Travel Nurse Resume Sample

Travel nurse resume template

This template follows an effective resume format that clearly presents the applicant’s accomplishments and expertise.

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Pros and cons of being a travel nurse

If you’re still deciding whether to pursue a career as a travel nurse, take a look at this video where Jerine Nicole talks about the pros and cons of the job:

How to write a travel nurse resume

With the high demand for traveling nurses across the country and the unique mobile aspect of your career, it’s only natural to wonder how you can write a strong travel nurse resume that consistently gets you interviews.

Use our writing tips to craft a travel nurse resume that helps you find work where you’re most needed.

Incorporate keywords from the travel nurse job description

Whether you’re answering a travel nurse job posting directly or using staffing agencies like Managed Service Providers (MSP) or Vendor Management Systems (VMS), you’ll still need to include essential resume keywords from the travel nurse job description to optimize your application.

Resume keywords can be found listed in the “desired qualifications” and “responsibilities” sections of a job listing and highlight industry-specific skills employers are looking for.

Include these keywords in your resume summary as well as your work experience section to show employers that you’re qualified for the job.

Here’s an example of how to add relevant keywords to your resume’s experience section:

• Assisted physicians in taking blood pressure and recording vital signs in physical examinations
• Educated, informed and communicated with 15+ patients and their families per shift

The candidate in the example above chose keywords from the job listing when highlighting their past experience to show that they’re capable of filling the open position.

Additionally, with hiring staff as busy as ever to respond to chronic nursing staff shortages, the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter out potential job candidates is becoming more common to streamline their hiring process.

By incorporating resume keywords, you ensure you have an ATS-friendly resume and reduce the risk of it getting automatically rejected.

List your licenses and certifications

As a traveling nurse, you should include all your valid medical licenses and certifications to emphasize your ability to fill different positions in your field of expertise. However, knowing how to list them correctly can be tricky.

Here’s how to list your nursing credentials on your resume according to American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) guidelines:

Licensure

Include the following when listing licensure on your travel nurse resume:

• license type
• licensing state
• license number
• license expiration date

Here’s an example of how to list your licensure as a travel nurse properly on your resume:

Certifications

Follow this format when adding your certifications to your resume:

• certificate name
• name of the awarding institution
• date earned
• certificate expiration date
• certification number (if applicable)

This example demonstrates how to list certifications as a travel nurse on your resume:

Include your nursing licenses and certifications in your education section below your highest degree earned, or in a separate section if you have more than three. This way, they’re clearly visible to hiring managers.

Format your resume’s work experience section correctly

When listing work experience on a general RN resume, you should list your most recent positions and your related accomplishments in a simple 3 to 5 bullet point format.

Hiring managers are busy people and your resume format should be professional and easy to read. For each entry in your resume’s work experience section, list the following details:

• your title
• your employer and their location
• your dates of employment
• your main responsibilities and achievements

The candidate in the following example listed their most important experience in short, easy-to-read sentences:

However, using the same format to list all your short missions as a traveling nurse could lead to a cluttered resume, especially if you held many different positions. You can also list your work experience using the following format to show that your experience is a good fit for the position:

1. medical facility name and location
2. your position or title and employment duration
3. facility type (urgent care, nursing home, hospital, etc.)
4. trauma Level (level I, II, II)
5. total number of beds
6. unit type (ICU, ER, PICU, etc)
7. unit trauma level
8. unit beds
9. caseload
10. responsibilities and quantified achievements in bullet point format

The candidate in this example has included a more detailed breakdown of their nursing experience, that showcases what type of nursing work they did and how many beds they handled:

As a travel nurse, you can choose to communicate your experience using the simple bullet point format or a more detailed breakdown like the example directly above.

Use your best judgment and select the one with the highest level of readability for your unique situation.

For example, if you’ve worked at many different hospitals in your career, it’s better to provide a more concise overview of each position. However, if you have relatively few positions to list on your resume, provide a detailed breakdown of each one.

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Average travel nurse salaries in the US

After you’ve written your resume, make sure you use it to apply for jobs within a fair salary range.

The following table includes information from the most recent US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report (May 2024). Here are the ten states with the highest salaries for travel nurses, as well as the national average for your reference when applying for work.