Skills
Certified Nursing Assistant Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in certified nursing assistants, and how to build and show them.
Certified Nursing Assistants need technical skills such as activities of daily living (adl) care, safe patient transfers and positioning, and vital signs, plus people skills like compassion and patience and physical stamina. They also use tools such as Gait belts and Mechanical (Hoyer) lifts.
Technical (hard) skills
- Activities of daily living (ADL) care
- Safe patient transfers and positioning
- Vital signs
- Infection control
- Intake and output measurement
- Documentation
People (soft) skills
- Compassion and patience
- Physical stamina
- Observation and reporting
- Respect for dignity and privacy
Tools, equipment and technology
- Gait belts
- Mechanical (Hoyer) lifts
- Wheelchairs and walkers
- Vital-signs monitors
- Bed scales
- Electronic documentation systems (such as PointClickCare)
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how certified nursing assistants put their skills to work:
- How to transfer a patient from bed to wheelchair
- How to measure intake and output
- How to prevent pressure injuries
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Activities of daily living (ADL) care” and “Safe patient transfers and positioning.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “compassion and patience,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as State CNA certification near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our certified nursing assistant glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Certified Nursing Assistant training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.