Top 12 MDS Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting a standout resume as an MDS (Minimum Data Set) nurse takes a sharp, strategic showcase of skills that prove your command of assessment, coding, reimbursement, and team-driven care planning. Spell out the depth. Show how you think. In long-term and post-acute care, nuance matters—and the right skills bring your resume to life for hiring managers who know what excellence looks like.

MDS Nurse Skills

1. RAI Process
2. MDS 3.0
3. Care Planning
4. ICD-10 Coding
5. iQIES (formerly CASPER) Reporting
6. Quality Measures
7. PDPM Knowledge
8. INTERACT Training
9. VBP Understanding
10. CAA Summaries
11. SigmaCare Proficiency
12. PointClickCare Expertise

1. RAI Process

The RAI (Resident Assessment Instrument) process anchors MDS work. It blends standardized assessment with clinical judgment to capture a resident’s conditions, function, cognition, mood, and risks—then converts that picture into an individualized, actionable plan of care.

Why It's Important

It drives accurate assessment, defensible care planning, survey readiness, and appropriate reimbursement. Miss the details and everything downstream wobbles.

How to Improve RAI Process Skills

1. Master the manual: Keep current with the RAI User’s Manual and facility policies. Flag updates. Re-read tricky sections.
2. Tighten timing: Build a reliable tracking system for ARDs, completion, and submission. No scrambling. No late gaps.
3. Code with intent: Align clinical findings with MDS coding rules. If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen—clarify with the team fast.
4. Huddle smart: Lead disciplined IDT discussions that surface changes in status early and link to care plan updates.
5. Self-audit: Review samples weekly. Trend errors. Share quick wins and pitfalls with the team.
6. Leverage your EHR/MDS tools: Use templates, alerts, and validations to prevent omissions and improve flow.

Consistent, manual-aligned practice sharpens accuracy and steadies outcomes.

How to Display RAI Process Skills on Your Resume

2. MDS 3.0

MDS 3.0 is the standardized assessment used in U.S. nursing facilities to capture resident status and needs. Since the October 2023 update (v1.18.11), Section G was retired and Section GG expanded, reshaping function scoring and several quality measures. The assessment fuels care planning, QMs, Five-Star, PDPM, and compliance.

Why It's Important

It’s the backbone of accurate care planning and measurement. Get MDS right and quality indicators, reimbursement, and survey outcomes follow suit.

How to Improve MDS 3.0 Skills

1. Stay current: Track manual revisions and facility-specific workflows, especially around Section GG, BIMS, PHQ-9, and new standardized elements.
2. Code precisely: Validate items against charting, interviews, and therapy/nursing documentation. Reconcile discrepancies in real time.
3. Team alignment: Set regular IDT syncs to confirm ADLs/GG, diagnoses, mood, and cognition ratings match clinical reality.
4. Work the clock: Build a calendar that protects assessment windows and submission deadlines.
5. Peer review: Short, frequent audits beat occasional deep dives. Learn, adjust, repeat.
6. Use technology: EHR prompts, logic checks, and MDS software validations reduce rework and denials.
7. Consistency: Standardize approaches to interviews and observation periods so data trends stay clean.

Sharper MDS practice means cleaner data and steadier performance across the board.

How to Display MDS 3.0 Skills on Your Resume

3. Care Planning

Care planning translates assessment into action. For an MDS nurse, that means person-centered goals, targeted interventions, and measurable outcomes tied tightly to the MDS story and updated when the resident changes.

Why It's Important

It personalizes care, directs the team, supports survey compliance, and—most importantly—moves the needle on resident outcomes.

How to Improve Care Planning Skills

1. Know the rules: Align care plans with OBRA timing and content requirements. Document rationale for each triggered area.
2. Be specific: Measurable goals, clear interventions, responsible disciplines, timeframes. Vague plans don’t guide practice.
3. Resident voice first: Preferences, routines, and goals must shape the plan. Trauma-informed, person-centered, always.
4. Interdisciplinary muscle: Pull together rehab, nursing, social services, nutrition, activities—one coherent plan.
5. Review and revise: Update promptly after significant changes, readmissions, and hospital returns.
6. Use your tools: EHR care plan libraries and triggers help, but customize to the resident—not the template.
7. Close the loop: Tie progress notes back to goals and adjust when results stall.

How to Display Care Planning Skills on Your Resume

4. ICD-10 Coding

ICD-10-CM coding standardizes diagnoses that drive care planning, quality measures, and PDPM case-mix. Precision matters—principal diagnoses, comorbidities, and clinical category mapping all hinge on exact codes and documented clinical validity.

Why It's Important

Correct coding underpins medical necessity, accurate reimbursement, and defensible audits. Miscoding can cascade into denials, skewed QMs, and flawed plans.

How to Improve ICD-10 Coding Skills

1. Track annual updates: Code sets refresh each October—scan changes that impact common SNF conditions.
2. Map to PDPM: Confirm the principal diagnosis maps to an allowed clinical category. If not, re-examine documentation and qualifiers.
3. Use tools wisely: Cross-check with encoders/EHR references, then confirm against chart specifics.
4. Peer checks: Quick double-reads on complex cases (multi-comorbidity, SLP components, NTA conditions) save headaches.
5. Link to documentation: Every code should be anchored by clear provider documentation and time frames relevant to the ARD.

How to Display ICD-10 Coding Skills on Your Resume

5. iQIES (formerly CASPER) Reporting

Facilities now access MDS submissions and provider reports through iQIES, the successor to CASPER/QIES. Reports reveal data quality, timeliness, errors, and quality trends—fuel for targeted improvement.

Why It's Important

These reports spotlight gaps before surveyors do. They guide corrections, validate compliance, and inform QAPI priorities.

How to Improve iQIES/CASPER Reporting Skills

1. Know your reports: Identify which iQIES reports your team uses for error checks, timeliness, and QM trends—and review them on a cadence.
2. Tight submissions: Monitor ARDs, completion, and submission dates. Resolve rejections fast and resubmit clean.
3. Fix root causes: Don’t just correct an error; adjust the workflow that produced it.
4. Share the data: Translate report findings for the IDT. Make improvements visible and owned by the team.
5. Keep credentials current: Ensure access, roles, and onboarding for new staff are maintained without delays.

How to Display iQIES/CASPER Reporting Skills on Your Resume

6. Quality Measures

Quality Measures (QMs) capture performance on outcomes like function, pressure injuries, vaccinations, falls with major injury, and more. With the 2023 shifts to Section GG, several measures recalibrated. These feed Care Compare and Five-Star, shaping public perception and priorities.

Why It's Important

QMs translate daily practice into visible performance. Improve the inputs—assessment accuracy, documentation, targeted interventions—and the metrics respond.

How to Improve Quality Measures Skills

1. Measure what matters: Map each QM back to specific MDS items and workflows. If it triggers from MDS, own the source data.
2. Use IDT power: Tackle high-impact areas (function, falls, pressure injuries, UTIs) with coordinated, discipline-specific actions.
3. Educate relentlessly: Short refreshers for nursing and rehab on documentation that directly affects QMs pay off.
4. EHR dashboards: Track real-time risk indicators and intervene early—don’t wait for quarterly reports to act.
5. QAPI cadence: Pick a few measures, run PDSA cycles, and hardwire what works.
6. Person-centered focus: Align goals with resident priorities. Better engagement often lifts outcomes organically.

How to Display Quality Measures Skills on Your Resume

7. PDPM Knowledge

PDPM shifts payment to clinical characteristics and needs, not therapy minutes. It hinges on accurate MDS coding, ICD-10 mapping, Section GG functional scoring for PT/OT, SLP-related comorbidities, nursing case-mix, and NTA conditions—each with its own levers and pitfalls.

Why It's Important

Strong PDPM knowledge supports appropriate reimbursement, right-sized care, and cleaner audits. It also nudges teams to document the whole clinical picture, not just therapy intensity.

How to Improve PDPM Knowledge Skills

1. Map relentlessly: Validate the principal diagnosis and related codes against PDPM clinical categories; confirm SLP and NTA criteria with supporting documentation.
2. Own Section GG: Calibrate scoring with therapy and nursing. Consistency across disciplines protects accuracy.
3. Train by scenario: Work frequent case studies—sepsis, post-op ortho, cardiac, neuro—to spot common coding traps.
4. Monitor denials: Analyze patterns. Fix documentation and workflow gaps that trigger recoupments.
5. Refresh often: Policy clarifications and mappings evolve—bake refreshers into your education plan.

How to Display PDPM Knowledge Skills on Your Resume

8. INTERACT Training

INTERACT (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers) equips teams to recognize, communicate, and manage condition changes early—before avoidable hospital transfers happen.

Why It's Important

Fewer avoidable transfers mean safer care, better outcomes, and stronger performance on readmission metrics. It also reinforces consistent, structured communication across shifts and roles.

How to Improve INTERACT Training Skills

1. Use the tools: SBAR, Stop and Watch, care paths, and communication checklists—practice them until they’re reflexive.
2. Drill scenarios: Role-play high-risk changes (respiratory decline, dehydration, delirium, CHF flare). Repetition builds speed and confidence.
3. Close the communication loop: Standardize escalation steps, provider notifications, and documentation touchpoints.
4. Measure impact: Track transfer reasons and timing; target the frequent flyers with prevention plans.
5. Train everyone: CNAs to providers—one language, one playbook.

How to Display INTERACT Training Skills on Your Resume

9. VBP Understanding

VBP in this context refers to the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing (SNF VBP) program, which ties payment to quality. Historically centered on readmissions, the program is expanding its measure set over time to reflect broader quality domains.

Why It's Important

Accurate MDS data and strong clinical processes influence facility performance and reimbursement. Your assessments aren’t just paperwork—they’re performance levers.

How to Improve VBP Understanding Skills

1. Know the measures: Understand how each measure is calculated and which MDS items and workflows affect it.
2. Target readmissions: Pair INTERACT practices with robust transition-of-care processes to cut avoidable returns.
3. Tighten documentation: Ensure the clinical story supports the data sent—no daylight between practice and paperwork.
4. Trend and act: Review performance data routinely, set goals, and run focused QAPI cycles.
5. Educate the IDT: Bring the team along—everyone contributes to the score.

How to Display VBP Understanding Skills on Your Resume

10. CAA Summaries

Care Area Assessment Summaries synthesize triggered areas into concise clinical rationales and next steps. They connect assessment findings to care plan decisions, showing the “why” behind the “what.”

Why It's Important

Clear, defensible summaries demonstrate clinical reasoning and support person-centered planning. Surveyors notice. So do families.

How to Improve CAA Summaries Skills

1. Be concise and complete: State the issue, evidence, risk, and plan impact without fluff.
2. Use standardized tools: When relevant, note instruments such as the Braden Scale or validated pain and mood tools to back your conclusions.
3. Interdisciplinary input: Pull in rehab, dietary, social services, nursing notes—one coherent story.
4. Tie to goals: Each summary should logically connect to care plan goals, interventions, and follow-up.
5. Audit regularly: Check for boilerplate creep. Personalize every summary to the resident’s needs and preferences.

How to Display CAA Summaries Skills on Your Resume

11. SigmaCare Proficiency

SigmaCare proficiency reflects skilled use of this long-term care EHR to complete MDS assessments, manage care plans, and maintain compliant documentation. Note: many organizations operate SigmaCare under the MatrixCare umbrella today—workflows are similar but branding may vary.

Why It's Important

Strong EHR fluency reduces errors, speeds submissions, and keeps the clinical narrative aligned across disciplines.

How to Improve SigmaCare Proficiency Skills

1. Take role-based training: Complete MDS-specific modules and refreshers. New features roll out—keep pace.
2. Practice daily: Shortcuts, templates, validations—use them until they stick.
3. Build smart templates: Streamline while avoiding copy-forward pitfalls. Personalization is non-negotiable.
4. Troubleshoot patterns: When errors repeat, fix the workflow, not just the record.
5. Share tips: A quick huddle or tip sheet can lift the whole team’s accuracy.

How to Display SigmaCare Proficiency Skills on Your Resume

12. PointClickCare Expertise

PointClickCare expertise means navigating assessment, care planning, orders, and reporting smoothly—using alerts, validations, and dashboards to keep data clean and timely.

Why It's Important

It minimizes rework, improves handoffs, and sharpens both MDS accuracy and clinical follow-through.

How to Improve PointClickCare Expertise Skills

1. Complete official training: Focus on MDS workflows, GG scoring, care plan libraries, and report navigation.
2. Use validations: Let system checks catch omissions and conflicts before submission.
3. Simulate scenarios: Practice complex admissions, hospital returns, and significant change assessments end to end.
4. Stay updated: New releases can alter workflows—scan release notes and adjust quickly.
5. Engage the community: Swap tips, templates, and reports that actually help your IDT.

How to Display PointClickCare Expertise Skills on Your Resume