Nursing Resume Example

To convince hiring managers that you’re the best candidate for any nursing position, you must communicate your value through your RN (registered nurse) resume.

Writing an attention-grabbing, interview-capturing nursing resume is a daunting task, but one that pays off once you receive a job offer.

Follow these tips to make sure your nurse resume gets noticed by potential employers and lands you more interviews.

1. Write a compelling resume summary showcasing your nursing experience

Your (RN) registered nurse resume should begin with a concise yet detailed resume introduction to immediately grab the reader’s attention. For nursing positions in general, a resume summary is standard because it lets you highlight your skills, certifications, and experience rapidly and clearly.

Ultimately, your resume summary should show hiring managers that you’d be an effective caregiver by illustrating your relevant abilities and prior achievements. By the time someone is done reading your resume summary, it should be clear that having you on staff would benefit both patients and other medical professionals.

Here’s our candidate’s summary:

Nurse RN with 8+ years of experience providing quality care to a wide variety of patients. Possesses a Master’s qualification in nursing and currently focused on earning a doctorate in the field. Aiming to leverage my experience and knowledge to effectively fill the nursing position at your hospital.

Our RN candidate makes it clear that they’d make a good hospital nurse since they have eight years of experience providing high-end care for patients. Plus, they have a Master’s degree and are pursuing a doctorate, revealing another level of dedication to the role.

The candidate also mentions their “experience and knowledge.” While it’s not immediately clear what they’re referring to here, these two areas will receive attention throughout the rest of their resume.

2. Add numbers to your resume

When writing your resume, ask yourself the following questions:

• How many patients did you take care of in your unit?
• How many hours did you work per rotation?
• How many beds were there in your hospital?
• How many nurses did you work with, or train?

Numbers give the hiring manager a clear picture of your skills and abilities because they provide context to your resume achievements.

Here’s an example of a bullet point without numbers:

• Supervised unit of a large psychiatric facility

Here is the same statement with numbers and context added:

• Supervised up to 10 staff in the 200-bed adolescent unit of a large psychiatric facility, specializing in eating disorders

Here’s another good example of a nursing resume bullet point:

• Updated the electronic medical records of up to 100 patients per day, following office procedures and with a focus on confidentiality

3. Tailor your nurse resume to the job posting

Each time you find a job ad, scan the posting for resume keywords that can be incorporated into your RN resume. Tailoring your resume to the job posting ensures employers see exactly how you fit the position being advertised.

Here’s an excerpt from a job posting for a licensed practical nurse (LPN) — the keywords are in bold:

Provides nursing services and assumes responsibility for the care and well-being of assigned patients. Performs assigned tasks and educates the patient and caregiver to promote self-care within the patients’ functional limitations. Participates as an active member of the care team and collaborates with other members to assure a high quality of patient care.

4. Highlight nursing-related skills on your resume

One of the most important parts of any nursing resume is a strong, up-to-date skills section. In fact, to even qualify for nursing jobs you need to have certain technical skills.

For example, here are some of the top nurse skills for today’s job market (according to our independent data):

Here are some additional hard nursing skills and certifications to put on your registered nurse resume, depending on your specialization and the needs of your potential employer:

• HIPAA
• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• First aid
• Knowledge of preventative care strategies
• Tracheostomy care
• Insertion of central lines
• IV administration
• Wound dressing
• Administering medication

Although nurses require specific technical skills to do the job, employers need more from their nursing staff because nurses have to deal with patients and colleagues each day. Specifically, nurses need to have soft skills.

Soft skills are the skills you pick up through working with others and learning how to cope with your workload. Nursing resumes should include soft skills in the summary, resume skills section, and work experience section to make it clear to hiring managers that you have them.

Here’s a list of soft skills for a nursing resume:

• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Customer service
• Teamwork
• Reliability
• Dependability
• People skills
• Problem-solving
• Attention to detail
• Language skills
• Able to multitask
• Organizational skills