Healthcare Assistant (HCA) CV Examples & Writing Guide

A one-page CV for a healthcare assistant who moved from a nursing home to a hospital ward. The name and employers are invented. The numbers are the ones every HCA can find: residents per shift, observations per shift, falls, call bell response, attendance.

Healthcare assistant adverts often draw dozens of applications for one post, and the ward manager or care home manager reads fast. Four things get you into the "call" pile.

• Care Certificate and qualifications. "Care Certificate, 2022; Level 2 Diploma in Care" answers it. You can be hired without the Care Certificate, but the employer then has to put you through it at induction, so say if you already have it.
• Current basic life support and moving and handling training, and an Enhanced DBS check. Hospitals run their own mandatory training, but up-to-date certificates show you are ready, and being on the DBS Update Service can bring your start date forward.
• Setting and load. Care home (10 to 15 residents), hospital ward (6 to 10 patients), home care (one client per visit), dementia unit, rehab, hospice. Managers hire for the setting they run. Hospital HCA posts are usually Band 2 or Band 3 on Agenda for Change, Band 3 where you do clinical tasks such as venepuncture and ECGs.
• Reliability. Turnover in care is high, and short-notice sickness leaves a unit short. Attendance percentage, length of stay at each job, weekend and night availability, and a buddy or senior carer role all say "this person turns up".

“The Care Certificate and DBS get checked before anything else, then how long the person stayed at their last two jobs. After that the CVs that stand out are the ones with real care numbers: how many residents, how many falls, whether they ever trained a new carer. Most just list duties from the job description.”

"Healthcare assistant CV skills" is one of the most-searched phrases for this job, and the answer is concrete. List the tasks you are trained and signed off to do, the systems you record care in, and two or three soft skills shown as behaviour. Ten to fourteen items is enough.

The job description lists duties. Your CV should show how well you did them. Add the ratio, the frequency, the system and, where you can, a result (falls, skin, inspections, patient feedback, attendance).

A personal statement is for HCAs with experience: years, setting, load, training and one result. A career objective is for new starters with only training and placement hours: the post you want, your training status, your placement setting and your availability. Both are three sentences at most.

Healthcare assistants in England are not registered with a professional regulator, so there is no licence or registry number to give. Employers look instead for the Care Certificate, a care diploma or apprenticeship, training records and a DBS check. Job titles vary: healthcare assistant, healthcare support worker, clinical support worker, care assistant, senior carer. Use the title the employer gave you and the exact names on your certificates.

• Care Certificate line: "Care Certificate (15 standards), completed 2022". It is the induction standard for health and social care support workers in England. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, care workers in many social care settings must register with the SSSC, Social Care Wales or NISCC; if you are registered, list it with the date.
• Basic life support: the provider and the date. Hospitals run their own annual training; care homes usually accept a certificate from an accredited trainer.
• Qualifications: Level 2 or Level 3 Diploma in Care (or older Health and Social Care diplomas and NVQs), or an apprenticeship such as Healthcare Support Worker (Level 2), Senior Healthcare Support Worker (Level 3), Adult Care Worker (Level 2) or Lead Adult Care Worker (Level 3). Give the level and year.
• Add-on training if you hold it: medicines administration (senior carers), venepuncture and ECG competencies, dementia care, end-of-life care, moving and handling, de-escalation or positive behaviour support.
• Next step: the nursing associate role (a Level 5 foundation degree, registered with the NMC) through a trainee nursing associate apprenticeship, then registered nurse. If you are on that route or want it, say so in the career objective.
• Do not claim a qualification you have only started. Write "Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care, in progress, completion expected March 2027" so nobody feels misled when your certificates are checked.

Many HCAs get their first job with no paid care experience at all. Employers expect that: they train you and put you through the Care Certificate, and they hire for reliability and attitude. Your CV has more on it than you think.

• Training first, right under your name: the Care Certificate (or "to complete at induction"), any pre-employment course, basic life support, DBS status.
• Write any placement as experience: "Placement, care home (60 beds), 40 hours, May 2026: personal care for 6 to 8 residents per shift under a senior carer, observations, moving with handling belts, records in Nourish."
• Pull reliability out of any job: attendance, years stayed, shifts covered, cash handled, customers served. A retail or hospitality record of turning up is what a care manager is buying.
• Caring for a family member counts if you describe the tasks (moving and handling, washing, medication prompts, help with meals) and how long you did it; label it clearly as family caring.
• Volunteering in a hospital, hospice or care home, even a few hours a week, goes in its own section with dates.
• Use a career objective (see above) that names the shift and setting you want and your availability. Employers recruiting for nights and weekends will call you first if you say you can work them.
• One page, no photo, no referees on the page. Have two referees ready (a tutor, a supervisor); care employers always take references before you start.

• One page is usually enough, two at most. An HCA with 15 years fits on one page by shortening early jobs to a line each.
• Order: header with Care Certificate and DBS status, personal statement or career objective, training and qualifications, experience, skills, education. Put training above experience; that is what gets checked first.
• Single column, standard headings, no photo, no date of birth. Save as PDF unless the employer's application form asks for Word.
• NHS trusts recruit through NHS Jobs or Trac, and care groups use applicant systems that search by keyword. Mirror the advert once each where true: "healthcare assistant", "HCA", "healthcare support worker", "care assistant", "personal care", "observations", "NEWS2", "nursing home", "Care Certificate", "Nourish" or "Cerner", "long days".
• Say your availability: "open to nights, weekends and long days" in the header or personal statement. It is often the deciding line.
• In the US the equivalent role is certified nursing assistant (CNA) and the document is a resume; US CNAs complete state-approved training, pass a competency exam and are listed on a state nurse aide registry, which the Care Certificate does not replace.

Check the finished CV against the advert with the cvplex ATS checker. It shows which care terms and systems from the advert are missing and confirms your training lines read as text.