Nursing Assistant resume examples by experience level

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Use this example

In short, a nursing assistant resume is a one page document naming your state registry entry, the assignment you can carry on a shift, and the documentation you complete at the end of it.

Those three matter more than anything else on the page because a staffing coordinator is working out two things: whether your registry entry will verify today, and whether you can be handed a full assignment without a week of hand-holding. Therefore, a resume that answers both in the top third gets called.

Resume guide for a nursing assistant resume

Specifically, this guide and the corresponding nursing assistant resume example will cover:

• How to write a nursing assistant resume, section by section
• The registry line a verifier can check in ten seconds
• Three adaptable summaries: newly certified, experienced and lead aide
• Why your documentation matters to the people who fund the unit
• What the job market looks like and what you can expect to earn

How to write a nursing assistant resume

Overall, it takes five blocks: contact header with the credential, summary, registry and training, experience with the assignment in every entry, skills. One page for nearly everyone in this job, including aides with fifteen years of service.

The registry sits near the top because it is a gate. An employer cannot put you on a unit as a nurse aide without verifying it, so the file that makes verification instant moves ahead of the file that does not.

Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker before you apply. Large systems and nursing home groups parse applications into a structured record before anyone reads them.

Choosing the best resume format for a nursing assistant resume

Reverse chronological, one page. Employer, setting, unit type and bed count, shift, dates, then three to five bullets with numbers in them.

However, skills-based and functional formats hurt you here. After all, a coordinator reads this job for continuity and shift coverage: which setting, which unit, which shift, how long you stayed. As a result, a format that hides the timeline reads as a timeline worth hiding, and in a field with this much turnover, tenure sells.

Include your contact information

First, put the credential initials next to your name and the registry number underneath. Similarly, shift availability belongs there too, because the shifts that stay open are nights, weekends and holidays, and an aide who names one is reading the employer's real problem.

Make use of a summary

In short, use four lines: credential and registry status, setting and years, the assignment you carry, and the documentation you complete.

Certified nursing assistant listed in good standing on the Utah Nursing Assistant Registry since September 2025, after completing a 100 hour state approved program and passing both the written knowledge and manual skills exams. First year in assisted living, carrying an assignment of 14 to 16 residents on day shift, 3 of them requiring two-person transfers with a sit-to-stand lift. Chart activities of daily living, intake and output and behavior notes each shift. Available nights and weekends.

Certified nursing assistant with 5 years in long-term and post-acute care, listed in good standing on the Utah Nursing Assistant Registry with no lapse since 2021. Carry an assignment of 11 to 13 residents on a 48 bed post-acute unit, 5 of them total care and 3 needing two-person mechanical lift transfers. Document activities of daily living, intake and output and restorative entries that the nurse and the MDS coordinator use for Section GG coding. Precept new aides through their first two weeks on the unit.

Lead certified nursing assistant and restorative aide with 9 years in skilled nursing, listed in good standing on the Utah Nursing Assistant Registry with no lapse since 2017. Coordinate shift assignments for 11 aides across two units totaling 96 beds, and run a restorative program of 14 residents on range of motion, ambulation and restorative dining. Call-light response time on my units fell from a 7 minute average to under 4 over eighteen months. Precepted 23 new aides, 19 of whom are still employed.

Right vs wrong: the same nursing assistant summary, twice

For example, the right column can be verified and scheduled. The left column, however, cannot, and a coordinator filling tomorrow's shift is doing both.

Outline your experience

Then list employer, city, setting, unit type and bed count, shift, and dates. Then bullets that each carry a number.

Certified Nursing Assistant, Jordan Bluff Rehabilitation and Nursing, Salt Lake City, UT, 48 bed post-acute and long-term care unit, night shift, March 2022 to Present
Carry an assignment of 11 to 13 residents, 5 of them total care and 3 requiring two-person mechanical lift transfers, with 2 on a restorative ambulation program.
Complete roughly 30 transfers a shift using gait belt, sit-to-stand lift, full mechanical lift and slide board, with no reportable transfer injury in four years.
Chart activities of daily living, intake and output, blood glucose, behavior notes and restorative entries every shift; the unit's MDS coordinator uses these entries for Section GG coding.
Precept new aides through their first two weeks, including lift competency sign-off and the unit's charting routine.

The nursing assistant registry entry a verifier can check, and the Section GG notes behind it

Two things decide whether you are hired and whether you are kept: an entry a stranger can verify, and charting that the people funding the unit can use.

Start with the federal floor, because it sets the number in your state. Federal regulation requires a nurse aide training and competency evaluation program to "consist of no less than 75 clock hours of training", including "at least 16 hours of supervised practical training" (42 CFR 483.152(a), eCFR current as of 10 September 2026). That is a floor, not a standard, and many states sit well above it.

So write your state's number, because that is the one being compared. Utah requires a program to "provide at least 100 hours of supervised and documented training by a licensed nurse" and the candidate to complete "at least 24 of the required 100 hours of supervised practical training in a nursing care facility" (Utah Administrative Code R432-45-5). An aide who writes "100 hour program, 24 hours clinical in a skilled nursing facility, written knowledge and manual skills exams passed" has told a coordinator in one line what most applicants never mention.

Registry expiry and moving states

Write the expiry and the renewal condition, not just the number. The Utah Nursing Assistant Registry states that certification "is valid for 2 years" and that renewal requires "a minimum of 200 paid nursing or nursing related services under the direction of a licensed nurse during the 24 months following initial certification or last certification renewal" (Utah Nursing Assistant Registry, checked September 2026). That is why your dates matter: a period out of paid nursing work can cost you the certificate, not just a line on the resume. If you are near that line, say when you last worked in a nursing-related role.

If you are moving states, say what stage you are at. Transfers run through an application, not an automatic switch. Utah requires an out-of-state aide to "submit Reciprocity Application", to "be current and active in that state", and to supply "a copy of your current and valid CNA certificate card" (Utah Nursing Assistant Registry, checked September 2026). A resume crossing a state line should therefore carry the certificate you hold with its state and number, the state you have applied in, and the date you applied. Without them the reader assumes a delay of unknown length.

Charting and Section GG for nursing assistants

Now the charting, which is where aides are undervalued most. Your notes are the raw material for the assessment that funds the unit. Section GG of the Minimum Data Set, "Functional Abilities and Goals", is coded from what actually happened rather than from a resident's best day: the CMS manual instructs that if "the resident's functional status varies, record the resident's usual ability to perform each activity. Do not record the resident's best performance and do not record the resident's worst performance, but rather record the resident's usual performance." It draws on "reports from qualified clinicians, care staff, or family documented in the resident's medical record during the assessment period", within an admission window of "the first 3 days of the Part A stay" (CMS, MDS 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument Manual, Chapter 3, Section GG, October 2025).

In fact, "care staff" is you, and the three-day window means the notes written in a resident's first seventy-two hours are the evidence base for coding. An aide who charts usual performance accurately, shift by shift, is doing assessment work, and almost no nursing assistant resume says so. Therefore, write it: the items you chart, the system you chart in, and the fact that your entries feed Section GG and the restorative record.

Registry: Certified Nursing Assistant, Utah Nursing Assistant Registry #UT-CNA-114208, in good standing since August 2019, no lapse in status. Renewed on the two-year cycle, most recently 2025.
Training: 100 hour state approved nurse aide program, Salt Lake Community College, 2019, including 24 hours of supervised practical training in a skilled nursing facility. Passed the state written knowledge exam and manual skills exam on first attempt.
Assignment carried: 11 to 13 residents per night shift on a 48 bed post-acute unit, including 5 total care, 3 two-person mechanical lift transfers and 4 on feeding assistance. Previously 14 to 16 residents per day shift in assisted living.
Equipment: gait belt, sit-to-stand lift, full mechanical lift, ceiling lift, slide board, two-person and bariatric transfers.
Documentation: activities of daily living, intake and output, blood glucose, behavior notes, restorative entries and weekly weights, in the unit electronic record. Entries used by the MDS coordinator for Section GG coding.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Then list twelve to sixteen entries in four groups, named not described.

Personal care: Bathing, dressing and grooming, Oral care, Toileting and continence care, Peri care, Skin checks and pressure injury prevention, Repositioning schedules
Mobility and transfers: Gait belt ambulation, Sit-to-stand and full mechanical lift, Ceiling lift, Slide board, Two-person and bariatric transfers, Fall prevention rounding
Clinical support and documentation: Vital signs, Blood glucose checks, Intake and output, Weekly weights, Activities of daily living charting, Restorative entries and Section GG source notes
Restorative and specialty: Range of motion and ambulation programs, Restorative dining and feeding assistance, Dementia and behavior support, Comfort care, Isolation precautions

List your education and certifications

Registry entry first, then the training program with its hours, then the rest with dates.

Certified Nursing Assistant, Utah Nursing Assistant Registry #UT-CNA-114208, in good standing since August 2019, current through 2027.
100 hour state approved nurse aide training and competency evaluation program, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, UT, 2019. 24 hours supervised practical training in a skilled nursing facility.
Additional: Basic Life Support Provider, American Heart Association, current through 2028. Restorative aide training, 2023. Dementia care certificate, 2024. Annual infection control training, current.

Choose the right layout and design

Finally, keep a single column, plain type at 11 or 12 point, clear headings, no photograph, no rating bars. After all, nursing home groups and hospital systems parse these into a structured record before a human opens them, and a star graphic beside "mechanical lift" reads badly to a charge nurse.

Nursing assistant job market and outlook

Indeed, this is a very large occupation with slow growth and enormous replacement demand, which makes tenure the thing worth proving on the page.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, nursing assistants and orderlies, May 2025 wages and 2025-35 projections, published 27 August 2026.

Where the jobs sit:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025.

What salary you can expect as a nursing assistant

The median annual wage for nursing assistants was $42,260 as of May 2025, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $33,940 and the highest 10 percent more than $51,980. Meanwhile, orderlies, counted on the same BLS page, had a median of $38,290 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025).

Setting moves that more than tenure does: $47,050 in government outside education and hospitals against $38,040 in home health services, a spread of roughly 24 percent for the same certificate (BLS, May 2025). It is, in fact, the largest lever available to you.

Also, shift differentials, weekend and holiday premiums and overtime come next, which is why naming your availability in the header is worth real money. Beyond that, increases come from added roles rather than added years: restorative aide, medication aide where the state permits it, shift lead, preceptor, and hospital roles such as monitor technician or patient care technician.

Finally, the ladder from here is the licensed route. The certificate is credit toward practical or vocational nursing and then registered nursing, and a resume already showing charting accuracy, restorative documentation and precepting shortens that conversation with every program and every employer who might help pay for it.

Key takeaways for a nursing assistant resume

1. Above all, put the registry state, number, status and first certified date on one line near the top.
2. Also name your program's total hours and clinical hours, since states differ widely.
3. Similarly, say "no lapse in status" if it is true, because it removes the commonest hiring delay.
4. Put the assignment in every employer line, with the total care count.
5. In addition, name lifts and transfer equipment by type, not as "assisted with mobility".
6. Lastly, say which items you chart and that your entries feed Section GG coding.
7. Show tenure and precepting, because turnover is what a facility is trying to buy its way out of.

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Pair it with a matching nursing assistant cover letter.