Certified nursing assistant resume examples & writing guide for 2026

Three certified nursing assistant resumes at new, memory care and hospital level, rendered in a real template and taken apart line by line. Each uses its state's own title for the credential and counts the shift in the unit that setting tracks.

By the Resumi editorial teamUpdated September 14, 202610 min read

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Certified nursing assistant resume example, mid level, rendered in the Green Academic template

Written by the Resumi editorial team for a fictional candidate. Role facts come from O*NET and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Strength band is Resumi’s optimization score, not a ranking any employer sees.

What makes this resume work

Each marker on the page has a note here. Press a marker to jump to its note. Hover a note and its marker lifts.

1
Memory care named as a setting
A 48-bed neighborhood, not a generic facility. Memory care is a different job from a skilled floor, and naming it tells a reader which behaviors this aide has already worked through.
2
The registry years, separated
Five years on the registry, two of them on a skilled floor. Staying listed depends on continuous paid nursing work in most states, so the years are a credential fact and not just tenure.
3
A program run, not attended
A restorative walking program for 9 residents, 5 days a week, 40 minutes a session. Restorative is a real rung above the standard assignment, and the schedule proves it was carried rather than assisted with.
4
Behavior handled, and how
Six residents a shift redirected through sundowning with no physical intervention in 18 months. That is the number a memory care manager is afraid to ask about, answered before they have to.
5
Teaching the routine, counted
Seven new aides trained on the neighborhood routine and transfers. Buildings lose new aides in the first months, so an aide who onboards others is solving the problem the manager is hiring against.
6
Dementia credential, dated
A dementia practitioner certification with its issuing body and year. No employer requires it, which is exactly why it reads as initiative in a setting where most of the work is behavioral.

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01The example, in full

The resume shown above, as text you can search and copy.

Keisha Broadnax

State tested nurse aide, Ohio · Memory care · 14 residents · Restorative program

Akron, OHkeisha.broadnax@example.com(555) 728-4106

Summary

State tested nurse aide in a 48-bed memory care neighborhood, five years on the Ohio registry after two on a skilled nursing floor. Carries 14 residents a shift and runs the restorative walking program.

Experience

State tested nurse aide, memory care

Sep 2023 – Present

Portage Trail Assisted Living · Akron, OH

Delivered personal care to 14 residents a shift in a 48-bed memory care neighborhood for 3 years.
Led a restorative walking program for 9 residents 5 days a week, 40 minutes a session.
Managed sundowning for 6 residents a shift with no physical intervention in 18 months.
Documented behaviors, intake and meal percentages at the kiosk within 15 minutes of each round.
Trained 7 new aides on the neighborhood routine and two-person transfers over 2 years.

State tested nurse aide

Aug 2021 – Aug 2023

Cuyahoga Falls Care Center · Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Managed the morning care round for 12 residents on a 120-bed skilled floor for 2 years.

Education

Certificate in Nurse Aide Training

Feb 2021 – Jun 2021

Akron Valley Career Center · Akron, OH

Skills

Resident care: Activities of daily living (ADLs), Restorative nursing, Patient transfers, Fall prevention
Clinical: Vital signs, Change-of-condition reporting, Intake and output (I&O), New hire training
Systems: PointClickCare, Clinical documentation, Mechanical lift operation, Turning and repositioning

Certifications

State Tested Nurse Aide (STNA), Ohio

Jul 2021

Ohio Department of Health

Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP)

Mar 2024

National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners

Basic Life Support (BLS)

Apr 2025

American Heart Association

02Market snapshot

Median pay: $42,260 median annual pay for nursing assistants. The $41,870 in Quick Facts blends assistants and orderlies
Typical education: No degree. A state-approved program with supervised clinical work, then brief on-the-job training
Job outlook: +3% employment change for nursing assistants, 2025-35. About 203,300 openings a year with orderlies
Common credentials: A state-approved program, a competency exam, then placement on the state registry, required to work in a nursing home

Sources: BLS OES (May 2025) · BLS OOH (2025)

03The same resume at three levels

The tinted row is the level shown above.

Entry-level
0–2 years
The title matches the state that issued it, the assignment size leads, and each bullet carries something a building already tracks: the turn interval, the charting window, the call lights and the change-of-condition count. The dietary year stays in dietary language rather than being promoted on paper.
Typical titles: State tested nurse aide, Certified nursing assistant, Nurse aide
Mid-level
3–6 years
The setting is named before the tasks, because a 48-bed memory care neighborhood is a different job from a skilled hall. The restorative program carries its schedule, the behavioral work carries a count and a window, and the skilled nursing years hold one line of context underneath.
Typical titles: State tested nurse aide, Memory care aide, Resident assistant
Senior
7+ years
The hospital title leads because that is what the unit posts. Procedures come first with a monthly volume, the first-stick rate carries the count it was measured over, and the two long-term care seats hold one line each so nine years and three settings fit a single page.
Typical titles: Patient care technician, Emergency department technician, Nursing assistant

04Summary

Weak

Compassionate and reliable certified nursing assistant with a passion for providing exceptional patient care and a proven ability to work effectively in fast-paced healthcare settings.

Strong

The state's own title, the setting with its bed count, years on the registry, the assignment size and the program run rather than attended. A staffing coordinator can match every part of that to the shift they are trying to fill. The weak version could describe anyone.

05Bullets

Weak

Responsible for providing compassionate care to residents including bathing, dressing, feeding and transferring while maintaining a safe and clean environment.

Strong

Maintained a turn and reposition schedule for 8 residents every 2 hours on a 12-hour shift.

A count, an interval and a shift length. Repositioning on a schedule is how pressure injuries are prevented, so the interval is the part that says the routine was actually kept rather than listed as a duty. A nurse manager reading it knows immediately whether this aide worked a floor where the schedule held. The weak bullet lists what every aide is hired to do, which means every applicant for the same opening could send it unchanged and none of them would be easier to choose.

06Skills and keywords

Resident care

Activities of daily living (ADLs) (in the example)
Patient transfers (in the example)
Restorative nursing (in the example)
Fall prevention (in the example)
Turning and repositioning (in the example)
Mechanical lift operation (in the example)

Clinical

Vital signs (in the example)
Intake and output (I&O) (in the example)
Change-of-condition reporting (in the example)
Call light response
Venipuncture
EKG

Systems

PointClickCare (in the example)
Clinical documentation (in the example)
MatrixCare
Epic
Sterilization and infection control
Specimen collection

Credentials

State Tested Nurse Aide (STNA) (in the example)
Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) (in the example)
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification
Certified Patient Care Technician/Assistant (CPCT/A)
Nurse aide registry listing
Basic Life Support (BLS) (in the example)

Filled chips appear in the example above.

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07Mistakes to avoid

The wrong state title on the credential
Fix: Ohio issues a state tested nurse aide credential, New Hampshire a licensed nursing assistant, Washington a nursing assistant certified, and North Carolina runs two levels. Write the title the state you are applying in actually issues, with the state and the status beside it.
No assignment size anywhere on the page
Fix: Residents per shift is the first thing a staffing coordinator looks for, because it says whether you have carried the load the open shift will hand you. Give the number, the bed count of the unit and the shift length, and add how many were two-person transfers.
Duties where the tracked numbers should be
Fix: Every building already computes numbers for you. Call lights a shift, the turn interval, meal percentages charted, changes in condition reported, falls on your hall. Use those and the reader can check them. Compassionate and hardworking are not measurements.
A gap that hides a registry lapse
Fix: Most states drop an aide from the registry after a long enough stretch with no paid nursing work, and a director of nursing checks the registry before the interview. If you lapsed and re-tested, say so with the date, because the registry says it anyway.
Agency shifts written as separate jobs
Fix: A list of five buildings in two years reads as job hopping until the page says it was agency work. Put the agency as the employer with the facilities and dates beneath it, and the same history reads as range across settings instead.

08Format and template

Single column, standard headings, no photo, one page. A director of nursing checks the credential, the state, the status and the setting before anything else, so those belong in the header and again in a credentials block that a registry check can be run against. This example uses Green Academic, which gives each credential its own dated row and still leaves room for the training certificate the job depends on. The same content works in Standard, Warm Classic and Beige Border, all single column.

Shown above: Green Academic

StandardFree
Warm Classic
Beige Border

09Questions certified nursing assistants ask

Should I write CNA, STNA, LNA or NAC?

Whatever the state you are applying in issues. Ohio certifies state tested nurse aides, New Hampshire licenses nursing assistants, Washington certifies nursing assistants certified, and North Carolina runs a two-level registry. Use that state's title in your headline and credentials block, name the agency that issued it, and give the status and the date. If you are applying across state lines, write the title you hold with its state and say that you are seeking listing by endorsement in the new one.

Is certification a license?

Not in most states. It is a listing on a state nurse aide registry, earned by completing a state-approved program and passing a competency exam, and federal rules require that listing before you can work in a nursing home. That means employers verify you on the registry rather than reading a certificate, so the useful thing on your resume is the exact title, the state, the status and the date. Findings of abuse or neglect are recorded on the registry permanently, which is why employers check it first.

I have no paid experience yet. What goes in the experience section?

The clinical hours from your training program, written like a job. Give the facility type, the unit, the hours you completed and the resident population, then the charting system you used and the skills you performed on the floor rather than in the lab. Underneath it, keep any caregiving, food service, retail or restaurant work with its real title, because buildings hire for reliability and being trusted with a shift counts. Then state your registry listing with its date.

What numbers belong on a CNA resume?

The ones the building already reports. Residents on your assignment by shift, beds on the unit, shift length, two-person transfers, call lights answered, the turn interval you kept, meal percentages and intake charted, changes in condition you reported, and falls on your hall. In a hospital the unit changes to patients a shift, admissions and discharges, draws and EKGs. Skip any satisfaction or rating percentage, because it is not your number and a reader knows it.

How do I move from a nursing home to a hospital?

Apply under the title the hospital posts, which is usually patient care technician rather than nursing assistant, and expect the certification to be listed as preferred rather than required. Then add what the hospital seat needs that the floor did not: phlebotomy, twelve-lead EKGs, specimen handling, admission and discharge tasks, and the pace of a unit that turns over. The technician certification that covers draws and EKGs is the cheapest way to make the jump legible on paper.

How long should a CNA resume be?

One page, always. The work compresses well because it is counted: a current seat with four or five bullets, the previous one with one, and a line for anything older. The hospital example here holds nine years and three settings on a single sheet by keeping only the assignment size and the months for each earlier role. If agency work has left you with a long list of buildings, group them under the agency instead of adding a page.

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Certified nursing assistant resume examples & writing guide for 2026