Caregiver screening questions: personal care, dementia, boundaries and reliability

Caregiver screening questions have to answer a question that matters more here than in almost any other job: can you trust this person alone in a client's home, with their body, their medications and their money, when no supervisor will see what happens? Skills matter, and you should test them, but the screen is mostly about judgment, boundaries and reliability. A caregiver who can describe exactly what they did the last time a client refused a shower, fell, or asked them to take cash to the bank is telling you how they will behave on your case.

This page covers non-medical caregivers: personal care aides, companions, private duty caregivers and assisted living caregivers. For aides working in Medicare-certified home health agencies, the home health aide screening questions cover the federal training and supervision rules. For certified nursing assistants in facilities, use CNA screening questions.

What the state and the payer require

Caregiver requirements are mostly set by states, and they vary widely. Some require only an orientation and a background check; others require formal training and certification. Washington, for example, requires many long-term care workers to complete 75 hours of training and become certified home care aides; the Washington Department of Health sets the deadlines. Look up your state's home care licensing agency before your first screen, and ask the client or your own compliance lead which training, TB screening, CPR and background checks they require before a first shift.

If the case is paid by Medicaid, the caregiver will use electronic visit verification. The Medicaid EVV guidance explains that Section 12006 of the 21st Century Cures Act requires states to use EVV for personal care services, recording the service, the client, the caregiver, the date, the location and the start and end times. A caregiver who cannot clock in reliably creates billing problems on every visit.

Knockout questions

Personal care and safety questions

6. "Walk me through helping a client shower who needs help getting in and out."
   • Strong answer: prepares the bathroom and water temperature first, uses the shower chair and grab bars, keeps the client covered and involved, dries skin folds, checks skin for redness and reports it.
   • Red flag: rushes to the end, never mentions dignity, water temperature or checking skin.
7. "How do you move a client from bed to wheelchair? What equipment have you used?"
   • Strong answer: locks the chair, uses a gait belt, explains each step to the client, knows when a transfer needs two people or a lift, names the lifts they have used.
   • Red flag: lifts under the arms, or has never used a gait belt.
8. "Your client falls while you are in the kitchen. What do you do in the first five minutes?"
   • Strong answer: does not pull them up, checks for injury and responsiveness, calls 911 if hurt or unsure, calls the agency, stays with the client, writes it up.
   • Red flag: "I'd help them back into the chair" without checking for injury, or would not tell the agency if the client seemed fine.
9. "What can you do with a client's medications, and what can't you do?"
   • Strong answer: knows the difference between reminding and administering, and follows what the agency and state allow: "I remind and open the organizer; the nurse fills it."
   • Red flag: has been filling pill boxes or giving injections as a non-medical caregiver.

Dementia and difficult moments

10. "A client with dementia refuses to bathe and gets angry. What do you do?"
    • Strong answer: stops, does not argue, tries again later or offers a choice, changes the approach (warm towels, a different time of day), reports the pattern.
    • Red flag: insists, or would "just get it done" over the client's objection.
11. "A client with memory loss keeps trying to leave the house at dusk. How have you handled that?"
    • Strong answer: redirects rather than blocks, uses routine and activity, keeps doors per the care plan, never leaves them alone, reports wandering to the agency.
    • Red flag: has locked a client in, or talks about the client as a problem to manage rather than a person.

Boundaries, money and the family

12. "Your client offers you $50 for being so kind. What do you do?"
    • Strong answer: declines politely, tells the agency, knows the gift policy.
    • Red flag: "It would be rude to say no." Gifts and loans are how financial exploitation of older adults often starts.
13. "The client's daughter asks you to do something that's not in the care plan, like cleaning her room or watching her kids. What do you say?"
    • Strong answer: explains kindly that they can only do care plan tasks and refers the request to the agency.
    • Red flag: does whatever the family asks to keep the case.
14. "You notice bruises you can't explain, or a family member taking money from the client. What do you do?"
    • Strong answer: documents what they saw, reports to the agency the same day, knows caregivers may be mandatory reporters of abuse depending on state law.
    • Red flag: "It's not my business."

Reliability questions

15. "Tell me about the last time you could not make a shift. What happened, and when did you tell the office?"
    • Strong answer: a specific time, called early, helped find cover.
    • Red flag: texted the client directly, or did not call at all.
16. "How do you get to a client's home, and what happens if that falls through?"
    • Strong answer: a primary and a backup plan, and knows travel time to the case.
    • Red flag: relies on a ride from someone else with no backup, for an early morning case.

A 15-minute phone-screen flow

1. Minutes 0 to 2: describe the case plainly: location, hours, the care needed (without the client's private health details), whether driving is involved.
2. Minutes 2 to 5: knockouts 1 to 5.
3. Minutes 5 to 10: two personal care questions and one dementia question matched to the case.
4. Minutes 10 to 13: boundaries questions 12 to 14 and reliability 15 to 16. These separate caregivers more than anything else.
5. Minutes 13 to 15: pay, how shifts are offered, and the next step (background check, orientation, meeting the client).

If live-in or 24-hour cases are involved, check pay rules before quoting a rate. The Department of Labor's direct care worker guidance explains that the 2013 Home Care Rule barred agencies from claiming the companionship and live-in exemptions, and that the department proposed rescinding it in July 2025. State law may require overtime either way.

Legal cautions

Caregiver screens drift easily into protected territory because the work is physical and personal. Do not ask about age, health, past injuries, pregnancy, childcare, religion, marital status or immigration status beyond whether the candidate is authorized to work in the United States. Describe the physical tasks and ask whether they can perform them with or without accommodation. Do not match caregivers to clients by race, religion or national origin because a client or family asks. Requests for a caregiver of a particular sex for intimate care raise separate legal questions, so route every preference request to your compliance lead rather than deciding on the call. Lawful alternatives for all of these are in illegal interview questions, and the wording for physical requirements is covered in ADA accommodations in interviews.