Caregiver Experience: What to Look for When Hiring

Professional caregiving has become a vital role in many long-term care settings. Beyond easing the workload of nurses who are often short-staffed, caregivers develop close relationships with residents and provide ongoing companionship. While caregivers can be valuable assets to the healthcare team, this role requires a strong set of soft skills that are important to look out for when hiring.

If you’re a facility leader seeking out a new caregiver, experience on resumes and responses during interviews will help you determine who’s right for the role. We’ll describe top caregiver qualities and explain how to evaluate a candidate’s caregiving experience throughout the hiring process.

What Is a Caregiver?

A caregiver is a professional who provides hands-on support to residents in long-term care settings, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They 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. Additionally, the training and certification required for each role 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. Additionally, most positions 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

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.

As you assess a candidate’s resume and talk to them during their interview, look for caregiver 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

Beyond 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 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

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

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 is presenting themselves during their 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 and is dressed professionally
• 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 IntelyCare 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.