
- Indeed CNA Jobs
- Glassdoor CNA Jobs
- US Jobs CNA Openings
- SimplyHired CNA Jobs
- CareerBuilder CNA Jobs
These five websites feature more than enough of CNA jobs to get started. However, surfing through the multiple job openings at these websites do not guarantee interviews or let along job offers. Even if you apply to a hundred CNA jobs per day. When it comes to job search, quantity does not necessarily convert to job offers. Unfortunately, the majority of job seekers tend to submit their resumes looking no further than job title on the listings. To make your job search more effective, make sure you carefully read the requirements for every opening and apply only for those you meet key criteria.
