What Does a CNA Do? CNA Duties and Responsibilities

The one-line answer: a CNA does the hands-on daily care — bathing, dressing, toileting, meals and mobility — plus the watching, measuring and reporting that keeps the licensed nurse informed.

Federal nursing home rules call the role a nurse aide: anyone providing nursing or nursing-related services to nursing home residents who is not a licensed health professional, a registered dietitian or an unpaid volunteer (42 CFR 483.5).

The federal training curriculum is the cleanest map of the duties: federal rules spell out what nurse aide training must cover (42 CFR 483.152).

Personal care skills: bathing, grooming including mouth care, dressing, toileting, assisting with eating and hydration, proper feeding techniques, skin care, and transfers, positioning and turning (42 CFR 483.152).

The basic nursing skills half: taking and recording vital signs, measuring height and weight, recognizing and reporting abnormal changes, and caring for residents when death is imminent.

Before any direct contact with a resident, training must also cover at least 16 hours on communication and interpersonal skills, infection control, safety and emergency procedures including the Heimlich maneuver, promoting residents' independence, and respecting residents' rights (42 CFR 483.152(b)(1)).

On a shift those curriculum lines become a loop: care rounds, call lights, transfers, meals, quick checks on how each person is doing, and the charting that closes the task.

O*NET lists answering call signals among the occupation's day-to-day tasks.

Everything below unpacks that loop group by group.

ADL care is the backbone of the job.

Federal nursing home rules name the domains: hygiene — bathing, dressing, grooming and oral care — mobility, meaning transfer and ambulation including walking, elimination (toileting), dining (eating, including meals and snacks), and communication (42 CFR 483.24(b)).

On the floor, that list becomes the day's rhythm: care rounds, toileting and mealtime help, and skin care alongside turning and repositioning.

Why the work matters is written into the same rule: nursing homes must provide the care and services needed so a resident's ADL abilities do not diminish unless unavoidable (42 CFR 483.24(a)).

The same federal section requires services so residents who cannot perform ADLs maintain good nutrition, grooming, and personal and oral hygiene — the day-to-day work this page describes.

Restorative work rides along with the ADLs: the federal curriculum also covers basic restorative services — self-care training, assistive devices for transferring, ambulation, eating and dressing, maintenance of range of motion, turning and positioning, bowel and bladder training, and prosthetic and orthotic care.

Observation is a named duty, not a soft skill.

O*NET lists observing or examining patients to detect symptoms that may require medical attention — bruises, open wounds, blood in urine — and reporting observations of patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms to nurses among nursing assistant tasks.

The training curriculum backs the same duty: recognizing and reporting abnormal changes is one of the basic nursing skills in the federal curriculum.

The reporting line runs to the licensed nurse, and the delegation guidelines explain why.

The NCSBN-ANA National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation state that a licensed nurse cannot delegate nursing judgment, and that what a CNA may do depends on state law and employer policy.

Under the same guidelines, a delegatee must report patient information back to the nurse and must not make decisions or modifications in carrying out a delegated activity without first consulting the licensed nurse.

Emergencies sit at the sharp end of observation: federal nursing home rules require personnel to provide basic life support, including CPR, to a resident who needs it before emergency medical personnel arrive, subject to physician orders and the resident's advance directives (42 CFR 483.24(a)(3)).

Mobility is its own block of the shift: O*NET lists turning or repositioning bedridden patients among nursing assistant tasks, and the federal ADL list puts transfer and ambulation — including walking — in the mobility domain.

Training covers the same ground: transfers, positioning and turning sit in the personal care skills, and assistive devices for transferring and ambulation and maintenance of range of motion sit in the restorative services.

The physical demands are real, and BLS is direct about them: nursing assistants and orderlies have one of the highest rates of injuries and illnesses of all occupations because they frequently move patients.

The same source notes workers typically get training in how to properly lift people to reduce that risk, and lists physical stamina — much of the time on your feet and the ability to lift or move patients — among the qualities the work takes.

Charting is how the rest of the team sees what the shift saw.

O*NET's task statements for Nursing Assistants, the occupation coded 31-1131, include measuring and recording food and liquid intake and urinary and fecal output, and recording vital signs as directed.

Documentation of what you noticed is on the same task list: documenting observations for nurses, and reporting patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms.

The division of judgment holds in writing too: the CNA records and reports, the nurse interprets.

Under the NCSBN-ANA delegation guidelines, a delegatee reports patient information back to the nurse and consults before any change to a delegated activity.

One adjacent task sits near the chart: O*NET also lists reminding patients to take medications.

Reminding is not administering — the medication line comes at the end of this page.

The sources behind this page describe CNA duties at two levels: the occupation as a whole, and the nursing home setting in federal rule.

BLS's largest employers of nursing assistants in 2025: nursing care facilities 36%, hospitals 32%, continuing care retirement communities and assisted living 11%, home healthcare services 5%, and government 3%.

In nursing homes the list is written into federal rule: the ADL domains, the requirement to maintain ADL abilities, and the basic life support duty.

The task skeleton — call signals, vitals as directed, feeding, repositioning, observation and charting — comes from O*NET's task list for the occupation, not from any one employer type.

Our research did not establish how pace, patient mix or supervision differ from one setting to another, so confirm what a role involves with the employer.

Scheduling is one setting point BLS does name: nursing and residential care facilities and hospitals provide care at all hours, so the job can mean nights, weekends and holidays, and per BLS most nursing assistants and orderlies work full time while some work part time.

If you want to see the duty list as employers actually phrase it, current CNA jobs show it in live postings.

For the full frame around the duties — settings, credential, pay and career path — start with the CNA career guide.

The hard line is nursing judgment.

The NCSBN-ANA national guidelines on delegation state that a licensed nurse cannot delegate nursing judgment or any activity involving nursing judgment or critical decision making, and that what a CNA or aide may do depends on state law and employer policy.

Medication is the line to know: reminding patients to take medications is a listed nursing assistant task, but administering them is a different matter.

BLS notes that in some states nursing assistants may earn an additional credential such as Certified Medication Assistant (CMA), and that whether aides can give medications depends on training level and state.

Everything else follows the same shape: state law and employer policy set what a CNA may do, the nurse delegates, and the CNA reports back rather than deciding.

It is the reason a task list is something to confirm where you work, not assume from the title.

Career information, not licensing, legal, medical or tax advice: confirm scope-of-practice, training and delegation questions with your state's nurse aide registry or board of nursing.