Nursing Cover Letter Example

Nurses support physicians and healthcare specialists in various medical settings. Showcase your nursing skills in your cover letter to prove to the hiring manager at a medical facility you’re the right person for the job.

For visual learners, our Career Advisor Chloe shares her expert advice on making a nursing cover letter in this helpful video:

To build upon Chloe’s advice, learn how to create a stronger nursing cover letter with these three writing tips:

1. Highlight nursing skills

As a nurse, your duties vary depending on your specialization and the type of facility you work in. A strong nursing cover letter should highlight your clinical experience and a good mix of the hard and soft skills essential to your field of nursing.

For example, if you’re applying to be a nurse practitioner, emphasize skills and experience showing you can work autonomously to interpret medical tests and prescribe medications.

In addition to your hard skills, showcase key nursing soft skills in your cover letter to prove you can meet the demands of working in a high stress environment like a hospital.

Empathy and communication skills may seem general to include in your application, but they complement your clinical knowledge for building rapport with patients and medical staff. Give an example in your cover letter of a time you effectively communicated with doctors or your patients, and it instantly makes your cover letter more compelling.

Here’s a list of key nursing skills to highlight in your cover letter:

• Computer literacy
• Maintaining patient charts
• Monitoring vital signs
• Patient evaluation and assessment
• Bedside monitoring
• Knowledge of medications
• Patient and family education
• Assisting others and providing counseling (medical attention, emotional support, and personal assistance)
• Accounting and billing software
• Medical software (MEDITECH software, Epic Systems, and PointClickCare)

Additionally, employers look for these nursing soft skills:

• Patience
• Compassion
• Customer service skills
• Interpersonal skills
• People skills
• Adaptability
• Leadership skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Initiative
• Teamwork
• Conflict resolution
• Prioritization
• Multitasking

2. Show your passion for helping others

Nursing is a meaningful and fulfilling career path. However, the combination of long hours and repeated exposure to difficult situations can present occupational stress for nurses. Hence, employers seek nurses who not only have the skills, but also the passion to manage the job’s emotional challenges.

Show your passion for helping others in your cover letter to demonstrate you’re committed to providing quality patient care in a high-stress environment. For example, talk about how past supervisors have commended you for proficiently handling difficult situations, or the thank you letters you’ve received from former patients.

3. Emphasize your attention to detail

Healthcare professionals rely on your clinical expertise to facilitate their work. Regardless of your field of nursing, attention to detail is vital for accurately assessing and monitoring situations to ensure patients receive adequate medical attention and emotional support.

In your cover letter, emphasize your attention to detail to assure employers you can perform tasks with accuracy and exercise the right judgement when responding to emerging situations.

For example, if you’re applying to be an oncology nurse, state your experience ensuring quality care for cancer patients by monitoring chemotherapy and biotherapy side effects and coordinating other aspects of treatment with cross-functional teams.