Nursing Resume Examples

No matter what type of medicine you specialize in, getting a nursing job in a good hospital is challenging. You need to convince hiring managers that you have more than just the right licenses — you need to show them that you’re the perfect RN for the job at their specific hospital or clinic.

That’s why knowing how to write a strong nursing resume that advertises your skills, experience, and certifications is essential.

Follow these eight tips to make a resume that gets noticed by potential employers and lands you more interviews.

1. Write a compelling resume objective showcasing your nursing experience

Larger hospitals often get hundreds of nursing applicants for each open position, so hiring managers don’t have a lot of time to review your resume.

To immediately grab the attention of employers, your (RN) registered nurse resume should begin with a concise yet detailed resume introduction that summarizes your experience, education, and licensure.

We recommend using a nursing resume objective because it allows you to quickly and clearly highlight your skills, certifications, and experience.

Here’s an example of a strong nursing resume objective:

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.

This RN candidate makes it clear 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.

Ultimately, your resume objective should show hiring managers that you’d be an effective caregiver by illustrating your relevant abilities and prior achievements.

By the time a hiring manager is done reading your resume objective, it should be clear that having you on staff would benefit both patients and other medical professionals.

2. 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):

And 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:

Nursing hard skills

Although nurses require specific technical skills to do the job, those aren’t the only skills required. As a nurse, you also deal with patients and colleagues each day, which demands a strong set of 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:

Nursing soft skills

3. Include facility and unit-specific information in your experience section

Writing the experience section of a nursing resume isn’t as straightforward as in other industries.

Hiring managers want to make sure your experience is directly relevant to their hospital, and the best way for them to determine that is by looking through your work experience section.

To make your qualifications as clear as possible, include facility- and unit-specific information in your resume bullet points, such as the total number of beds available at your previous hospital, and the types of units you worked in.

More specifically, you should include the following information on any type of nursing resume:

• Trauma level: level I, II, III
• Unit type (ICU, ER, PICU, etc.)
• Facility types (i.e. urgent care, nursing home, etc.)
• Number of hospital beds
• Number of unit beds
• Patient demographics
• Whether you used EMR or EHR (or both)

This information gives hiring managers a clear idea of what type of nursing experience you have, and whether you’d be a good fit for their hospital.

4. Organize your resume according to ANCC preferences

Once you’ve written your introduction, skills, and experience sections, it’s time to move onto your education and licenses.

However, nurses have a lot of education and certifications compared to other professions. It can be confusing deciding how to include all this extra information on your resume or how to organize it.

Fortunately, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has a standardized order for how you should list your nursing credentials on your resume.

List your education and credentials according to this order:

1. Highest degree earned – add any lower-level or less relevant degrees underneath.
2. Licensure – this includes registered nurse (RN) and licensed practical nurse (LPN). Include your licenses in your education section or a dedicated “Licenses” section.
3. State designations or requirements – state designations or requirements show that you can practice at an advanced level in certain states. Examples include APRN (advanced practice registered nurse) or NP (nurse practitioner).
4. National Certifications – list your certifications in a dedicated section on your resume. This includes any certification you’ve received through bodies like accredited the ANCC.
5. Awards and Honors – if you’ve received any honors or awards, list them in a dedicated section.
6. Other Recognitions – finally, list any other relevant non-nursing certifications, such as EMT-Basic/EMT certification.

Here’s an example of a nursing resume that follows proper ANCC order when listing education and credentials:

5. Highlight your licenses

As a nurse, your licenses are essential to your ability to legally practice medicine. As a result, your licenses are one of the first things hiring managers are going to look for on your resume.

Make sure they can find exactly what they’re looking for on your resume by listing your licensure clearly and completely.

If you have numerous licenses, list them in a dedicated “Licenses” section on your resume. Otherwise, just list them in the education section of your resume if you only have a couple.

Here’s the information you should include for each license you add:

• License Type – Nurse Practitioner (NP), Registered Nurse (RN), etc.
• Licensing state – the state or body that issued the license
• License number – the number of your license
• Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) – mention if your license is included in the NLC, allowing you to practice in multiple states
• License expiration date – the month and year that your license expires

Here’s an example of the entry of a properly formatted license on a nurse resume:

6. Add hard numbers to your experience section

One of the most effective ways to show employers your capabilities and successes as a nurse is to add hard numbers to your work experience section.

For example, 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 nurses did you work with, or train?

Numbers give the hiring manager a clear picture of your skills and abilities because they add context to the accomplishments on your resume.

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

No hard numbers

• Supervised unit of a large psychiatric facility

Here is the same statement with numbers and context added:

With hard numbers

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

7. 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 underlined:

When writing your nursing resume, take note of keywords like this and work them into your experience section when possible.

8. Include a section showing the professional organizations you belong to

If you’re worried you still don’t have enough qualifications on your resume, consider adding an additional section for your honors or any of your professional affiliations.

There are numerous professional organizations for nurses, and listing them on your resume is a good way to make yourself look more accomplished and possibly get an immediate “in” with the hiring manager (if they belong to the same organization).

Some examples of popular nursing affiliations include:

• The National Student Nurses Association (NSNA)
• Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma)
• The American Nurses Association (ANA)
• The American Board of Nursing Specialties (ABNS)

When listing organizations on your resume, include the name of the organization, the date you were admitted, and a short description of your role within the group.