How To Write a Personal Care Assistant Resume
A resume for a personal care assistant should highlight your skills, such as helping with activities of daily living (ADLs), transporting clients, and providing patient care. It also needs to show you can stay calm and compassionate when dealing with patients and their family members. Use our tips to create a resume that puts you at the top of the candidate pool.
1. Write a dynamic profile summarizing your qualifications
The profile is the first thing a hiring manager reads on your resume and determines whether they keep reading or put your resume in the no pile. It should clearly list your years of experience and the patient populations you’ve worked with.
Work in a few keywords from the job description in this section to show you’re a good fit. For example, if a hiring manager is looking for someone who can assist with transfers and bathing, you might say, “Skills include patient transfers, bathing, and personal care support.”
Senior-Level Profile Example
Personal Care Assistant with 5+ years of experience. Passionate about helping senior citizens engage with their community and maintain an active lifestyle. Courteous, patient, and adaptable to each client’s pace of progress toward personal health goals. Recently demonstrated success in a mentor role for new hires.
Entry-Level Profile Example
Service-oriented Personal Care Assistant with 5+ years of experience. Foster positive relationships with diverse clients, caregivers, and family members. Calm, professional, and focused on finding viable solutions for each patient. Naturally curious and committed to gaining new medical knowledge.
2. Add an accomplishment-driven professional experience section
Personal care assistant positions are often entry level, so showing you have previous experience can position you as a better candidate. List your relevant positions, starting with the most recent. Focus on the duties and responsibilities that involve one-on-one patient care.
Hiring managers are interested in what care you can provide, how you collaborate with family members and the rest of the care team, and your ability to thoroughly document everything you do. Quantify your skills and experience, such as your patient-to-caregiver ratio.
Senior-Level Professional Experience Example
Personal Care Assistant, BVG Home Care Services, Miami, FL | December 2017 to Present
- Help clients engage in daily living activities and outings suited to their mobility level
- Facilitate weekly laundry, cleaning, and other household chores
- Carefully document work activities to reinforce overall case management and legal compliance
- Consult with nurse to maintain up-to-date understanding of each client’s broader plan of care
- Recently took on additional role training and coaching four new hires
Entry-Level Professional Experience Example
Personal Care Assistant, GZZ Care Partners, Seattle, WA | December 2017 to Present
- Help care for and support patients with various chronic illnesses
- Maintain proactive communications with patients and their families, giving clear explanations of various health topics
- Take precautions to help patients avoid infections or allergic reactions in their home
- Assist patients with bathing, oral care, and other daily personal hygiene
- Balance multiple tasks and priorities to deliver top-quality support to each client
3. Include relevant education and certifications
Getting a job as a personal care assistant with just a high school diploma is possible. However, if you have any post-secondary education, this can make you a more attractive candidate. Make sure to list your education, including degree, major, and college, on your resume.
Jobs in health care often require certain certifications, including entry-level positions like personal care assistants. Top certifications include First Aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), automated external defibrillator (AED), and Basic Life Support (BLS) from the Red Cross.
Education
Template:
[Degree Name]
[School Name], [City, State Abbreviation] – [Graduation Month and Year]
Example:
Bachelor of Arts Degree in General Studies
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL – May 2019
Certifications
Template:
[Certification Name], [Awarding Organization], [Completion Year]
Example:
BLS Certification, Red Cross, 2019
4. List pertinent key skills
Hiring managers are looking for personal care assistants who can be the first point of contact for patients and ensure they maintain the highest day-to-day quality of life possible. Adding a bulleted list of applicable key skills to your resume can help it get past screening software and in front of human eyes.
The required skills will depend on what type of patients you’re working with, such as post-op recovery or long-term assisted living, but there are some commonalities:
| Key Skills and Proficiencies | |
|---|---|
| ADLs | Allergy and infection prevention |
| CPR | Cross-functional collaboration |
| Electronic health records (EHR) | Empathy and compassion |
| Fall prevention | First aid |
| Health assessments | Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) |
| Infection control | Meal preparation |
| Medication management | Mobility assistance |
| Patient care | Patient monitoring |
| Patient relations | Patient transportation and transfers |
| Personal hygiene assistance | Recordkeeping and documentation |
| Regulatory compliance | Task prioritization |
How To Pick the Best Personal Care Assistant Resume Template
You can use a template if you don’t want to spend the time and energy to create a resume from scratch. A good personal care assistant resume template will be one that has a combination format with plenty of room for clinical skills and a detailed work history.
Look for organized templates with a header for each section and that use formatting like bullets to make your resume easy to skim. Your resume should look professional — meaning no fancy fonts or colors — and have your contact information clearly visible at the top.
Personal Care Assistant Text-Only Resume Templates and Examples
Years of Experience
- #1
- #2
- #3
Kevin Morrison
123 Windermere Rd., Seattle, WA 12345 | (123) 456-7890 | [email protected]
Profile
Service-oriented Personal Care Assistant with 5+ years of experience. Foster positive relationships with diverse clients, caregivers, and family members. Calm, professional, and focused on finding viable solutions for each patient. Naturally curious and committed to gaining new medical knowledge.
Key Skills
- Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
- Allergy & Infection Prevention
- Client Transport
- Cross-Discipline Collaboration
- Daily Meal Preparation
- Patient & Family Relations
- Patient Bathing & Personal Hygiene
- Patient Care & Support
- Regulatory Compliance
- Reporting & Documentation
- Task Prioritization
Professional Experience
Personal Care Assistant, GZZ Care Partners, Seattle, WA | December 2017 to Present
- Help care for and support patients with various chronic illnesses
- Maintain proactive communications with patients and their families, giving clear explanations of various health topics
- Take precautions to help patients avoid infections or allergic reactions in their home
- Assist patients with bathing, oral care, and other daily personal hygiene
- Balance multiple tasks and priorities to deliver top-quality support to each client
Technical Support Associate, HJX Tech Services, Seattle, WA | October 2016 to November 2017
- Gained strong foundation in customer relations and support as member of a 10-person IT team
Education & Credential
Graduate, Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA
Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification
Technical Skills
Microsoft Office Suite (advanced Word, Excel)
Raheem Richardson
123 Franklin Pike, Nashville, TN 12345 | (123) 456-7890 | [email protected]
Profile
Collaborative Personal Care Assistant with 5+ years of experience. Committed to helping people manage and mitigate the effects of disabilities on their daily health and well-being. Work with supervisors to find new ways of honing internal communications and systems. Bilingual: Fluent in English and Spanish.
Key Skills
- Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
- Allergy & Infection Prevention
- Client Transport
- Cross-Discipline Collaboration
- Daily Meal Preparation
- Patient & Family Relations
- Patient Bathing & Personal Hygiene
- Patient Care & Support
- Process Improvement
- Regulatory Compliance
- Reporting & Documentation
- Task Prioritization
Professional Experience
Personal Care Assistant, WBV Home Health, Nashville, TN | December 2017 to Present
- Coordinate home care efforts with physicians, nurses, and physical and occupational therapists
- Organize and prepare meals incorporating healthy seasonal produce
- Transport clients to and from pharmacy and doctor appointments as needed
- Maintain detailed EMR documentation per company policies and health regulations
Highlight:
- Helped streamline several key procedures at main office, leading to 20% faster weekly reporting and client communications
Prior Experience
- Gained strong foundation in teamwork and customer relations as a Server at Pizza Hut (Nashville, TN).
Education
Associate Degree, Nashville State Community College, Nashville, TN
Languages
Fluency in Spanish | Proficiency in Italian
Melissa Anderson
123 Pine Brook Dr, Miami, FL 12345 | (123) 456-7890 | [email protected]
Profile
Personal Care Assistant with 5+ years of experience. Passionate about helping senior citizens engage with their community and maintain an active lifestyle. Courteous, patient, and adaptable to each client’s pace of progress toward personal health goals. Recently demonstrated success in a mentor role for new hires.
Key Skills
- Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
- Allergy & Infection Prevention
- Client Transport
- Cross-Discipline Collaboration
- Daily Meal Preparation
- New Hire Training & Support
- Patient & Family Relations
- Patient Bathing & Personal Hygiene
- Patient Care & Support
- Regulatory Compliance
- Reporting & Documentation
- Task Prioritization
Professional Experience
Personal Care Assistant, BVG Home Care Services, Miami, FL | December 2017 to Present
- Help clients engage in daily living activities and outings suited to their mobility level
- Facilitate weekly laundry, cleaning, and other household chores
- Carefully document work activities to reinforce overall case management and legal compliance
- Consult with nurse to maintain up-to-date understanding of each client’s broader plan of care
- Recently took on additional role training and coaching four new hires
Education & Credential
Bachelor’s Degree, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
3.8 GPA | magna cum laude
Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification
Frequently Asked Questions: Personal Care Assistant Resume Examples and Advice
What are common action verbs for personal care assistant resumes?+
Each bullet — and most sentences — on your resume should start with an action verb. This high-impact verb describes your job duties in a way that lets the hiring manager visualize you in the role.
Choose engaging, descriptive words, and make each one unique. For example, you might say you “facilitated patient care by collaborating with the rest of the medical team” instead of “worked with patients and helped nurses.”
Here’s a list of good action verbs for personal care assistant resumes to help you get started:
| Action Verbs | |
|---|---|
| Adapted | Administered |
| Advocated | Assessed |
| Assisted | Cleaned |
| Collaborated | Communicated |
| Documented | Educated |
| Facilitated | Monitored |
| Promoted | Responded |
| Safeguarded | Sanitized |
| Supported | Transferred |
| Transported | Updated |
How do you align your resume with a job description?+
The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that job openings for personal care assistants will grow by 22% through 2032, which is much faster than average. And a high-quality resume can help you get one of these jobs.
In today’s job market, aligning your resume is all about including keywords and skills from the job description in your resume. If a job is looking for someone who is fluent in Spanish to help with ADLs in an assisted living facility, your profile might look like this:
“Experienced personal care assistant with four years of direct patient care in assisted living. Helps with activities of daily living, including bathing, transferring, and meal preparation. Fluent in Spanish.”
What is the best personal care assistant resume format?+
The best personal care assistant resume format is the one that best highlights your skills and experience, and for most applicants, that will be the combination format. This style splits the resume space roughly equally between professional experience and functional skills.
This is especially ideal for entry-level positions where candidates may have transferable skills instead of direct experience. If this is you, look for a format that starts with your skills so the hiring manager can see you have what it takes to succeed before they see you haven’t worked in this setting before.
Expert Advice: Include a cover letter with your resume
For the best chances of success, send along a cover letter with your resume. Your cover letter should also be tailored to the job. Include more keywords and skills from the job description, and use this space to show how you’re a match for the position and the organization as a whole. Need some examples to help you get started? Take a look at our patient care technician cover letters.
