There’s no doubt that the need for Healthcare Assistants is increasing, but so is the competition. You will need a stellar resume to increase your chances of getting a job, especially those that pay well.

Our Healthcare Assistant resume sample and how-to guideline will help you create the best version of your resume, giving you a competitive edge!

What you can read in this article

Healthcare Assistant Resumes

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Healthcare Assistant Resume Guide

Resume Sections

Contact information
Profile Summary
Work History
Achievements
Education
Skill Section
Certification & licensing
Extras: Languages/Awards/Publications/Volunteering/hobbies

What to Highlight

Healthcare Assistants offer care to patients, clients, or residents of the agency/ facility they are working for. This includes basic help with bathing, dressing, and eating. It also entails helping with taking vital signs, overseeing medications, and setting up IV drips.

Irrespective of the specific responsibilities you’d undertake as a Healthcare Assistant, there are specific features you must highlight in your resume that will convince recruiters you’re committed to personal care and that your proficiencies are up to scratch to deliver on this commitment.

First up: Because Healthcare Assistants are found in a variety of environments, you must specify your work setting:

Long Term Care Facilities: These are also known as nursing homes, and in this environment, HAs to help the disabled, elderly, or mentally ill patients to perform basic activities like bathing, going to the toilet, or eating. You’d also be accountable for checking vital signs, overseeing their meds intake, and taking blood samples when needed.

Home Health Agencies: in this role, you’re assigned to one patient, where you assist them with care as they need it in their own homes. This includes prepping meals, shopping, housekeeping, and preventative healthcare methods.

Hospitals: This is the most common environment for HAs, and it can be government or private hospitals. It provides HAs with excellent experience to treat an array of conditions, but the pace is rather fast due to the sheer number of patients needing care every day.

Right, next is describing your role’s scope. You may have 1 or 2 responsibilities to perform but over a large number of patients. You may be allocated to a certain ward in the hospital, providing more general care to that ward's patients only. Don’t make the recruiters guess what you do/ did. Be specific.

Then, A clever idea would be to break your main functions down into subcategories and elaborate on your daily KPIs for every subcategory.

Check out our formatting guidelines below:

Choose the reverse chronological format for your resume, i.e., the latest experience first.
Split your resume into the appropriate section headings.
Make your resume easy to read by choosing professional fonts, not fancy ones.
Don’t make the font so small, and the recruiter will need to crack out his magnifying glass. Size 11-12 will do, with headings around size 14.
Keep the margin around the page at 1 inch. It’s easy for the printer, and it gives your resume a light visual appearance.
You want single-line spacing.
Save your resume as a PDF doc unless the job offer says not to.

*Cool Tip for a stellar resume

Finally, If you want to make an awesome first impression, include letters of appreciation from patients and their families in your resume, as well as any commendations given by doctors/ supervisors.

Career Summary & Objective

You need to create a resume that will capture the attention of future employers in under 7 seconds! Yes, that’s the average time an employer spends scanning a resume. Potentially the best way to do that is to write a killer career summary/ objective. This section is usually the first thing they look at, so you have to make it count.

The career summary/ objective is a brief view into the rest of your resume and lets the employer know what to expect. You need to highlight your experience, love for helping people, and achievements in about six sentences max.

But a summary and an objective aren’t the same, so which do you choose to write? It goes like this:

If you have several years’ experience under your belt, then choose the summary. Use it to highlight your relevant experience, skillsets, and achievements. The whole point is to make the recruiter want to read more of your resume.

If you have little/ no experience in the field, then write an objective. You’ll use this to highlight your career ambitions, skillsets, and how you plan to use them to better the lives of your patients. You may also highlight any experience that, while not exactly Healthcare Assistant centered, is relatable.

A nice little trick is to mimic the words and phrases used in the job advert. If the advert says it’s looking for applicants with compassion, a passion for patients, and meticulous nature, then use those exact words if they apply to you.

Examples:

Summary Example 1

"Kind, empathetic CNA graduate with CPR Certification and nine months’ practical experience in an ER environment. Dedicated to delivering outstanding patient care, proven by numerous recommendations from ER Physicians and previous patients. Skilled at operating a selection of emergency response medical equipment such as resuscitation devices and defibrillators with four years of experience obtained working as a volunteer paramedic."

Summary Example 2

"Patient-focused Healthcare Assistant (CNA) has seven years’ experience delivering direct patient care in pediatric and neonatal wards. Highly proficient at taking vital signs and managing medication for babies and infant patients. BLS and CPR certified. Particular in adhering to health and safety protocols to uphold infection control standards."

Summary Example 3

"Top-performing Healthcare Assistant with an established track record in providing brilliant assisted daily living (ADL) care to senior citizens in a hospice environment.  Highly observant to individual patients’ needs from both a physical and emotional perspective. Honest aspiration to increase patients' comfort levels and thorough about adhering to safety and security policies and minimizing any external risks to patients and the direct facility environment."

Summary Example 4

"Certified Health Care Assistant with 9+ years’ working experience caring for patients, recording care, and administering treatments. Skilled at working with all ages and demographics of patients. Caring, empathetic, and devoted to high-quality and culturally sensitive care."

Employment History & Examples

Of all the sections, the recruiter may care most about this one as it actually shows what you can do.

If you want to make sure this section is squeaky clean, follow these steps:

Your most recent/ current job must go first, followed by the previous ones.
Every entry must be formatted correctly and has your title, company name, and dates you were there.
It must be concise and to the point.
Quantify your roles if you can. Numbers reflect the impact you made in your role.
Utilize action verbs as often as you can. It will impress the recruiter and get you past the ATS.
Adapt your resume to every job you apply to. Standardized resumes will be thrown in the “no” pile.

Some examples:

Health Care Assistant at Sampri Health Services

January 2013 – January 2017

Tasked with supporting diagnostic and technical treatment procedures like setting up and working specialized medical equipment/ gear.

Reading and recording temperature, pulse, and breathing rate.
Completing and submitting clinical documents following agency procedures.
Recording chief complaints, taking vital signs and health information, and performing routine tests and procedures, including venipuncture, blood pressures, respirations, pulse rates, height, and weight.
Preparing equipment/ supplies and cleaning examination rooms, preparing for patient examinations.

Health Care Assistant at Total Family Healthcare

January 2015 – December 2019

Responsible for assisting patients with activities of daily living (ADLs), which included hygiene, bathing, and grooming.

Preparing patient rooms for examinations.
Attending physical examinations with the physician, providing supplies and support where needed.
Following up with patients concerning test results/ referrals.
Recording actions in the EHR.
Taking and recording patients’ vital signs as prescribed by nursing protocol/ physician’s orders.

Job Description and Job Duty Samples

Prospective employers will expect to see some generic skills and responsibilities in your resume. Below is a list of but some duties Healthcare Assistants may perform.

You may use any of these as they are or as a guideline to amend them as you please to your work experience.

Examples:

A Healthcare Assistant:

Displaying complete clinical skills in assessing vital signs, performing glucose checks and blood draws.
Administering pre-and post-operative care to ICU patients.
Adhering to safety guidelines, eliminating safety risks to patients and the environment of the health care facility.
Ensure the accurate, suitable flow of information by keeping detailed patient records that provide progress updates to particular healthcare teams.
Complying with HIPAA standards in handling patient documentation and logging of medical information.
Providing high-quality patient assistance in surgical, rehab, acute-care, and hospice nursing-home healthcare environments.
Focusing on maintaining patients’ dignity, reducing discomfort during nursing obligations like bed bathing, changing bedpans, inserting IV’s drawing blood, removing draining bags.
Maintaining up-to-date charts records vital sign scores by the hour, such as blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate.
On-call for answering patient buzzers, helping with patients’ requests and family members where required.
Turning, repositioning, and ambulating elderly patients on a 2-hour schedule.
Observe patients for any mental or physical changes in conditions and reporting issues to the Staff Nurse.
Tidying wards, family waiting areas, and restrooms.
Assisting with cleaning and sanitizing surgical equipment and instruments after procedures are done.
Assisting with serving meals and feeding patients at breakfast and lunchtimes, and offering snacks/ beverages to visiting family members.
Skilled with basic medical procedures, such as applying dressings, enemas and conducting heat/ ice treatments.
Measuring and recording patients’ intake of liquid and food.
Assisting the Staff Nurse with intricate medical procedures.
Monitoring medical supplies in the storeroom and conducting weekly stock takes of medication.

Accomplishments

Recruiters go through loads of resumes a month, and they don’t have all that much time to spare. You want to grab their attention as quickly as possible. One way to do that is to have an accomplishments statements section all nice and neat for them to peruse.

The point of this section is to highlight your proficiencies inpatient care with your exceptional hard and soft skills like empathy, patience, and encouragement quantified by numbers signifying the outcomes you have achieved.

Resume Quantification

Quantifying your accomplishment statements really adds an extra bang for your buck, so integrate numerical values, scores, percentages, frequencies, numbers, and time frames into the statements. You want to have about five accomplishment statements in bullet form.

Questions you should ask yourself when writing accomplishment statements:

How large is the facility you work at?
What is the number of patients you’re allocated to care for daily?
What type of medical procedures can you perform, and how many have you done?
How many times do you check vital signs on daily?

Accomplishment Statement Examples WITHOUT quantification:

Managed a team of junior Healthcare Assistants in the absence of the nursing manager.
Instigated a system that simplified the continuity of patient care across several shifts, which resulted in positive patient reviews.
Started a nursing risk management initiative, which reduced the likelihood of administering medication inadequately.
Instigated automatic instrument sanitation and sterilizing schedule with phone notifications/ reminders, decreasing the risk of infection.
Generated an online, cloud-based record-keeping system, increasing proficiency in documenting nursing activities via forms, reports, and logs.

Accomplishment Statement Examples WITH quantification:

Managed a team of junior Healthcare Assistants for three weeks in the absence of the nursing manager, with a 0-incident rating.
Instigated a system that simplified the continuity of patient care across several shifts, which resulted in a 28% increase in positive patient reviews.
Started a nursing risk management initiative, which reduced the likelihood of administering medication inadequately by 99.6%.
Instigated an automatic instrument sanitation and sterilizing schedule with phone notifications/ reminders, decreasing infection risk by 98%.
Generated an online, cloud-based record-keeping system, increasing proficiency in documenting nursing activities via forms, reports, and logs by 59%.

Education Section

This is an important section, as it may separate you from other applicants with similar experience. Your education section must be as comprehensive as possible, detailing your qualifications, training programs, certifications, and courses you’ve finished (the more, the better).

Make sure the recruiter can see your education section clearly. If they struggle, you’re already heading to the “no” pile. Display it neatly in separate lines and make sure you have:

Starting and finishing date of degree.,
Full name of the degree.
Full name of the institution.
Location of an institution.
City/ abbreviated state name.

Mention all additional training you may have done similarly.

Examples:

2017- 2020 Associates Degree in Medical Assistance, Metropolitan Technical College, Baltimore, MD.

2016- 2019 – Healthcare Assistant (CNA), Maryland Board of Nursing, Omaha, NE

Course Curriculum: Role and Responsibilities of the CAN, Promotion of Function and Health of Residents, Emotional and Mental Health Needs, Safety and Infection Control, Basic Nursing Care and Restorative Skills, Resident Rights.

2016 – CPR Certification, American Red Cross, Sometown, CT.

2016- 2017 – Nurse’s Aide Program, Apex Nursing School, Baltimore, MD.

Completed 65 hours of clinical training.

2012- Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers, American Heart Association, Mecosta Medical Center, Miami, FL.

Skills

This job requires some rather fine-tuned and specific skill sets, on the technical side, but even more so on the emotional/ interpersonal side.

Recruiters want to know you are technically competent to look after people to the best of your ability, but they also want to be able to see what kind of person they’d be employing.

This goes without saying, but it’s a critical section in your resume. To make sure that you get through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you must align your key proficiencies with the skills stated in the job advert

A great way to present your skills is in a skills matrix. It is smart and comprehensive.

You can split them into three matrix tables: Technical competencies, interpersonal traits (soft skills), and tools, instruments, and equipment.

Technical Competencies

Vital Signs Observation	Diagnostic Testing
Report Writing	Patient Interaction
Progress Evaluations	Patient Assessment
Blood Administration	IV Therapy
Shift Rotations	Patient Safety
Emergency Room Experience	ICU
Lab Testing	Quality Assurance and Process Improvement
Patient Advocacy	Infection Control
Electronic Charting	Observation
Care Planning	Nursing Leadership
Pain Management	Report Analysis
Surgery Preparation	Advanced Medical Technologies and Equipment
Wound Irrigation	Rehabilitation
HIPAA Regulations	Virus Control Protocols
Medical Terminology	Electronic Medical Records
Direct and Indirect Patient Care	Patient Education and Counseling
Documentation	Following Care Plans
Collect Specimens	Ensuring Patient Rights
Cleaning and Disinfecting Equipment	Charting Patient Services and Activities
Advocacy and Support	Maintaining an Orderly and Clean Environment

Interpersonal Traits

Accuracy	Cooperative
Resourcefulness	Conflict Resolution
Attention to Detail	Customer Service
Diplomacy	Creative
Meticulous	Attention to Detail
Patient	Empathetic
Kind	Intuitive
Generous	Tactful
Sociable	Positive Attitude
Communication	Enthusiastic
Dependable	Cooperative
Patient	Problem Solving
Multitasking	Prioritizing
Listening	Organizational Skills
Safety Oriented	Engaging
Expressive	Sense of humor

Tools, Equipment & Instruments

Hoyer lifts	Scales
Gait belt	Blood pressure meter
Stethoscope	Autoclave
Easy Stands	Electrocardiogram (ECG)
Bedpans	Hemoglobin machines
Surgical scissors	Otoscope
Thermometers	Blood-glucose Meter
Defibrillators	Syringes

Qualifications & Certifications for Healthcare Assistants

Associates in Surgical Technology	AS in Emergency Medical Services & Lab Technology	Masters Diploma for Practical Nursing
BA Healthcare Administration	Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN)	ADN in Nursing
Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN)	Certificate in Medical Office Administration	Certificate in Medical Assisting
Advanced First Aid	National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN)	Certificate Patient Relations & Ethics

Professional information on Healthcare Assistants

Sectors: Healthcare, Homecare, Medical, Clinical
Childcare
Career Type: Professional, Medical, Personal Care, Home Care, Healthcare, Recovery, Recuperation
Person type: Helper, Assistant, Carer, Worker, Supporter

Education levels: Diploma, Bachelor’s degree and upwards
Salary indication: $15.42 per hour (Indeed)
Labor market: Estimated 19% from 2019 – 2029 (BLS)Organizations: Hospitals, Medical Facilities, Corporate, Step Down Facilities, Nursing Homes, Old Age Homes, Disability Clinics, School Clinics, Military, Hospices, Schools, Psychiatric Institutions, Rehab Facilities