A template for CNAs who deliver hands-on care with patience, dignity, and a steady eye on the small details that keep patients safe.
Certified Nursing Assistants give the everyday hands-on care that keeps patients safe and comfortable. They take vital signs, help with bathing, dressing, feeding, and mobility, reposition patients every two hours, and report changes straight to the nurse. They work in nursing homes, hospitals, and home care, and they're usually the staff member who spends the most time with each patient. A normal 12-hour shift mixes ADLs, vitals rounds, charting in the EHR, and answering call lights without dropping the ball. The role rewards compassion, stamina, and sharp observation, because the CNA often spots a pressure sore or a sudden confusion change first. This page shows how to turn that daily work into a CV that gets past the screen.
Compassionate Certified Nursing Assistant with five years in long-term and acute care. Cares for 12 residents per shift in a memory-care unit with a two-year zero-fall record and accurate EHR charting. Skilled in vitals, ADLs, two-person safe transfers, infection control, and early reporting of condition changes to the nursing team. Holds active Illinois CNA certification plus current CPR and BLS.
Active certification, reliability, and genuine compassion, in that screening order. A line like "Cared for 12 residents per shift in a memory-care unit with zero falls over two years and accurate EHR charting" beats "provided patient care" every time, because it shows scope, a safety record, and documentation in one breath. Recruiters also scan for the settings you know, since a hospital med-surg floor and a long-term care home call for different rhythms. Name your patient load, the equipment you're confident with such as Hoyer lifts and gait belts, and any specialty like dementia or hospice.
Lead with the clinical basics every employer checks: vital signs, ADL assistance, patient hygiene, safe mobility and transfers, and infection control. Then add the skills that separate a strong CNA from a warm body, which are observation and reporting, accurate EHR charting, and de-escalation with confused or distressed patients. If you know a specific system like PointClickCare or Epic, name it, because that saves the employer training time. Don't pad the list with soft words like "team player" when a concrete "two-person safe transfers, Hoyer lift trained" carries far more weight.
The biggest one is burying or omitting your active certification and CPR or BLS, since both get screened first and a missing line can drop you before a human reads the page. Another is writing duties instead of results: "helped patients" tells nobody anything, while "repositioned bed-bound residents every two hours and prevented pressure injuries" tells them everything. People also forget to state their patient load, leave unexplained employment gaps, or list an expired certification without a renewal date. And listing eight settings you barely touched reads weaker than two you genuinely know.
Keep it to one page, two at most if you have a decade behind you. Put CNA certification and CPR or BLS right under your name and title so they're the first thing seen. Use a clean single-column layout that an ATS can parse, list care settings and patient load in each role, and write achievement bullets that start with an action verb. Save the file as a PDF named firstname-lastname-cna.pdf, use a standard font at 11 point, and skip photos, tables, and graphics that scanners choke on.
Figures in USD. Ranges reflect mid-level experience (3–7 years). Senior roles and major metro areas typically sit at the top of these bands.
Nursing homes, hospitals, and home-care agencies want one thing confirmed fast: an active state CNA certification plus current CPR and BLS. Employers like Sunrise Senior Living, Brookdale, and large hospital systems screen for those before they read a single bullet. Put your certification, the care settings you've worked, and your patient-care strengths near the top, then back them with a patient load and a falls or charting record. Reliability matters as much as skill here, so a steady history with few gaps reads well.
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