Nursing Assistant: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a certified nursing assistant?

A certified nursing assistant (CNA) is often an entry-level healthcare professional who provides hands-on support with patients’ basic care needs under the supervision of nurses or other licensed staff. CNAs help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, feeding, mobility and monitoring vital signs, while also observing and reporting changes in a patient’s condition.

They play a critical role in maintaining patient comfort, safety and dignity, especially in hospitals, long-term care facilities and home health settings.

Why hire a certified nursing assistant?

CNAs help ensure consistent, high-quality care while allowing licensed clinicians to focus on more complex medical tasks.

A great certified nursing assistant hire can:

• Provide basic health care to patients, such as taking vitals
• Assist patients with personal care such as bathing, grooming, mobility and meals
• Assist staff with basic medical procedures

“CNAs are valuable members of the healthcare team. They perform direct, hands-on care to enhance patient well-being and improve patient safety by working collaboratively with RNs to provide timely and efficient care.”

—Michelle Hensley, DNP

Defining your hiring needs for a certified nursing assistant

Hospitals and healthcare facilities may hire temporary or contingent certified nursing assistants if their current nursing staff can’t keep up with a temporary increase in workload. These temporary CNAs may take over some basic patient care tasks for the full-time nurses until volume slows.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities should always have certified nursing assistants or similarly qualified employees as full-time staff. Hiring more full-time CNAs may be necessary if current patient volumes exceed staffing ratios and the ability to meet basic patient needs.

Types of certified nursing assistants

Different types of certified nursing assistants may have specific roles and responsibilities. These include:

• Lead CNA: A lead CNA typically supervises a team of other CNAs and may be involved in the training of new staff.
• Hospice CNA: These CNAs provide end-of-life care to patients in hospice and are often involved in providing comfort and symptom management.
• CNA II: A CNA II typically has more advanced training than a CNA, which may allow them to take on additional responsibilities such as oxygen therapy, dressing changes and more.

When writing your certified nursing assistant job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on certified nursing assistant jobs, according to Indeed data:

• CNA
• CNA nursing assistant CNA
• Nursing assistant
• Certified nursing assistant
• CNA nursing assistant
• Healthcare
• Travel CNA
• Caregiver
• Medical
• Assisted living

Where to find certified nursing assistants

To find the right certified nursing assistant for your facility, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Hire internally. Network with CNAs and RNs already employed by your organization to see whether they know of colleagues seeking a position.
• Contact schools that offer classes for CNAs. Communicating with these schools can generate leads from candidates who’ve recently earned their nursing assistant certification. Reach out to these individuals to set up several rounds of interviews.
• Reach out to other facilities in the area. Healthcare facilities in the city or state may have information on potential CNAs who are looking for employment in the area.
• Post your job online. Try posting your certified nursing assistant job on Indeed to find and attract quality certified nursing assistant candidates.

Skills to look for in a certified nursing assistant

A successful certified nursing assistant candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• Valid state CNA license and high school diploma or GED
• Completion of a CNA training program
• Ability to speak professionally with patients
• Exceptional bedside manner
• Ability to work long shifts while supervising several patients
• Willingness to provide all patients with high-quality care

Writing a certified nursing assistant job description

Now that you know the key skills, salary expectations, popular job seeker search terms and hiring insights for a certified nursing assistant, you’re ready to write a job description.

A certified nursing assistant job description typically includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities, and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also want to include information about your company culture, benefits and perks to attract candidates to your open role.

Ready to get started? See our full guide for writing certified nursing assistant job descriptions.

Interviewing certified nursing assistant candidates

Strong candidates for certified nursing assistant positions will be confident in answering questions regarding:

• Ability to think on their feet and solve complex problems
• Proficiency with equipment to assess patient vitals
• Strong, clean record of service in previous roles

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of certified nursing assistant interview questions for examples (with sample answers).