How to Hire Veterans for Skilled Nursing Facilities

Your building runs on staffing. When a CNA calls out on a Saturday night, the whole floor feels it. When a charge nurse quits, you are back to agency rates and overtime. Skilled nursing and long-term care live and die by who shows up.

You already know the numbers are rough. The pool of direct-care workers drains faster than you can fill it. Agency staff cost a fortune and do not stick around. Every open shift is a risk to your census and your next survey.

Veterans are a supply of people built for this work. Many trained as medics and corpsmen. They gave hands-on care to sick and injured people under real pressure. They are used to 12-hour shifts, nights, weekends, and holidays. And they tend to stay in a job longer than the last hire who ghosted you.

This guide shows you how to hire veterans for a skilled nursing facility. You will learn which roles they fit and which military jobs map to care work. You will also learn how to read their resumes and handle licensing. It sits under our broader guide on recruiting veterans into healthcare operations roles. Let us start with why the staffing hole is so deep.

Why is staffing so hard in skilled nursing and long-term care?

Skilled nursing runs on a workforce that keeps leaving. The work is hard. The pay is modest. Burnout is real. So the same jobs open again and again.

The federal data backs this up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 211,800 openings for nursing assistants every year through 2034. Most of those openings come from replacing workers who quit or leave the field. That is not growth. That is churn.

Licensed practical nurses face the same problem. BLS projects about 54,400 LPN openings a year. Residential care and long-term care are top drivers of that demand.

When you cannot fill a shift, you call an agency. Agency nurses cost far more per hour than your own staff. They also do not know your residents or your building. Many facilities now lean on agency staff just to stay open. That is costly and it hurts care.

Staffing also shows up on your report card. CMS collects your staffing hours through the Payroll-Based Journal and ties them to your star rating. Low staffing drags your rating down. A low rating scares off families and referral sources. So the staffing problem feeds a census problem.

What roles can veterans fill in your facility?

Some managers assume veterans only fit security or maintenance. That sells them short. A nursing facility has care roles, clinical roles, and operations roles. Veterans map into all three.

Direct care is your biggest need and the best fit. A veteran medic already knows how to take vitals, help a resident move, and spot warning signs. Put that person on the floor as a CNA and they ramp fast.

Do not stop at direct care. Veterans ran supply rooms, kitchens, motor pools, and duty desks. Those skills fit your dietary, environmental services, maintenance, and scheduling roles. A veteran who ran a unit overseas can run a floor for you.

Which military jobs map to skilled nursing roles?

You do not need to memorize military codes. But a few of them map straight into your building. These are the ones that matter most.

The Army 68W combat medic is your CNA and patient care tech pipeline. The Navy hospital corpsman does the same work under a different name. Both gave hands-on care to real patients, often with less support than your floor has. You can read more on how to hire combat medics and corpsmen in healthcare.

For your clinical roles, the Army 68C practical nursing specialist is the closest match. That job trains to the licensed practical nurse standard. Many 68C soldiers are eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN or already hold an LPN license. That makes them a strong fit for a charge nurse seat.

For memory care and behavioral units, look at the Army 68X behavioral health technician. These veterans worked with patients in crisis and know how to de-escalate. We cover this fit in depth in our guide on how to hire veterans for behavioral health and peer support.

Why do veteran hires stay longer?

Filling a shift is one problem. Keeping the person is the bigger one. This is where veterans earn their keep.

Shift work does not scare them. Nights, weekends, and holidays were normal in the service. A rotating schedule that burns out a new grad is just another week to a former medic. We go deeper on this in our guide to recruiting veterans for shift and overnight work.

They also know how to work inside a chain of command. Charting, handoffs, and reporting up the line feel familiar. That structure is why many veterans settle in fast on a nursing floor.

And the work means something to them. Caring for elders and sick people is mission work. Veterans who miss serving something bigger often find that again in long-term care. That sense of purpose is a real reason they stay when others walk.

How do you read a veteran resume for a care role?

A military resume can look like a foreign language. Do not let the wording fool you. The care experience is there. You just have to translate it.

Look for hands-on patient contact. How many people did they care for? Did they pass meds, take vitals, chart, or run a treatment room? Those are the signals that matter for a care role.

The tools you use to find talent make this easier. A resume built for civilian hiring translates the military terms for you. So you see the care skills, not the jargon. Some of your applicants will have service-connected disabilities, and most can do the job with little or no change. Our guide on how to hire disabled veterans walks through simple accommodations.

How do you handle nursing licenses and certification?

Here is the part that trips up employers. A military medic is not automatically a licensed CNA or LPN. State licensing does not carry over on its own.

A 68W or corpsman may have far more patient contact than a new CNA. But your state still needs the CNA certification to work in that title. The skills are there. The paperwork is the gap.

The good news is that gap is small and closing. Many states let military medics test out of parts of CNA training or challenge the exam. Some have credentialing pathways built for veterans. Check your state nursing board for the current rules.

The Army 68C is closer to ready. That job trains to the LPN standard, and many soldiers finish it already eligible for the license. So a 68C often needs only the state license step, not a full program.

You also have options while a veteran certifies. Hire them into roles that do not need a license, like patient care tech where allowed, transport, activities, or dietary. Or hire them on the condition that they finish state certification within a set window. Both put a strong worker in your building sooner.

What about SkillBridge and hiring incentives?

Two programs can lower the cost and risk of a veteran hire.

SkillBridge lets active-duty service members intern with you during their last months of service. The military keeps paying them, so you pay no wages during the internship. You get to try the person out before you commit. Getting into SkillBridge is a competitive spot, not a hire, and not everyone is accepted. But it is a low-risk way to find your next CNA or LPN. Our guide on how to become a SkillBridge host company walks through the setup.

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is the other one. It can cut the cost of a veteran hire when it is active. But the credit expired at the end of 2025. It is not available for 2026 hires unless Congress renews it. It has come back after past lapses, and 2025 hires still qualify. Treat it as a bonus, not a plan. You can review the WOTC credit amounts for veteran hires for the detail.

What does hiring a veteran save your facility?

Turnover is not just a scheduling headache. It is a line item. Every time a direct-care worker quits, you pay to recruit, screen, and train a replacement. You also pay in agency coverage and overtime while the seat sits empty. Those costs add up fast across a full building.

A hire who stays flips that math. Fewer open shifts means less agency spend. A stable floor means steadier care and a steadier star rating. Residents also do better when the same faces come back day after day.

This is where the veteran fit pays off for a midsize operator. You may not run a national veteran-hiring program like a hospital chain. You do not need one. You need a few reliable people who show up for the hard shifts and stick around. A former medic who is comfortable with nights and structure is that person.

Think about the cost of one bad hire on your worst-staffed unit. Now compare it to a veteran who works a full year and helps train your newer aides. That gap is the real return. It does not show up on the offer letter, but it shows up on your budget.

How do you start hiring veterans for your facility?

Do not wait for the perfect licensed candidate to walk in the door. Build a pipeline instead. Start with the roles you can fill today and grow the rest. Skilled nursing and home care are different settings, so if you also staff home visits, see our guide on how to hire veterans for home health and hospice.

Veterans hire best when you meet them where they are. Give them a clear path, a fair shift, and credit for the care work they already did. In return you get a worker who shows up and stays.

Best Military Resume is where you find these people. The pool grows by 1,000+ new profiles every month. The platform has built more than 60,000 resumes. Their military terms are already translated into civilian language, so you can spot the care skills fast. When you are ready, search veteran candidates on Best Military Resume. Then reach out to the ones who fit your floor. For the wider picture, the Department of Labor hiring resources for employers are worth a look too.