Caregiver Resume Guide + Tips + Example

Nilda Melissa Diaz By Nilda Melissa Diaz, Career Advice Contributor
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Build your caregiver resume with the help of our writing guide! Use our writing tips and examples to craft a resume to showcase your important caregiving career and skills, like dependability, compassion and specialized care.

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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

  1. Contact details

    Start 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.

  2. Personal statement

    Grab the attention of a hiring manager with a strong personal statement. 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.

  3. 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. 

    If this is your first job as a caregiver, include transferable skills from other roles, like communication and attention to detail.

  4. Work history

    In this area, 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.

  5. 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 education section. Include the name, the degree and graduation date. If it has been more than a decade since graduation, skip it.

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Action words for a stand-out caregiver resume

Powerful action words add authority to your resume. 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. Remember to always tailor your caregiver resume to the job description. 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 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 for a caregiver resume. 

  • National Caregiver Certification
  • Advanced National Caregiver Certification 
  • CPR
  • First Aide
  • Basic Life Support
  • Caregiver Assistant Training
  • Dementia Care Certification
  • Home Health Aide (HHA) licensing

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Caregiver resume FAQ

  1. 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. 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. 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

  1. Learn about the employer before your interview.

    Before the 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.

  2. 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 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:

    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.

  3. 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?

  4. 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. 

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Nilda Melissa Diaz

Nilda Melissa Diaz

Career Advice Contributor

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.

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