Healthcare Assistant CV

What a care manager checks first

Healthcare assistant recruitment moves quickly, and shortlisting is often done by a clinical nurse manager or director of nursing between shifts. They are checking for a short list of essentials, and if one of them is hard to find, your CV goes to the bottom of the pile.

Make sure the top half of your first page answers these:

• Do you hold the right qualification, or are you working towards it?
• Is your mandatory training in date?
• What settings have you worked in, and for how long?
• Which shifts can you work?
• For home care: do you drive, and do you have your own car?

A short profile at the top can cover most of this in three lines. Our personal profile guide shows how to write one.

Your QQI Level 5 qualification

The HSE states that a QQI Level 5 major award is a requirement for entry to the healthcare assistant role. QQI Level 5 was formerly known as FETAC Level 5, and the awards are taught on further education and Post Leaving Certificate courses. Because a full major award is required, component certificates on their own will not do for HSE roles.

Private hospitals and other employers set their own requirements. Some ask for the same award, while others list an approved healthcare assistant course as preferred rather than essential, alongside the Leaving Certificate. Always read the job specification for the exact wording, because it varies by employer and by competition.

On your CV, give the qualification its full title so there is no doubt:

Some HSE campaigns spell out an alternative route. One recruitment campaign for Health Care Support Assistants, the home support role formerly called Home Help, accepted the Certificate in Healthcare Support, or another QQI Level 5 certificate in the health and welfare domain that includes the modules Care Support, Safety and Health at Work, and Care Skills, or an equivalent qualification from another country. If your award is not Healthcare Support itself, list those modules by name on your CV so the reader can see them straight away. Your QQI Record of Award lists every component you completed, and QQI will issue one if you have lost your certificate.

If you are still studying, say so with the expected completion date: "QQI Level 5 Certificate in Healthcare Support, in progress, completing June 2027". If you trained outside Ireland, see our guide to applying from abroad for how to show the comparable Irish level.

Mandatory training and certificates

Care employers need staff whose training is current, and a list with dates saves them asking. Give it its own short section, called "Training", with the month and year you completed each one.

Training commonly asked for in care roles includes:

• Manual handling, including people moving and handling
• Hand hygiene, and infection prevention and control
• Basic life support or CPR
• Fire safety
• Safeguarding vulnerable adults
• Dementia awareness, for older person and memory care settings

List only what you hold. If a certificate is out of date, either renew it before you apply or leave the date off and be ready to explain at interview. A care manager will notice an expired date.

Garda vetting and police clearance

Anyone working with children or vulnerable adults in Ireland must be vetted through the National Vetting Bureau. This is a legal requirement, and the employer starts it, usually late in the process. In HSE campaigns it happens after interviews have concluded. You fill in the form online when they send you the link.

Employers arrange vetting themselves, so you do not need a line on your CV saying you are vetted. If you want to reassure the reader, "Garda vetted for my current role, happy to complete vetting" is enough.

If you have lived outside Ireland, many care employers also ask for police clearance from the countries you lived in. The rules differ from one employer to another. One HSE campaign, for example, said clearance may be mandatory if you lived abroad for six months or more after your 16th birthday. Check the job specification, and start the request as soon as you have applied.

Describing your care experience

Name the setting for every role. The HSE employs healthcare assistants across acute hospitals, community services, mental health, older persons and disability services, including departments such as emergency, paediatrics and theatre. Care work in each is a different job, and the reader is hiring for one of them. Hospital job descriptions often ask for recent and relevant experience in an acute hospital setting, so if you have it, make it obvious in the role heading.

A few things that make this kind of CV stronger:

• Numbers a care manager uses. Bed numbers, residents or clients per shift, home visits per day, and how long you have been in the role.
• Accurate scope. Describe what you did in the words your role used, such as "assisted", "supported" and "reported to the nurse in charge". Overstating clinical tasks is a warning sign to a nurse reading your CV, and it can come up in reference checks.
• Extra responsibilities. Link worker roles, inducting new staff, key worker duties and activities you ran are all worth a line each.
• The competencies in the job description. Hospital job descriptions often list headings such as teamwork, communication, planning and organising, and patient focus. Make sure your bullets give evidence for each one the advert names.
• Shift patterns and availability. State which shifts you work. Flexibility is valued in care, and the reader is often filling a specific rota.

Leave out personal details that do not belong on an Irish CV, such as your date of birth, a photo or your PPS number. The Irish CV template has the full list.

If you are new to care

Many people come into care from retail, hospitality or caring for a family member. Your QQI course usually includes a work placement, so treat it like a job on your CV, with the setting, the dates and what you did there.

Experience from outside care counts too. Customer service shows you can stay calm with people who are upset. Hospitality shows you can work shifts and stay on your feet. Caring for a relative is real care experience, and one honest line about it belongs on your CV. Our guide to writing a CV with little or no experience has more on making the most of it.