Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) job description
159 verified openings in CNA
Turning and repositioning bedridden patients heads the task list, which tells you most of what a shift feels like. Certified nursing assistants give the basic daily care under a licensed nurse: bathing, dressing, feeding, moving people, watching for changes in condition, and reporting them. The Occupational Outlook Handbook counted 1,505,900 nursing assistants in 2025, 36 percent of them in nursing care facilities and 32 percent in hospitals, buildings staffed around the clock, so nights, weekends, and holidays come with the work. Median pay in May 2025 was $42,260, with the bottom tenth at $33,940 and the top tenth at $51,980.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
Call lights get answered, meals get served or fed, and intake and output get measured and recorded, with anything unusual passed to the nursing staff. Assistants provide the physical support daily living takes here, getting someone out of bed, bathing and dressing them, walking them to the toilet, and lifting them on and off beds and stretchers. They check dietary restrictions and allergies against what arrives on the tray, remind patients about medications and supplements, take vital signs as directed, and look over skin for bruises, open wounds, or blood in the urine. Documenting behavior, complaints, and symptoms for the nurses closes the loop.
Common Skills and Technologies
Wanting to help is the skill that carries this job, with listening and noticing right behind it, and nothing technical outranks catching what a patient needs before they ask for it. Charting runs through Epic Systems or MEDITECH depending on the employer, and the standard office kit covers everything else. Most of the equipment in this job is not software at all: beds, lifts, bedpans, and a call system.
Education, Training, and Career Path
The credential comes from a state-approved education program and a state competency exam, with no degree in it anywhere. Reported education backs that up: about two in five entered on high school and nothing more, about a quarter on a certificate earned afterward. For veterans, the Military Crosswalk connects Army 68C Practical Nursing Specialist and 68D Operating Room Specialist to this occupation. Related occupations show where the experience carries: licensed practical and vocational nurses, registered nurses, and paramedics.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-1131.00 Nursing Assistants, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-1131.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-1131, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes311131.htm.