Caregiver Resume Guide + Tips + Example
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Caregivers work in a rewarding field projected to grow by 25% this decade, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Whether you’re starting out or looking to advance your career, an effective caregiver resume is essential. We can help you build a professional resume for caregiver with our comprehensive resume writing guide!
Our guide include writing tips and caregiver resume examples that will help craft a resume to showcase your important caregiving career and skills, like dependability, compassion and specialized care.
Start by editing this caregiver resume sample template or explore our 40+ resume templates to find the best one for you.
Caregiver resume example (text version)
Ethan Allen
Lincoln, NE 68501
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Professional Summary
Compassionate caregiver with six years of experience working in assisted living facilities. Passionate about elder care, skilled at managing schedules and keeping clients as active as possible. Culturally sensitive with the ability to provide both physical and emotional support to clients. Willing to transport clients to appointments and events.
Work History
December 2018 – Current
Roseview Home – Lincoln, NE
Caregiver
- Assist 30 residents (ages 69 to 89) with daily living activities, including bathing and bathroom needs.
- Able to lift and turn residents up to 150 pounds to change dressings and transfer from chair to bed.
- Assist with meals and exercises, improving 35% of clients’ health.
- Entertain residents by reading stories, hosting game nights and playing songs on the guitar.
January 2017 – December 2018
Sunshine State Home – Lincoln, NE
Caregiver
- Worked with up to 25 residents with daily living activities, including bathing and bathroom needs.
- Assisted with medications, dressing changes and transferring patients from chair to bed.
- Hosted weekly sing-a-longs for residents and developed 12 activities per month to keep patients mentally alert.
December 2014 – December 2016
Vero Beach Assisted Living – Lincoln, NE
Care Coordinator
- Coordinated care for high-functioning residents with daily living activities inside their private apartments.
- Worked with senior patients and families to develop future plans and discuss care actions.
- Updated documentation and reports detailing patient activities, care actions and hospital determinations.
Skills
- Meal preparation
- Community
- Records management
- Patient care
- First aid & CPR
- Lifting 80 lbs pounds
- Friendly and outgoing
- Communication and teamwork
Education
May 2016
Southeast Community College Lincoln, NE
Associate of Science Health & Wellness
Certifications
Home Health Aide certification (HHA) – (Updated 2022)
5 essentials of a top caregiver resume
Contact details
Start your caregiver resume with the basics: your contact details. Include your full name, city, state and ZIP code. Add your phone number and email address. Finally, include your professional website, portfolio, LinkedIn profile or any other professional networking profile.
Personal statement
Grab the attention of a hiring manager with a strong personal statement in your resume for caregiver. Also called a professional summary, this section summarizes your career in three to five sentences. Include your years of experience, strongest job-relevant skills and a professional accomplishment.
If this is your first job, talk about what you’d like to accomplish, and include achievements and projects from your education.
Skills
A caregiver resume skills section should use bullet points for easy reading. Add a balance of hard skills, those you use to perform your job, like administering medication and patient support, and soft skills, like empathy and observation as caregiver skills for your resume.
If this is your first job as a caregiver, include transferable skills from other roles, like communication and attention to detail.
Work history
In this area of your caregiver resume, add your work experience in reverse chronological order. Start with your current or last job and work backwards. Add the company name, workplace location and dates of employment. Under each job, add bullet points with achievements you reached during your time there. For example, include your punctuality and attendance record, amount of patients cared for, or if you had a leadership or educator role within your company.
If this is your first job, you can still include relevant work experience from extracurricular activities, personal projects, community service and volunteer experiences.
Education
Caregivers education requirements vary according to employers. For some, a high school diploma is enough, while others request an associate’s degree. Larger agencies ask for a CNA certification and other courses and certificates. Use bullet points to add your caregiver resume education section. Include the name, the degree and graduation date. If it has been more than a decade since graduation, skip it.
See why My Perfect Resume is a 5-star resume builder
Action words for a stand-out caregiver resume
Powerful action words add authority to your resume for caregiver.. These words add confidence to your expertise and experience. Combine them with your quantifiable achievements to create an outstanding resume.
Here’s a list of action words for a caregiver resume:
- Cared
- Monitored
- Administered
- Managed
- Organized
- Prepared
- Reduced
- Adapted
- Aided
- Facilitated
- Supplied
- Supported
Use these verbs to create a powerful resume for a caregiver. Build an effective resume with the best resume builder online. It provides the tools you need to write a resume quick and easy. Choose a template, add our expert suggested job specific content, personalize and download.
Top skills for a caregiver resume
Skills show your ability to perform a job and help determine your expertise. Use the caregiver job description for resume tailoring. Our Resume Builder allows you to save more than one resume, making personalization even easier.
- Physical strength
- Reliability
- Compassion
- Multitasker
- Time management
- Organization
- Stamina
- Patience
- Empathy
- Positivity
- Cleanliness
- Flexibility
- Relationship building
- Problem-solving skills
Certifications for a caregiver resume
Certifications add confidence to your caregiver resume education and experience. It shows the employer that you have taken the time to excel in your career. Add a special section to include all your certifications.
Here are a few certifications to add in a resume for caregiver.
- National Caregiver Certification
- Advanced National Caregiver Certification
- CPR
- First Aide
- Basic Life Support
- Caregiver Assistant Training
- Dementia Care Certification
- Home Health Aide (HHA) licensing
Pair your resume with a matching cover letter
Caregiver resume FAQ
1. What to put on a resume for a caregiver?
A caregiver resume should have the five primary resume sections: contact information, professional summary, work experience, skills and education. You can also include optional sections to add value to your resume. Sections like certifications, languages, volunteer experience, and even hobbies and interests. Caregiving is about taking care of the vulnerable. If your resume shows you have the necessary skills plus can connect with the patient on another level, you’ll be standing out from the other application.
2. What are good words for a caregiver resume?
A great caregiver resume should have strong verbs and job-specific skills. You can use the action words listed above to shape your resume. The job-specific skills will be all over your resume: in your work experience, professional summary and skills section. Use the job posting to adjust the skills according to what the job needs.
With our Resume Builder, you can save multiple resumes and adjust them according to the job advertisement. No need to rewrite the entire document! Change what you want, and our builder will adjust the template to the new information.
3. What should a caregiver resume look like?
The look of a caregiver resume depends on its template and format. The template is the design. You can check out our professionally designed templates and choose one for your resume.
The resume format will depend on your years of experience.
- Chronological – if you have over a decade of experience
- Functional – If you’re starting your career or switching from a different industry
- Combination – If you have between three and nine years of experience
We have more than 400+ resume examples to help you create the perfect caregiver resume.
Do’s and don’ts for building a caregiver resume
- Use measurable achievements to describe your caregiver abilities and experience.
- Use action words to make an impact on your caregiver resume.
- Tailor your resume to your target caregiver job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your caregiver resume.
- Format your caregiver resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your caregiver experience and skills.
- Boast that you’re the “best caregiver ever.”
- Include irrelevant personal information such as your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience not pertaining to being a caregiver.
- Forget to proofread. A caregiver resume with errors is unprofessional.
Top 4 tips for acing a caregiver interview
Learn about the employer before your interview.
Before the caregiver job interview, take time to learn about your potential employer. If the employer is a company, learn about its history, values and mission. Also, search for current and previous employees willing to talk about the good and the bad. If you’re going to work directly with a family, ask for references and corroborate the information during the interview.
Practice at home.
Practice a few of the most common interview questions. Research and write down your answer to practice in the days leading to the caregiver job interview.
Get ready to excel at your interview by practicing the most common interview questions. Research and write down the answers to practice.
Here are a few examples of interview questions:
- How do you determine priorities?
- What is the biggest mistake you’ve made?
- What do you do in your free time?
Perform a mock interview with the help of a friend. They can ask the questions and provide feedback on your answers, tone and body language. Continue your practice and once the actual interview comes, you’ll be ready to excel.
Be proactive and ask questions.
At the end of the interview, you will be asked “any questions?” Be prepared to answer. Prepare at least three questions to know more about the position and workplace. Being prepared will also leave a good impression in your interviewer and you will feel more confident.
Pick from the list or be inspired by it to create your own:
- What are the expectations for this position?
- What are your biggest challenges?
- How do you support the staff?
- What type of supervision do you provide?
- Do you provide continuing education or other training?
Round up your references.
Caregivers rely on great references from their previous employment to continue their career. Reach out to past employers, managers or families you cared for, and formally ask them to become a reference. Let them know where you are in the interviewing process and when they could expect to be reached. Confirm with your references the phone and email where they can be reached. Also, request at least two letters of recommendations that can vouch for your work ethic and skills.
Cover letter examples for the next step in your nursing career
- Nursing Assistant Cover Letter
- Caregiver Cover Letter
- Certified Nurse Assistant Cover Letter
- Charge Nurse Cover Letter
- Director Of Nursing Cover Letter
- ICU Nurse Cover Letter
- LPN Cover Letter
- LVN Cover Letter
- Operating Room Nurse Cover Letter
- Patient Care Technician Cover Letter
- Perioperative Nurse Cover Letter
- Student Nurse Cover Letter
CV examples for the next step in your nursing career
How we reviewed this article
Since 2013, we have helped more than 15 million job seekers. We want to make your career journey accessible and manageable through our services and Career Center’s how-to guides and tips. In our commitment to bring you a transparent process, we present our Editorial Process.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Home Health and Personal Care Aides“
- O*Net OnLine. “Personal Care Aides 31-1122.00“
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Caregiver Resume Example
Nilda Melissa Díaz is a Career Advice Writer. She has worked for the Washington Post, Stringr, and Latina Style Magazine. She has a master's in journalism from Columbia University and is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.