Questions to Ask a CNA
For a family hiring a certified nursing assistant to help a relative, or a manager interviewing one for shift work. Twenty questions on caseload, safe transfers, reporting changes in condition, dementia care, the limits of the role, and care at the end of life.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Where have you worked, and what kind of residents or patients were on your assignment?
Why ask it
A hospital floor, a memory care unit, a rehabilitation wing, and private home care ask for different habits. Someone used to a team down the hall may find sole charge in a house harder than the resume suggests, which is worth discussing rather than assuming.
Is your certification current, and which state registry is it listed on?
Why ask it
Nurse aide registries are public and searchable, and they also record substantiated findings of abuse or neglect. Ask for the name as it appears on the registry, since a small difference in spelling is enough to make a search come back empty.
How many people were you responsible for on a typical shift?
Why ask it
The number frames every other answer. Someone accustomed to twelve residents has learned to work quickly; the risk is that habits built for speed do not translate well to one person who needs unhurried help.
Talk me through the first thirty minutes of a shift.
Why ask it
Listen for handover, checking on the person before starting tasks, and reading notes from the last shift. An answer that begins with a task list rather than a look at the person tends to describe how the rest of the day will go.
How do you help someone wash when they don't want your help?
Why ask it
Refusal is routine, not an emergency. Good answers involve timing, choice, warmth, and coming back later. Answers that treat the schedule as fixed and the refusal as an obstacle to overcome are the ones to worry about.
How do you move someone from bed to a chair? When would you decline to do it on your own?
Why ask it
You want the mechanics: gait belt, feet placed, the person told what is happening, equipment used when weight or balance requires it. A willingness to say this needs two people, or a hoist, protects both of them and is a sign of experience rather than weakness.
What do you do when you notice a change? A new bruise, less appetite, more confusion than yesterday.
Why ask it
Aides see the small changes first, and early reporting is much of the value of the role. Look for concrete examples of what they noticed and reported, and for a habit of saying it out loud even when unsure.
Who do you tell, and what do you write down?
Why ask it
Verbal reports get lost across shifts. Ask what they record, how quickly, and who they escalate to in the evening or at a weekend when the usual supervisor is off. Reluctance to write things down is a practical problem, not a personality trait.
How do you keep someone's dignity during toileting or incontinence care?
Why ask it
The specifics matter: doors, covering, explaining before touching, not discussing it in front of visitors. Notice the language used in the answer, because how a person is described in an interview is usually how they are treated in the room.
How do you keep track of skin so a pressure sore doesn't develop?
Why ask it
This is one of the clearest markers of careful daily work: repositioning, checking heels and hips, keeping skin dry, and reporting redness that does not fade. Someone who has managed it before will name the places they check.
What do you do differently for someone at risk of falling?
Why ask it
Expect practical detail: footwear, clear floors, lighting at night, walking aids within reach, help getting to the bathroom before it is urgent. Vague reassurance about watching them closely is not a plan for the hours when nobody is watching.
Someone with dementia accuses you of stealing, or doesn't know who you are. What do you do?
Why ask it
Accusations are common and not personal. Look for calm redirection, not correction or argument, and for the practical protections that keep everyone out of trouble: not handling money alone, keeping valuables where the family can see them.
What do you do when someone becomes agitated, or hits out?
Why ask it
Sound answers involve stepping back, lowering the noise and demands, looking for causes such as pain, needing the toilet, or too many people talking. Any mention of restraint or of holding someone still should prompt a much longer conversation.
What are you not allowed to do in this role, and have you ever been asked to do it anyway?
Why ask it
Scope limits vary by state and by setting, and medications are the usual boundary. An aide who knows their limits and has declined to cross them is protecting the person in their care and their own certification. Confusion here is a serious gap.
Tell me about a time you raised a concern and nothing happened. What did you do next?
Why ask it
This asks about persistence and about the chain of escalation. Someone who went to the nurse, then documented it, then went further, is the person you want present when something is going wrong quietly.
What's your experience caring for someone who is dying, and being with the family?
Why ask it
Comfort care, mouth care, repositioning, and simply staying in the room are the substance of this work. A plain, unembellished answer is the good sign here. Someone with no experience of it can still be right for the job, but you should both know that in advance.
How do you handle a family member who thinks you're doing something wrong?
Why ask it
Families are anxious and sometimes wrong, and sometimes right. Look for listening, checking with the nurse, and a willingness to change an approach that is not clinical. Defensiveness at the question tends to become defensiveness in the hallway.
What happens when you're running behind and someone still needs a lot of time?
Why ask it
This is the honest daily conflict of the job, and pretending it does not exist is the weakest possible answer. Listen for what they would cut, what they would never cut, and who they would tell.
What's the hardest part of this work for you?
Why ask it
The answer tells you where support is needed: heavy lifting, staff shortages, families in distress, or the losses that accumulate. Someone who can name it and describe how they manage it is less likely to leave without notice.
What do you want to know about the person you'd be caring for?
Why ask it
The best candidates ask about routines, food, sleep, mobility, what upsets them, and what they enjoy. No questions at all, or only questions about hours and pay, tells you where the attention will sit once the job starts.
Hiring and Working With a CNA
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Verify before you agree anything
Check the state registry yourself
Each state maintains a nurse aide registry showing whether a certification is active and whether there are substantiated findings against the person. Search it with the name as printed on their certificate, and note the expiry date.
Know who the employer is
Through an agency, the agency handles screening, insurance, payroll, and cover when the aide is sick. Hiring privately, those become yours, including tax obligations and liability. The rate difference between the two options is largely the cost of those things.
Take references by phone
Written references say little. Ask a previous family or supervisor two questions: would you hire them again, and was there anything you had to ask them to change. The pause before the answer is informative.
Confirm the practical arrangements
Hours, what happens if they are ill, whether they drive, whether they can be alone with the person, and who to call after hours. Write these down before the first shift rather than negotiating them during a crisis.
A trial shift tells you more than an interview
Pay for a few hours and be nearby without hovering. Watch three things: whether they speak to the person rather than about them, whether they explain what they are doing before they do it, and how a transfer or a bathroom trip goes. Notice whether they ask about preferences, and whether they leave the room as they found it. Most problems that surface months later are visible in that first shift if you are looking.
Understanding the limits of the role
A certified nursing assistant supports daily living: washing, dressing, eating, toileting, moving safely, and observing and reporting changes. Tasks such as giving medications, wound care, and clinical assessment sit with nurses, and the exact boundary is set by state rules and by the employer. Ask the supervising nurse or agency where the line falls in your situation, and put the answer in writing. Asking an aide to work beyond it puts their certification at risk and leaves the person receiving care less protected, not more.
Things worth taking seriously
- A previous patient discussed by name and detail. The same will happen with your relative.
- Offers to take on tasks that belong to a nurse, particularly medications.
- Discouraging family visits at particular times, or preferring to work unobserved.
- Notes that do not get written, or written after the fact when asked.
- Reluctance to give the registry name, certificate number, or a contactable reference.
- Any handling of money, banking, or documents that is not part of the agreed arrangement.