Resume evidence
CNA job description for a resume
What should a cna put on a resume?
The short answer
A CNA writing a resume should describe what they actually did — work like provide physical support to assist patients to perform daily living activities — rather than copying a generic bullet list. The U.S. Department of Labor classifies the role as Nursing Assistants (SOC 31-1131.00). Its 26 published duties are the place to start, and the 14 most relevant are listed below. Service Orientation is the capability O*NET rates highest for the work.
What follows is the published duty list, not a set of bullets to copy. The difference matters: a line describing work you did not do is one interview question away from falling apart.
What a cna does
Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. May include medication administration and other health-related tasks. Includes nursing care attendants, nursing aides, and nursing attendants.
O*NET occupation: Nursing Assistants (SOC 31-1131.00).
CNA duties you can put on a resume
O*NET publishes 26 core duties for this occupation. These are the 14 its incumbents most often report performing, ranked by O*NET's published relevance rating — not a complete list of the job. Which ranking is a fact from the source; which of them you personally did is not something any dataset knows. Use the list as a memory aid, never as a list to paste.
- Provide physical support to assist patients to perform daily living activities, such as getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, standing, walking, or exercising.
- Document or otherwise report observations of patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms to nurses.
- Communicate with patients to ascertain feelings or need for assistance or social and emotional support.
- Undress, wash, and dress patients who are unable to do so for themselves.
- Change bed linens or make beds.
- Feed patients or assist patients to eat or drink.
- Turn or reposition bedridden patients.
- Observe or examine patients to detect symptoms that may require medical attention, such as bruises, open wounds, or blood in urine.
- Answer patient call signals, signal lights, bells, or intercom systems to determine patients' needs.
- Prepare or serve food trays.
- Gather information from caregivers, nurses, or physicians about patient condition, treatment plans, or appropriate activities.
- Lift or assist others to lift patients to move them on or off beds, examination tables, surgical tables, or stretchers.
- Review patients' dietary restrictions, food allergies, and preferences to ensure patient receives appropriate diet.
- Restock patient rooms with personal hygiene items, such as towels, washcloths, soap, or toilet paper.
Skills a cna can list
O*NET rates these at importance 3.0 or above for this occupation.
- Service Orientation
- importance 4.00
- Active Listening
- importance 3.62
- Social Perceptiveness
- importance 3.62
- Monitoring
- importance 3.25
- Reading Comprehension
- importance 3.12
- Speaking
- importance 3.12
- Critical Thinking
- importance 3.12
- Coordination
- importance 3.12
Turn what you did into resume evidence
Select the duties you genuinely performed, add any real detail you have, and this builds editable lines from your own facts. It will not write a result for you.
Select what you actually did
Tick only the duties you genuinely performed. Everything below is built from those choices and the facts you type — nothing is invented, and nothing leaves your browser.
Nothing selected yet. Tick a duty above to start building evidence.
What not to claim
- A duty from the list above that you did not personally perform. It describes Nursing Assistants as an occupation, not your particular job — and interviewers for cna roles ask about the specifics.
- Duties from the 12 published items not shown here, unless you genuinely did them. A longer list is not a better one.
- A percentage, a headcount or a volume you did not measure. "Improved satisfaction by 35%" is the single most copied line on resume-example sites, and almost nobody who pastes it can source it.
- Service Orientation at a level you have not worked at. O*NET rates it highest for this occupation, which makes it the most likely thing to be probed.
- A tool, system or certification you have not used or hold. This is the fastest claim to disprove.
Source and method
| Occupation | Nursing Assistants |
|---|---|
| SOC code | 31-1131.00 |
| Published duties | 14 |
| Skills at importance 3.0+ | 8 |
| Source | O*NET 30.3 Database, U.S. Department of Labor |
| Last verified | Verified 2026-09-04 |
| Price | Free |
| Account required | No |
| Invents experience | No — every line is built from duties you select and facts you type |
| Server storage | None. Your selections stay in this browser |
| Output | Editable evidence lines, not finished resume text |
O*NET data are provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 licence.The duties and skills above are reproduced as published. The resume guidance, the prompts and any generated lines are RoleSprint's, and O*NET did not write them.
Related occupations
Same occupational family in the SOC classification, so the duties often overlap with work you have done.
Once your experience is written down
Documenting what you did is the first half. Whether that evidence matches a particular opening is a different question, and the one worth answering before you apply.
Compare this evidence with a job you want