Healthcare Assistant CV Example (New Zealand)

A charge nurse manager hiring a Healthcare Assistant for a Te Whatu Ora ward, or a facility manager hiring for aged residential care, is looking for the same three things: your qualification level under the care and support worker pay equity settlement, which decides what the employer pays you from day one; the kind of care you have given and to whom; and whether you turn up for every rostered shift including nights and weekends. Lead with the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing and its level, then the ward or facility and the residents or patients you looked after.

The Sample CV below is for a Healthcare Assistant in New Plymouth with four years in care, first in a rest home and hospital-level facility and now on a medical and rehabilitation ward, with a Level 4 certificate and a supermarket job before care. Her bullets are about residents and patients rather than tasks: vital signs and escalation, patient watches for confused patients, mobilising stroke patients with the physiotherapists, and the conversations with Pacific and Māori whānau that the ward relies on her for.

Adjust the CV for the setting. A hospital ward wants observations, patient watches and working under a registered nurse; aged residential care wants personal cares, dementia care and the interRAI-driven care plan; a home and community support role wants independence, a driver licence and lone working; a disability support role wants a different language again, built around the person's goals. The US counterpart of this page is the medical assistant resume example, written for an American clinic role that is mostly front desk and outpatient; a New Zealand HCA works at the bedside. The Civic template keeps the CV plain for the Te Whatu Ora careers site and the big aged care providers' portals.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in New Zealand; the page for applicants in the US is the medical assistant resume example.

Healthcare Assistant sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper a New Zealand CV is printed on.

Losana Fifita-Grant

Healthcare Assistant, NZ Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 4), medical and rehabilitation ward, Police vetted

Merrilands, New Plymouthlosana.fifitagrant@example.com021 555 0156

Summary

Healthcare Assistant with four years in aged residential care and on a Te Whatu Ora ward, holding the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing at Level 4 and paid at the top pay equity step. Work days, nights and weekends on a 28-bed medical and rehabilitation ward, taking vital signs, doing patient watches, mobilising patients with the physiotherapists and giving personal cares with dignity. The ward's go-to person for conversations with Tongan and Samoan families, and a buddy for new HCAs on their first shifts.

Experience

Healthcare Assistant, Medical and Rehabilitation Ward, Waiwhakaiho Valley Hospital

– Present

New Plymouth

  • Care for up to eight patients a shift with a registered nurse, including stroke, pneumonia and frailty admissions, giving personal cares, pressure area care, mouth care and help at meals, and recording food and fluid charts.
  • Take and record vital signs on the early warning score chart and escalate any change to the nurse straight away; escalated a patient with a falling oxygen level overnight, who was reviewed and moved to a monitored bed within the hour.
  • Do one-to-one patient watches for confused or at-risk patients, keeping them safe and settled without restraint, and hand over a written account at each shift change.
  • Mobilise stroke and rehabilitation patients with the physiotherapists' plan, using hoists, walking frames and slide sheets, and buddy new HCAs through their first fortnight on the ward.
Caregiver, Rest Home and Hospital-Level Care, Pukekura Rise Rest Home and Hospital

–

New Plymouth

  • Gave personal cares to twelve residents a shift across rest home, hospital-level and dementia care, following each resident's interRAI-based care plan and reporting changes to the registered nurse.
  • Completed the Level 3 and then the Level 4 Certificate in Health and Wellbeing through the facility's training programme, moving up the pay equity steps as each was finished.
  • Led the afternoon activities in the dementia unit three days a week, with music and simple cooking that the clinical manager said reduced evening agitation for several residents.
Checkout and Service Assistant, Egmont Road Fresh Market

–

New Plymouth

  • Worked the checkout and the service desk on evening and weekend shifts, handling refunds, complaints and age-restricted sales.
  • Trained new checkout staff and covered extra shifts through the summer holiday period.

Education

New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 4), Advanced Care and Support

Western Taranaki Institute, New Plymouth

Completed while working, with the Level 3 certificate in 2022; units in supporting people with dementia, palliative care and medication support.

NCEA Level 2

Mangorei Heights High School, New Plymouth

Skills

  • Vital signs and early warning score charts
  • Personal cares with dignity
  • Patient watches and de-escalation
  • Moving and handling, hoists and slide sheets
  • Dementia care
  • Pressure area care
  • Food, fluid and bowel charts
  • Infection prevention and hand hygiene
  • Palliative care support
  • Electronic clinical records
  • Working with Pacific and Māori whānau

Certifications

  • Police vetting, current, New Zealand Police, through employer,
  • First Aid and CPR, Accredited first aid provider,
  • Safe moving and handling, Hospital education team,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

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How a New Zealand CV differs

A New Zealand Healthcare Assistant CV is shaped by the care and support worker pay equity settlement, which ties pay to qualification level and years of service, and by the split between Te Whatu Ora hospitals and the private aged residential care providers that employ most caregivers. There is no equivalent of the American medical assistant's clinic and billing role; the job is bedside care under a registered nurse. Say your certificate level and pay step, your setting and the patients or residents you cared for, and your shift availability, in one or two sides of A4 with two referees.

For a healthcare assistant in New Zealand

  1. Certificate level and pay step

    Write the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing level you hold, or are studying towards, and the pay equity step you are on. Employers pay by level, so it tells them exactly what you cost and what you can do.

  2. Setting and level of care

    Say whether the facility was rest home, hospital-level or dementia care, or which ward you worked on, and how many residents or patients you had a shift. A dementia unit and a surgical ward are different jobs.

  3. Patient watches and observations

    Hospital HCAs do patient watches and vital signs; aged care caregivers follow interRAI care plans. Name the tasks you did and under which nurse, because the two settings train for different things.

  4. Shift availability

    State the shifts you work and whether you can do nights, weekends and sleepovers. Rosters are built on twelve-hour and rotating shifts, and availability is often the deciding factor between two similar CVs.

  5. Police vetting and checks

    Every employer requires Police vetting, and roles with children need a Children's Act safety check. Write that your vetting is current, and list first aid and moving and handling with the year.

  6. Culture and language

    If you speak Samoan, Tongan, te reo Māori or another language, or are the person families come to, say so. Wards and facilities serve Pacific and Māori whānau and value an HCA who can sit with them.

Every CV in New Zealand

A4 paper
New Zealand prints on A4. Set the page size before you export; a Letter-sized PDF is the usual sign of a US template.
Two pages is normal
Two pages is the norm. One page for a first job; a third page only for a long senior career.
No photo
No photo, date of birth or marital status. New Zealand employers do not expect them and most prefer the CV without them.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day first where a full date appears, and month and year for each role. Never the US month-first order.
New Zealand English
New Zealand English follows British spelling: organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise.
Suburb and city, not a street address
"Mount Eden, Auckland" is enough on the contact line. A full street address is not expected.

More on applying in New Zealand, with every CV example for it, on the New Zealand page.

Templates for the healthcare assistant CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same healthcare assistant CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Applicant for a first Healthcare Assistant or caregiver role, with two years of caring for a grandparent at home, a retail background and the Level 2 Certificate in Health and Wellbeing just completed.

  • Helped a grandparent with washing, dressing, medicines and appointments for two years, including after a hip fracture.
  • Worked evening shifts at a hardware store, keeping customers happy and the shift covered.
  • Completed the Level 2 certificate through a polytechnic, with a two-week placement in a rest home.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Healthcare Assistant with three years in an emergency department, used to pace, patient watches and the clinical tasks the department trains HCAs for.

  • Take vital signs, ECGs and blood glucose in the triage and monitored areas under the nurse in charge.
  • Sit patient watches for intoxicated and mental health presentations through the night safely.
  • Restock and prepare the resuscitation bay and support the team during a resus.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Senior Healthcare Assistant and team coordinator in a 60-bed aged residential care facility, leading the HCA team across all three levels of care.

  • Coordinate the roster and the shift allocation for a team of 22 caregivers across rest home, hospital and dementia care.
  • Deliver the facility's induction for new caregivers and sign off their moving and handling and medication support competencies.
  • Hold the Level 4 certificate and act as the facility's dementia care champion for the audit.

Skills to put on the healthcare assistant CV

Hard skills

Observations and escalation
Wards count on HCAs for most routine vital signs, and knowing the early warning score and when to tell the nurse is the heart of the hospital role.
Personal cares
Washing, dressing, toileting and feeding with dignity is most of the work in aged care and much of it on a ward, and the interview will ask how you do it.
Moving and handling
Hoists, slide sheets and safe transfers protect residents and your own back, and every employer checks the competency at induction.
Dementia care
Most aged care facilities have a dementia unit and most wards have confused patients, and an HCA who can settle a person without restraint is valued everywhere.
Charting
Food, fluid and bowel charts and the watch record feed the nurse's and doctor's decisions, and missing entries are the most common complaint about HCAs.
Infection prevention
Hand hygiene audits and isolation precautions are part of every ward and facility, and the position description lists them every time.

Soft skills

Turning up
A ward or facility runs short when an HCA does not come in, and a manager hires the person who covers nights, weekends and the odd extra shift.
Kindness under pressure
Residents and patients remember who was gentle at three in the morning, and so does the family feedback the manager reads.
Speaking up
The HCA is usually the first to notice a change in a patient, and a charge nurse wants one who says so at once rather than at handover.

Mistakes that cost healthcare assistant interviews

  1. No certificate level

    Without the level, the employer cannot tell what step to pay you or whether you can give medication support. Put the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing and the level in the headline and the education block.

  2. Tasks without the people

    Assisted with activities of daily living says nothing. Say how many residents or patients, what kind of care, and one moment where you noticed something and acted on it.

  3. Leaving out the watches and observations

    Patient watches, vital signs and early warning scores are what a hospital HCA role is built on. If you have done them, say so with the chart you used; if not, say what you are trained for.

  4. Dropping the retail or hospitality job

    Checkout, cafe and cleaning work show reliability, customer care and shift work. Keep them short and say what they taught you about people and pressure.

  5. Writing it like an American clinic job

    Scheduling, insurance and front desk work belong to a US medical assistant. A New Zealand HCA CV is about bedside care, observations and working under a registered nurse, in British spelling.

Write bullets with the XYZ formula: what changed, the number that shows it, and how you did it, in one line.

Questions about the healthcare assistant CV

What qualification do I need to be a Healthcare Assistant in New Zealand?

None to start in many facilities, though most now ask for the Level 2 or 3 Certificate in Health and Wellbeing or will enrol you in it. Pay rises with each level under the pay equity settlement, so say the level you hold or are working towards and when you expect to finish.

What is the difference between a caregiver and a Healthcare Assistant?

Mostly the setting. Aged residential care and home support call the role caregiver or support worker; Te Whatu Ora hospitals call it Healthcare Assistant or hospital aide. The pay equity settlement covers both, so list the title the employer used for each job.

What length do New Zealand hospitals and rest homes expect from an HCA CV?

One side of A4 for a first role, two for an HCA with several facilities and competencies. Keep the certificate level, the current job and your availability on the first page.

Does looking after a family member or whānau count as experience?

Yes. Looking after a parent or grandparent shows you can give personal cares with dignity and manage medicines and appointments. Write it as a short entry with what you did and for how long.

Do I need Police vetting before I apply?

No, the employer arranges it, but say that you are willing to be vetted and whether you have been vetted recently. A conviction does not always rule you out; it is better to mention it than to have it found.

Can I move from aged care to a hospital ward?

Yes. Personal cares, moving and handling and dementia care carry straight across, and a Level 3 or 4 certificate helps. Say which wards interest you and any observations you have taken. Resume Master rewrites your CV against the ward's advert in a couple of minutes, so the ward sees the match.

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