Caregiver Experience: What to Look for When Hiring

When you’re hiring a caregiver, experience can make all the difference — but it can be challenging to know exactly what types of employment history, competencies, and accomplishments indicate a great fit. Beyond hoping to find a caregiving professional who will thrive on your team, you may also be wondering about the basic certifications and technical skills your new hire should have.

Here’s an in-depth description of the caregiver role that will help you understand the skills and background your ideal candidate will possess. Learn how to determine if your applicants meet the standards necessary for safely engaging in direct patient care, and what to look for when evaluating resumes and interview responses. Discover the five essential qualities that indicate an applicant has what it takes to enhance the lives of your residents.

What Is a Caregiver?

A caregiver is a professional who provides hands-on support to patients or residents, often in long-term care settings (such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities). They may work closely with the nursing team to help residents with activities of daily living (ADLs) like bathing, toileting, eating, dressing, and ambulating. In addition to helping with ADLs, caregivers also play a supportive role in:

• Encouraging residents to attend wellness programs and classes.
• Reviewing activity calendars to see what events residents might want to attend.
• Notifying nurses if a resident experiences sudden changes in health.
• Accompanying residents during residential activities (games, movies, etc.).
• Reminding residents about taking medications and attending appointments.

How Do Caregivers Improve Care Quality?

The nationwide nursing shortage has increased the workload for RNs, LPNs, and CNAs. Increased nurse-to-patient ratios and changes in the nursing scope of practice can place patients at risk of poor or inadequate care.

By collaborating with other members of the multidisciplinary team, caregivers can reduce clinical demands by providing the compassion and attention patients need. They also improve care quality by:

• Minimizing the risk for falls and pressure injuries by providing direct patient care.
• Advocating for patients when they don’t feel seen or heard.
• Boosting patient quality of life through companionship and surrogacy.

Do Professional Caregivers Require Any Formal Training?

Qualifications for becoming a professional caregiver vary by state. The training and certification required for each role also depends on the complexity of the position’s caregiving duties. For example, some organizations expect caregivers to collect vital signs or perform heavy lifting, whereas others may only require companionship and basic observation.

Intensive training courses aren’t often required. However, individuals looking to be competitive in their state’s caregiver job market will complete some type of training course or certification to stand out among other candidates. Most positions also require a criminal background check and fingerprinting to ensure candidates uphold the moral and ethical standards necessary for caregiving.

Caregiver Experience: 5 Qualities to Look for

Caregivers typically don’t need a specific degree, so they often come from diverse educational backgrounds. Even if a candidate doesn’t have direct healthcare experience, they may have other related personal or professional experiences that can make them an effective caregiver.

Below are five essential qualities to look for, along with caregiver experience examples to help you identify these qualities during the hiring process.

1. Informal or Formal Caregiving Experience

First and foremost, you’re going to want to assess whether a candidate has any related experience in personal care. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they need to have worked professionally as a caregiver at a facility. Some candidates may have experience taking care of others in a volunteer role, their personal lives, or another professional capacity.

Examples:

• Hands-on care roles, such as babysitting
• Volunteer experience in other care settings
• Personal experiences caring for family or friends

A caregiver without experience at a facility type comparable to yours may need additional training before they can safely engage with your patients. For example, a caregiver who is used to visiting patients in their homes will need to be trained on infection control practices before going from room to room at an assisted living facility.

Certain states also require a caregiver experience certificate to work this role. This means some candidates may also have knowledge about caregiving through accredited courses they’ve taken.

2. Strong Interpersonal Skills

Beyond having familiarity with caretaking, caregivers should also display strong interpersonal skills. They’ll be regularly interacting with residents, likely encountering moments when they must comfort them through stressful situations. Experienced caregivers, especially those who work at long-term care facilities, may have helped residents with end-of-life care.

As you read through caregiver experience on resumes and evaluate interview responses, assess the candidate’s ability to be kind, compassionate, and patient. Look for experiences that equip individuals with essential interpersonal skills. This includes things like active listening, good communication, and the ability to convey empathy.

Examples:

• Call center or support line jobs
• Teaching or tutoring roles
• Customer service roles
• Other volunteer/professional experience in healthcare

3. Good Problem-Solving Abilities

In addition to providing companionship, caregivers help the nursing team complete essential care tasks. However, things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes, a resident may refuse to take their medications or there may be a health-related emergency that requires swift action.

To prepare for situations like these, a caregiver must understand how to problem solve and handle tough scenarios in the most appropriate ways possible. These caregiver skills are difficult to gauge based solely on a resume, so it’s helpful to ask candidates to describe previous scenarios where they had to think on their feet.

Examples:

• Past caregiving experience examples on handling angry or upset customers/patients
• Personal situations where things didn’t go according to plan
• Past experiences dealing with emergent situations

4. Ability to Work Well on a Team

Caregivers will also need to understand the chain of command and work alongside various members of the healthcare team. They report primarily to nursing staff, so it’s important to assess whether candidates can work well within a team setting.

Experienced caregivers may express this ability on their resume, especially if teamwork was an important component of a prior job. When evaluating caregivers without experience working on a healthcare team, assess for related qualities. If the individual is cooperative, respectful, and responsible, they will likely work well with others.

Examples:

• Assistive roles (e.g., administrative assistant, healthcare volunteer)
• Team-oriented extracurriculars (e.g., professional organizations, clubs, sports)
• Scenarios where the candidate solved problems with a team

5. Professionalism

As with any healthcare role, it’s important to find someone who is trustworthy, dependable, and responsible. In addition to the general expectations of the job — such as showing up on time — caregivers should understand how to be professional in both good and bad situations.

Professionalism is a trait that is built off of all types of work experience. But when it comes to hiring, you can also gauge how a candidate presents themself during the interview and throughout the hiring process. This is your first look into how they might behave on the job.

Examples:

• Showing up to the interview on time in professional attire
• Responding to emails and phone calls in a timely and respectful manner
• Sharing past caregiving experience examples of resolving conflicts with team members/coworkers

Connect With Qualified Caregivers Today

When hiring a caregiver, experience is one of many factors to evaluate among your candidates. Recruiting an employee with the necessary skills and expertise can be time consuming, but we can help. By posting your facility’s vacancies to the nation’s #1 healthcare hiring board, you can match with over 1 million qualified professionals actively looking for a job.