Top 12 Senior Caregiver Skills to Put on Your Resume
As the demand for compassionate and competent senior caregivers keeps climbing, spotlighting the right mix of skills on your resume matters more than ever. The following guide cuts straight to the essentials—12 skills that help you stand out, signal readiness, and back up your promise to deliver excellent care.
Senior Caregiver Skills
- CPR Certified
- First Aid
- Alzheimer's Care
- Dementia Care
- Medication Management
- Patient Monitoring
- Mobility Assistance
- Hygiene Assistance
- Nutritional Planning
- Emergency Response
- Palliative Care
- Hoyer Lift
1. CPR Certified
CPR certification confirms formal training and testing in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and typically includes AED use. It’s the frontline skill for crises like cardiac arrest or near-drowning when seconds count.
Why It's Important
Older adults face higher risks for cardiac events. CPR and AED skills enable fast, confident action while help is on the way—action that can preserve brain function and save a life.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep it fresh and ready for real-world use:
Refresh often: Revisit updated guidelines from reputable organizations (American Heart Association, American Red Cross). Standards evolve.
Drill the skills: Hands-on practice beats memory. Attend refresher classes and scenario-based sessions.
Adapt for seniors: Know modifications for frailer bodies, fragile bones, implanted devices, and DNR preferences where applicable.
Level up: Add Basic Life Support (BLS) or advanced first aid if your setting requires it.
Simulate: Run mock codes with your team to reduce hesitation under pressure.
Consistency keeps your response fast, safe, and effective.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
2. First Aid
First aid covers immediate care for illness or injury—stabilize, prevent worsening, and support recovery until professional help arrives. In senior care, that also means comfort, calm, and safety.
Why It's Important
Quick, competent first aid reduces complications, eases pain, and can turn a frightening moment into a managed one.
How to Improve First Aid Skills
Stay current: Review modern protocols regularly. Evidence changes; your approach should too.
Specialize for seniors: Focus on falls, bleeding control, fractures, choking, stroke recognition, and low blood sugar events.
Practice: Skills fade without use. Schedule hands-on refreshers or drills.
Learn devices: Become fluent with AEDs, epinephrine auto-injectors, and oxygen delivery in your setting.
Mental health first aid: Recognize anxiety, confusion, delirium, and depression; respond with steadiness and empathy.
Stock and check: Keep a complete, labeled first aid kit and audit it routinely.
How to Display First Aid Skills on Your Resume
3. Alzheimer's Care
Alzheimer’s care means tailored support for memory loss and cognitive changes—safety, structure, dignity, and a calmer daily rhythm for the person and their family.
Why It's Important
This progressive condition reshapes behavior, memory, and judgment. Skilled care reduces risks, eases agitation, and preserves quality of life as abilities shift.
How to Improve Alzheimer's Care Skills
Personalize everything: Life history, routines, music, and favorite activities become tools for engagement and comfort.
Shape the space: Good lighting, clear labels, simplified pathways, and reduced clutter lower confusion and falls.
Communicate simply: Short sentences, eye contact, reassuring tone, and cueing. Validate feelings before redirecting.
Decode behaviors: Look for triggers like pain, hunger, overstimulation, or infection. Address causes, not just symptoms.
Protect the caregiver: Use respite care, support groups, and stress management. Burnout helps no one.
How to Display Alzheimer's Care Skills on Your Resume
4. Dementia Care
Dementia care spans many conditions beyond Alzheimer’s. It hinges on safety, predictable routines, and compassionate communication tailored to changing abilities.
Why It's Important
It preserves dignity, reduces distress, and supports families navigating complex and shifting needs.
How to Improve Dementia Care Skills
Know the type: Alzheimer’s, vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal—each can present differently.
Routine wins: Consistency lowers anxiety. Anchor the day with familiar patterns.
Safe home: Remove hazards, add grab bars, secure exits where appropriate, and manage lighting.
Engagement: Gentle movement, art, music, and sensory activities aligned with ability level.
Team up: Loop in occupational and physical therapists, social workers, and the primary care team.
Care for the carer: Education, peer support, and planned respite keep care sustainable.
How to Display Dementia Care Skills on Your Resume
5. Medication Management
Medication management means the right drug, dose, time, and route—plus vigilance for side effects and interactions, and clear communication with clinicians.
Why It's Important
Polypharmacy is common in older adults. Precision prevents dangerous mix-ups, adverse effects, and hospital visits.
How to Improve Medication Management Skills
Use organizers: Weekly pill boxes or locked dispensers reduce errors.
Keep a living med list: Name, dose, schedule, indication, prescriber, allergies—update after every appointment or hospitalization.
Set reminders: Alarms, smart speakers, or caregiver apps can close the forgetfulness gap.
Know the “why”: Understand each medication’s purpose and common side effects.
Reconcile routinely: Ask providers to review for duplications and deprescribe when possible.
Store safely: Correct temperature, away from moisture and light, and out of reach of children or pets.
Watch and report: New confusion, dizziness, swelling, rashes—document and escalate promptly.
How to Display Medication Management Skills on Your Resume
6. Patient Monitoring
Patient monitoring tracks vital signs, symptoms, mobility, intake/output, mood, sleep, and overall function—written down, trended, and shared with the care team.
Why It's Important
Early signals show up quietly. Spotting small shifts prevents big problems.
How to Improve Patient Monitoring Skills
Standardize: Use checklists and logs for vitals, pain scales, bowel/bladder, and weight.
Leverage tools: Consider wearables or home devices for heart rate, pulse oximetry, blood pressure, glucose, and sleep.
Adopt remote options: If available, remote monitoring platforms can flag concerning trends faster.
Medication adherence: Smart dispensers and pharmacy packaging services (such as blister packs) simplify tracking.
Calibrate your eye: Learn the early signs of UTI, dehydration, delirium, heart failure exacerbations, and stroke.
Close the loop: Share changes promptly with family and clinicians; document what you see, not just what you think.
How to Display Patient Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
7. Mobility Assistance
Mobility assistance means safer movement—transfers, ambulation, positioning, and navigating spaces—protecting independence while preventing falls.
Why It's Important
Falls are costly and common. Good technique guards bodies and confidence.
How to Improve Mobility Assistance Skills
Train your body mechanics: Wide base, neutral spine, use legs, and never twist while lifting.
Fit the device to the person: Canes, walkers, wheelchairs, transfer boards—proper sizing and instruction matter.
Modify the environment: Clear pathways, remove loose rugs, add grab bars and non-slip mats, improve lighting.
Build strength and balance: Coordinate with physical therapy for tailored exercises and gait training.
Plan transfers: Communicate steps before moving; count down; go slow.
Mind fatigue and meds: Time mobility tasks when energy is highest and dizziness lowest.
How to Display Mobility Assistance Skills on Your Resume
8. Hygiene Assistance
Hygiene assistance covers bathing, oral care, hair and skin care, toileting, dressing, and grooming—delivered with gentleness and privacy.
Why It's Important
It prevents infections, protects skin, uplifts mood, and safeguards dignity.
How to Improve Hygiene Assistance Skills
Assess preferences: Temperature, products, timing—small comforts reduce resistance.
Use adaptive tools: Long-handled sponges, shower chairs, handheld sprayers, and no-rinse cleansers can make care easier and safer.
Protect skin: Moisturize, manage incontinence promptly, and rotate positions to prevent pressure injuries.
Encourage independence: Offer setup help or cueing so the person can do what they’re able to do.
Maintain privacy and warmth: Cover areas not being washed; keep rooms warm to avoid chills.
Keep learning: Seek training on dementia-sensitive bathing and safe toileting techniques.
How to Display Hygiene Assistance Skills on Your Resume
9. Nutritional Planning
Nutritional planning designs meals that fit medical needs, preferences, chewing/swallowing abilities, and cultural habits—while covering all the nutrients that keep someone thriving.
Why It's Important
Good nutrition supports energy, healing, cognition, and disease management. It’s foundational care, not an afterthought.
How to Improve Nutritional Planning Skills
Start with assessment: Conditions, labs, weight trends, appetite, and swallowing status guide the plan.
Build balanced plates: Follow MyPlate-style proportions and include fiber, lean protein, healthy fats, and varied produce.
Match restrictions: Low-sodium, carbohydrate-controlled, renal-friendly, texture-modified—customize as ordered.
Hydration matters: Offer fluids regularly; consider broths, fruits, and hydrating snacks if water intake is low.
Portions and timing: Smaller, more frequent meals can beat poor appetite.
Collaborate: Dietitians can fine-tune plans and supplements; revisit goals as health changes.
How to Display Nutritional Planning Skills on Your Resume
10. Emergency Response
Emergency response is decisive action during sudden health or safety threats—recognize, respond, relay, and record.
Why It's Important
Rapid responses curb harm and buy precious time until advanced care takes over.
How to Improve Emergency Response Skills
Train deeply: CPR/AED, first aid, choking response, stroke recognition, and Stop the Bleed if available.
Write the plan: Individualized emergency plans with diagnoses, allergies, code status, medications, and key contacts—printed and easily accessible.
Drill it: Practice scenarios and call workflows so the steps become automatic.
Equip smartly: Maintain medical alert devices, charged phones, posted address info, and visible house numbers.
Update often: Review plans after any change in health, medication, or residence.
How to Display Emergency Response Skills on Your Resume
11. Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on relief—pain, symptoms, stress—and supports goals of care, communication, and family needs alongside medical treatment.
Why It's Important
Comfort and clarity matter at every stage of serious illness. This approach lifts quality of life for both the person and the people who love them.
How to Improve Palliative Care Skills
Learn the model: Symptom control, advance care planning, and values-driven decisions are core.
Master conversations: Ask what matters most, explore trade-offs, and document preferences clearly.
Manage symptoms: Pain, breathlessness, constipation, nausea, anxiety, insomnia—know non-drug and medication options.
Coordinate care: Work in lockstep with hospice or palliative teams, primary care, and specialists.
Support the whole person: Emotional, cultural, and spiritual needs deserve equal attention.
How to Display Palliative Care Skills on Your Resume
12. Hoyer Lift
A Hoyer lift (patient lift) assists with safe transfers for individuals with limited mobility, reducing injury risk for both the caregiver and the person being moved.
Why It's Important
Done right, it turns a risky maneuver into a controlled, low-strain process.
How to Improve Hoyer Lift Skills
Get hands-on training: Learn your specific model, weight limits, and emergency lowering procedures.
Match the sling: Use the correct size and type; confirm compatibility and inspect before every use.
Set up safely: Widen the base, center the load, lock the bed/wheelchair brakes—but keep the lift’s casters unlocked during the lift so it can roll and stay stable.
Communicate the steps: Explain what’s happening; move slowly; watch comfort and skin pinch points.
Use two caregivers when needed: Heavier transfers, agitation, or tight spaces often warrant a second set of hands.
Maintain the equipment: Regularly check slings, straps, clips, batteries, and casters; log inspections.
How to Display Hoyer Lift Skills on Your Resume
