Top 12 Health Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume
Healthcare moves fast. Health technicians thrive when technical skill meets calm communication and crisp judgment. Put the right skills front and center on your resume and you won’t just blend in—you’ll get noticed.
Health Technician Skills
- Phlebotomy
- EKG/ECG
- CPR Certified
- HIPAA Compliance
- EMR Systems
- Patient Scheduling
- Medical Coding
- Laboratory Equipment
- Vital Signs Monitoring
- Specimen Collection
- Radiology (X-ray, MRI)
- Patient Education
1. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the careful collection of blood from a vein for testing, transfusion, or research. It’s technique, safety, and patient comfort rolled into one steady procedure.
Why It's Important
Accurate blood draws power diagnoses, guide treatment, and track recovery. Good technique reduces errors, prevents complications, and keeps patients at ease.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Drill the basics: Hand hygiene, correct order of draw, proper tube labeling at bedside with two identifiers.
Refine vein selection: Palpation over sight, choose the best site, and adjust angle and depth to minimize trauma.
Stabilize and anchor: Secure the vein, keep equipment within reach, and avoid fishing with the needle.
Reduce pain and anxiety: Explain the steps, use distraction or breathing techniques, and remove the tourniquet promptly.
Master safety: Sharps precautions, immediate disposal, and post-exposure protocols. No shortcuts.
Practice and feedback: Simulation, supervised repetitions, and quick debriefs to tighten technique.
Keep learning: Stay current with institutional policies and updates to standards.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
2. EKG/ECG
An ECG records the heart’s electrical activity using skin electrodes. It’s quick, noninvasive, and vital for spotting rhythm issues, ischemia, and more.
Why It's Important
Clean ECGs speed triage and sharpen diagnoses. The right placement and a calm setup prevent misreads and repeat tests.
How to Improve EKG/ECG Skills
Prep the skin: Clean, dry, remove excess hair, and press electrodes firmly to reduce impedance.
Place precisely: True limb leads on limbs for diagnostics; chest leads V1–V6 in exact intercostal spaces.
Eliminate artifacts: Ask for stillness, quiet nearby electronics, and check lead integrity.
Validate the tracing: Confirm standard gain and speed, verify lead labels, and repeat if the baseline wanders.
Maintain equipment: Regular calibration, fresh electrodes, and prompt replacement of worn cables.
Build interpretation literacy: Recognize common patterns and red flags; know when to escalate.
How to Display EKG/ECG Skills on Your Resume
3. CPR Certified
CPR certification confirms competence in lifesaving chest compressions and rescue breaths, often bundled as BLS for healthcare providers. It’s the response you need when seconds go brittle.
Why It's Important
Early, high-quality CPR doubles or triples survival odds in cardiac arrest. Health technicians are often first on scene.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Refresh routinely: Renew on schedule and do skills check-ins between renewal cycles.
Use feedback devices: Train with manikins that coach rate, depth, and recoil.
Master team dynamics: Clear roles, tight communication, and rapid switch-outs to prevent fatigue.
Drill scenarios: Simulate airway challenges, defibrillation timing, and two-rescuer sequences.
Stay fit: Strong compressions demand stamina; conditioning matters.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
4. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means protecting patient information—confidentiality, integrity, and availability—across paper, verbal, and electronic channels.
Why It's Important
Trust lives or dies on privacy. Proper safeguards prevent breaches, fines, and patient harm.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Know the rules: Minimum necessary standard, role-based access, and when disclosures are allowed.
Harden access: Strong passwords, multifactor authentication, automatic logoff, and locked screens.
Communicate securely: Approved messaging, encrypted storage and transit, no PHI in personal apps.
Control the room: Clean desks, shielded screens, badge-only areas, and proper PHI disposal.
Audit and educate: Regular audits, phishing drills, and annual training with real examples.
Plan for incidents: Clear breach response steps, timely notifications, and documented remediation.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
5. EMR Systems
EMR systems store and organize clinical data—histories, meds, labs, imaging, orders—so teams can act quickly and accurately.
Why It's Important
Clean records mean safer care, fewer errors, and less time hunting down information.
How to Improve EMR Systems Skills
Build speed safely: Use templates, smart phrases, and shortcuts without copy-paste bloat.
Document precisely: Problem lists, allergies, and med reconciliation must be current and specific.
Think interoperability: Exchange records, reconcile outside data, and avoid duplicates.
Protect privacy: Correct access levels, cautious charting of sensitive topics, and minimal PHI in free text.
Report issues fast: Log glitches, request tweaks, and share workflow pain points for fixes.
Train continuously: Short refreshers after upgrades keep errors down and efficiency up.
How to Display EMR Systems Skills on Your Resume
6. Patient Scheduling
Patient scheduling organizes appointments so the right patient meets the right clinician at the right time—with minimal waiting and maximum flow.
Why It's Important
Better schedules cut delays, boost access, and keep clinicians and patients in sync.
How to Improve Patient Scheduling Skills
Use smart templates: Define appointment types and durations that reflect real work.
Automate reminders: Texts, emails, and confirmations that reduce no-shows and last-minute chaos.
Hold buffer space: Short blocks for urgent add-ons and inevitable spillover.
Stand up a waitlist: Backfill cancellations quickly and keep the day full.
Offer virtual options: Telehealth for appropriate visits to widen access and smooth demand.
Track the numbers: No-show rates, cycle time, utilization—then adjust templates based on data.
Train the team: Consistent scripting, escalation rules, and service recovery when things slip.
How to Display Patient Scheduling Skills on Your Resume
7. Medical Coding
Medical coding translates diagnoses and procedures into standardized codes (ICD-10-CM, CPT, HCPCS) for reporting, analytics, and payment.
Why It's Important
Accurate codes drive proper reimbursement, clean claims, and reliable clinical data. Errors ripple—denials, delays, and skewed metrics.
How to Improve Medical Coding Skills
Study the guidelines: ICD-10-CM conventions, CPT rules, and payer policies—updated annually.
Practice with real cases: Work sample charts, practice exams, and post-audit corrections to sharpen specificity.
Know edits and bundling: NCCI edits, MUEs, and modifier rules to keep claims clean.
Query clearly: When documentation is thin, request clarification to support compliant coding.
Use the tools: Encoders and EHR prompts help, but verify with official guidelines.
Review and audit: Peer checks and periodic audits expose patterns and fix habits.
How to Display Medical Coding Skills on Your Resume
8. Laboratory Equipment
Laboratory equipment includes the instruments that make diagnostics possible—centrifuges, microscopes, analyzers, biosafety cabinets, and more.
Why It's Important
Reliable equipment delivers reliable results. Quality, safety, and turnaround time depend on it.
How to Improve Laboratory Equipment Skills
Maintain on schedule: Preventive maintenance, calibration logs, and timely service calls.
Standardize operation: SOPs, quick-reference guides, and competency checks for every device.
Run quality controls: Daily controls, proficiency testing, and documented corrective actions.
Protect safety: PPE, biosafety levels, spill kits, and validated decontamination procedures.
Optimize workflow: Logical bench layout, barcoding, and lean processes to cut errors and wear.
Stay compliant: Align with CLIA/CAP standards and keep records inspection-ready.
How to Display Laboratory Equipment Skills on Your Resume
9. Vital Signs Monitoring
Vital signs—temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation—offer an instant snapshot of patient status.
Why It's Important
Trends tell the story. Early changes prompt early action and safer care.
How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills
Get the technique right: Correct cuff size, patient at rest, arm at heart level, and repeat if readings conflict.
Validate devices: Calibrate regularly and confirm abnormal automated readings manually.
Standardize timing: Measure before interventions when possible and document posture and context.
Watch for patterns: Compare against baseline, flag rapid shifts, and escalate promptly.
Communicate clearly: Use structured reporting and enter values promptly in the EMR.
Educate patients: When monitoring at home, teach proper technique and signs that warrant a call.
How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
10. Specimen Collection
Specimen collection gathers blood, urine, swabs, stool, tissue—whatever the test requires—while preserving integrity from bedside to bench.
Why It's Important
The right sample, collected the right way, prevents redraws and wrong results. That protects patients and speeds care.
How to Improve Specimen Collection Skills
Verify identity: Two identifiers, every time, and label at the point of collection.
Follow SOPs: Correct containers, order of draw, mix additive tubes gently, and note timing.
Mind stability: Temperature, light protection, and transport time can make or break accuracy.
Use aseptic technique: Clean sites properly and avoid contamination at every step.
Document details: Source, site, collection time, and special conditions (fasting, timed collection).
Chain-of-custody: For select tests, complete documentation and secure handling without gaps.
Comfort and safety: Explain, position well, minimize discomfort, and observe for adverse reactions.
How to Display Specimen Collection Skills on Your Resume
11. Radiology (X-ray, MRI)
Radiology uses imaging—X-ray, MRI, and more—to uncover what the eye can’t. Technicians operate equipment, position patients, and protect safety while aiming for crisp, diagnostic images.
Why It's Important
Good images answer clinical questions. They shape treatment plans and track progress with clarity.
How to Improve Radiology (X-ray, MRI) Skills
Prioritize safety: Apply ALARA, confirm pregnancy status when appropriate, and follow shielding policies.
Screen thoroughly: For MRI, complete safety screening, check for implants, and manage contraindications.
Optimize image quality: Adjust exposure, positioning, and sequences to the clinical question; reduce motion and artifacts.
Manage contrast wisely: Verify indications, assess risk, confirm IV access, and monitor during administration.
Maintain equipment: Daily QC, calibration, and timely service reduce repeat scans and downtime.
Communicate well: Explain steps, provide ear protection for MRI, and coach breathing or stillness.
How to Display Radiology (X-ray, MRI) Skills on Your Resume
12. Patient Education
Patient education turns clinical plans into actions people can follow. It’s clear language, useful materials, and two-way understanding.
Why It's Important
When patients understand, they participate. Adherence improves, risks drop, and outcomes rise.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Assess first: Gauge health literacy, language needs, and preferences. Tailor from there.
Simplify the message: Short sentences, plain words, and one idea at a time.
Use teach-back: Ask patients to explain in their own words—then fill the gaps.
Add visuals: Diagrams, models, and step-by-step handouts boost recall.
Support access: Professional interpreters, culturally sensitive materials, and accessible formats.
Plan follow-up: Give an after-visit summary, set SMART goals, and invite questions later.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
