nursing resume help

The Ultimate Guide to Nursing Resumes in 2024

How to write a nurse resume, nurse resume research, nursing resume readers & robots, choose a nurse resume format, nurse resume format & design, writing your nursing resume, common resume mistakes, nursing resume templates, nurse resume faqs.

Expert Reviewed by: Amanda Guarniere, NP, Founder of the Resume RX

In 2024, a vague, uninspiring nursing resume just won't cut it. Recent years have fostered growing competition for the best nursing jobs , creating a greater need for nurses to learn how to write exceptional nursing resumes. With vast opportunities and diverse requirements from various employers, every nurse must put their best foot forward to market themselves for the best positions. 

However, this ever-changing world of online applications and robotic resume readers makes it more complex for nurses to get to the first rounds of interviews. This article will help you tackle the daunting task of writing a nursing resume that stands out. We'll help you build a better nursing resume by giving you an inside look at how robotic resume readers work and providing tips on how to make your resume, things you should and shouldn't include, and provide examples and templates.

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Think of your job search as your own personal marketing campaign. And the product is you! Your resume is an advertisement for your professional nursing brand. A brand is more than a logo - it’s the overall impression you give your audience. In this case, your audience is a potential employer. 

As with any advertisement, the goal of your nursing resume is to pique your audience’s interest in a limited amount of time. It’s commonly said that hiring managers will spend less than ten seconds reading your resume. And in many cases, it has to first be screened by a resume-reading robot before it reaches human hands.

So, you must carefully curate your brand for these employers. Captivate them with your professionalism, unique skillset, experience, and personality using your nursing resume. These tactics may help get your foot in the door for an interview, where you can close the deal by impressing them in person.

The first and most important step in any marketing campaign is the research phase. The more you learn about potential employers, the better you can tailor your registered nurse resume to their requirements.

Initial Employer Research for Nursing Resumes

Before you begin tailoring your resume for specific jobs, take some time to answer the following questions about each company:

• Who are they?
• What is their company culture?
• What do they struggle with as an organization?
• What qualities are they looking for in a potential candidate?
• Which of their desired qualities do you possess?

Researching Company Culture and Values

The internet has made it fairly easy to hop online and start your research right now from your mobile device. Employers' websites and social platforms will give you an inside glimpse at their culture and values.

Instead of simply reading a job posting, take a few extra steps to investigate the employer's online presence:

• Check out the company website - what does their mission statement say?
• See what they tweet about
• Investigate what photos they post on Instagram
• Learn about the articles they share on Facebook
• Check their LinkedIn - do you have any connections at the company?
• Look at their Google ratings

Examine Required vs Preferred Nursing Qualifications

The research phase isn't just about investigating the company - you also need to understand the job description. Specifically, understanding the difference between "required" and "preferred" qualifications will help you build a tailored resume for each job:

Required Qualifications

These are just what they say - requirements. Those who do not possess these qualifications will not be considered. 

Preferred Qualifications

Skills that are desired but are not deal-breakers for the employer. You may still be considered even if you do not possess these. 

As you personalize your nursing resume to different opportunities, these qualifications will, in part, guide what you do and do not include. You should include any and all required qualifications if you want an employer to consider your candidacy. 

If you do not possess some or all of the preferred qualifications, you can apply anyway and still be in the running. However, including the ones you do possess on your tailored nursing resume is always the best practice.

Build a Master Resume

You may want a solid starting point from which you can use your research to build a dedicated resume for each position you apply for. Queue the "master resume," a comprehensive working document that highlights everything you've accomplished and every skill you've fostered as a nurse thus far. 

We recommend starting with a foundational nurse resume so that you can alter it for each role you apply to. This way, you won't be rewriting a new resume for every single position. But you'll also avoid submitting "cookie-cutter" resumes that employers won't bother looking at twice.

Use Research to Personalize Your Nursing Resume

Dale Carnegie once said that “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Personalizing your RN resume matters, with both how you mention and address the future employer and how to include your specific qualifications that match what they are looking for.

Using your research and leveraging your professional brand and personality to target your nurse resume could lead to the interview of your dreams. Not targeting it, however, could lead you on the fast track to nowhere.

The internet revolution transformed the hiring process, impacting the entire labor market in a very short time. 15 years ago, printing your resume on off-white linen paper and hand-delivering it to employers was the status quo. But as little as five years later, doing so might only get you some perplexed looks and urges to apply online.

Technological advances will continue shaping the job market in 2024.  USC Annenberg reports that up to 55% of companies are making investments in AI recruiting measures. But even now, many employers screen online applicants using resume-reading robots. 

This section explores how these bots impact the hiring process and how to get your nursing resume past them and into a real person's hands.

What Is a Resume Reading Robot?

ATS systems are highly technical but can only do what their program says, unable to come close to human discretion. So, knowing how ATS systems work can help you write a resume that passes their screening.

Here's a brief overview of how employers use ATS software to screen nursing applicants:

1. Knockout Questions

Recruiters can use an ATS to scan for keywords or "knockout questions" like "Do you have an active Washington State Nursing License?" These functions help them swiftly eliminate unqualified candidates.

2. Disqualifying Statements

They may also configure the ATS to include “disqualifying statements.” An ATS searching for these statements will automatically reject nursing resumes with certain keywords or phrases. 

For example, an ATS screening for bachelor's-trained nurses might reject resumes that mention an associate's degree. If you have both, consider listing only your BSN.

3. Keyword Screening

Finally, recruiters may use the ATS to find resumes with exact keywords or phrases. These may include qualifications listed in the job description, degrees, or skills. They can program the ATS to reject any application that does not include their specified keywords.

How Does ATS Work?

Not all ATS systems are created equally. They vary greatly in their functionality and behavior. Most ATS systems are programmed to score resumes according to keywords. However, they can be configured to search and score resumes based on various other criteria.

The results are imperfect. Some ATS systems can't differentiate between titles, such as Clinical Nurse II and Registered Nurse, or distinguish between the terms BLS and Basic Life Support. So how do you navigate these intricacies in your nursing resume?

Best Practice:   R ead the job description and use the exact wording for the qualifications listed that you possess.

If you use acronyms and abbreviations, make sure to spell out the entire word, followed by the shortened version. It would be disappointing to have all the requested qualifications but be filtered out by the ATS because you used only the acronyms when the robot was programmed for the full phrases spelled out.

What Are the Shortcomings of ATS?

The problem is that ATS does not ‘read’ a resume as a human would - it simply collects data. It doesn’t care about aesthetics, either. It is programmed by an employer to search for the right keywords, in the right order, on the right part of the resume.  

Also, the system can get confused pretty easily. For example, if the font is too fancy or if it encounters unrecognizable symbols, it may score the resume as ‘unqualified’ and move on to the next resume. It does what it is configured to do, nothing more and nothing less.

While ATS has streamlined the hiring process for employers, it’s also made job search extremely challenging for the job seeker. In fact, 94% of hiring professionals say that ATS has positively influenced their hiring goals, while 80% of job seekers say that their online job search is stressful.

What Other Hiring Technology Might I Encounter?

Recently, some employers have started to use artificial intelligence in a different way - during the interview process. Rather than having strict ATS filters, they offer more candidates the opportunity to interview, but there is a catch.

You don't interview with the employer but with a computer. In these one-way or “on-demand” interviews, you essentially get the opportunity to record your video response to interview questions. After you submit it, hiring managers or recruiters review the video responses before choosing the candidates for formal interviews.

Does Every Employer Use ATS?

While many employers use ATS, there are definitely employers who still rely on human resource professionals to screen resumes. In those instances, a human resources professional usually skims the resumes and invites the most qualified candidates in for an interview.

The problem here is that most employers will receive hundreds of resumes for a single opening. To get through the resumes quickly, the HR professional may resort to a simple scan of the resumes knowing that even qualified applicants may not make it. It’s simply a way to reduce the number of applicants.

In either case, the goal of the modern resume is to ‘sell’ yourself in an organized, targeted manner for a specific role. The best way to design an effective, attention-grabbing resume is by making strong assertions in the beginning followed by supporting evidence.

How to Get Past the ATS

• Target your resume to the specific position. Do this by reading job descriptions and selecting keywords noted in the descriptions - competencies, skills sets, education, and experience.
• Match individual experiences to keywords/key skill sets found within the job posting.  
• Research the employer and target the resume based on the facility's values and culture. 
• Make strong assertions within the top ⅓ of the resume.
• Follow those assertions with supporting evidence.
• Include a “ Professional Summary ” if you are an experienced Nurse.
• Only apply to roles that you match 100% of the “Required Qualifications.” 
• Use simple fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri.
• Never use smaller than 10-point font. See Part 5 for more styling suggestions. 
• Use simple black bullet (dots) points, not special bullet symbols.
• Save your resume as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf format.
• If using an abbreviation, always spell out the words followed by the abbreviation or acronym. You never know how the abbreviation was entered into the ATS. 
• Use standard, simple section headers such as “Work History” or “Education.”
• Settings you’ve worked in 
• Patient demographics
• Policies/procedures
• EMR/EHR used
• Medications administered
• Equipment used
• Don’t use the same title as at your current employer if it is different from the title in the job description. Use the title in the job description. 
• Don’t overload your resume with keywords. Use them appropriately. Overusing keywords will flag a resume and could cause the ATS to lower your score.
• Don't forget to support the keywords you use with evidence throughout your resume.
• Do not put your contact information in the header section because ATS will not see it.
• Do not include tables because most ATS can’t read them. Other ATS can only read them if their operator programmed them to do so. 
• Do not use creative section headers such as “Where I’ve Worked” because the ATS likely doesn’t understand what that means.
• Don’t include a headshot, graphics, special fonts, photos, colored fonts, or unique bullets. 
• Do not state, “References available upon request.” It takes up too much space and is unnecessary. If employers want references, they’ll ask. 
• Don’t place skills at the bottom of the resume. Many ATS systems only scan the top ⅓ of the resume for keywords. If you have important keywords at the bottom, the ATS may not see them and could disqualify your resume. 
• Don’t use “I” statements; resumes should be written in the third person. 
• Do not rely on resume builder software. Stay in control of your registered nurse resume.

How to Spot an ATS

If you’ve ever visited a job posting and seen an “APPLY NOW” button, you’ve encountered the elusive resume-reading bot. ATS requires candidates to enter data on the front end. 

Maybe you’ve gone through the steps to create a login, complete the application and upload your resume. Perhaps you didn’t realize at the time that you were entering your information into an applicant tracking system.  

Raise your hand if you never heard back from an employer after applying online. Raise your other hand if you received an automated response “thanking” you for your interest and never heard back!

Now, keep in mind that it can be difficult to stand out when you are applying for a job online, especially when there is an ATS involved. As you consider your overall job search strategy, try to think of other ways that can increase your chances of getting a job. Don’t be afraid to ask your network connections for referrals and recommendations, or let friends and family know what type of position you are looking for and where. While your resume is absolutely important, it isn’t the only tool that can lead to you getting a job.

Prior to ever typing words onto your resume, it’s important to first decide on a resume format. There are three types of resume layouts. While we highly recommend the reverse-chronological layout for most nursing professionals, we’d encourage you to make the best choice for yourself.

Here’s a breakdown of the three most popular types of resume layouts: 

1. Reverse Chronological Nursing Resume

This layout focuses on career history and lists jobs in reverse chronological order. We recommend this type of registered nurse resume for the majority of healthcare professionals and will focus the details of this article on the format. It is best suited for:

• New nursing graduates
• Nurses with fewer than 5 roles within the past 5-7 years. 
• Travel Nurses with <10 completed assignments
• Nurses with experience in only 1-2 specialties
• Nurses applying for a similar role
• Nurses wanting to show vertical career progression 

2. Functional Nursing Resume

This nurse resume layout places emphasis on skills and deemphasizes work history. However, it does not pass the ATS test well, and hiring managers overall do not prefer it. We recommend against this layout for the majority of nursing professionals. Typically, people who use this format are: 

• Changing careers
• Have large gaps in employment
• Do have years of experience in the role in which they are applying

3. Combination Nursing Resume

This layout is a mixture of the reverse chronological and the functional resume. While it places emphasis on skill sets, abilities, and accomplishments, it also highlights applicable work history. We recommend combination resumes for nursing professionals with the following background, goals, and barriers: 

• Nurses with experience in multiple specialties and/or medical professions
• Seasoned travel nurses with >10 completed assignments
• Nurses with multiple small gaps in employment
• Nurses looking to change specialties
• Nurses interested in changing careers

Writing a nursing resume can feel overwhelming. It’s no easy task! Nowadays, nursing resumes must be able to pass through resume reading software before it even reaches a recruiter. That’s why we’ve put together THREE nurse resume templates to cater to your unique professional needs and employment situation.

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The first formatting and design consideration you should make when creating your nursing resume is how well an  ATS will read them. We recommend the following comprehensive design and formatting guidelines to appease common ATS systems:

Many experts believe you can achieve the perfect balance of text to white space in your nursing resume using the following margin settings:

• Top Margin: 1"
• Side Margins: .63"

Left alignment is standard since that’s how most people (and robots) read. You may think a justified alignment looks tidier, but it can leave uneven gaps between words and ultimately make text harder to read. 

In the nursing profession, length should not be the focus of the resume. While we recommend 1-2 pages, some nurses may have resumes with 3 (or more) pages.

Don’t stress over length too much. If the resume is slightly over the page amount by a few lines try changing the margin, font style, font size, or shortening statements. The bottom line is it should look visually appealing and should include keywords.

We recommend  Times New Roman or Arial to best utilize the functionality of the ATS. However, this is your personal preference. Take note that Times New Roman can be difficult to read if it is smaller than 11pt.

If you are striving for a resume that looks visually appealing when printed, there are great ways to achieve that without going overboard with design. For example, you could use the “small caps” feature for headings, which keeps the font the same but adds a bit more character and differentiation. Or, you could try a font pairing, using serif fonts for headers and sans serif for body text.

Important Note: Different font styles will take up different amounts of space. See how these identical statements look vastly different despite both being in 11 pt font:

Experienced Travel Nurse with 8 years experience in critical care nursing.

Throughout the resume, there should be different-sized fonts. We recommend the following for each section: 

It’s important to note that 10-point font should be the smallest size on the resume. 

While some ATS systems claim to read colors, we encourage you to simply use black. 

Special Characters

We recommend keeping the resume very simple. Basic bullet points (black dots) may be used when desired. Simple lines are acceptable as well. 

Design Features to Avoid

The following design features are best left off the resume: 

• Multiple font styles
• Special characters

As you’ve learned, ATS systems skim resumes and locate specific information in the correct order. We’d suggest using the following categories and section headers to optimize your nursing resume for ATS scoring.

Contact Information

This is the first section of the resume and does not require a title. Your name should be front and center. Don’t make the recruiter search for it. Make sure it’s the largest font on the page. While there are varying opinions on the exact placement of the name, we recommend a simple classic version in the following format:

Your name should be the first thing a recruiter, hiring manager, or ATS system sees on your nurse resume. It should share a line with your nursing credentials and be in a bold, readable, 18-22 pt font. If you go by a different name, make sure to list both in this section.

Nursing Credentials

Your nursing credentials should directly follow your first and last name on a nursing resume. The preferred order to list these in is Highest degree earned, Licensure, then National Certifications.

We've included a  credential quick reference guide below to help you fill out your resume perfectly.

The days of listing your home address on a resume are over - most employers don't need this information, and we advise against including it on your resume as a security precaution. However, this is a personal decision you can make at your own discretion.

You should never leave your location off completely because many employers have location parameters set in their ATS systems. Ensure you include your city and state in the contact information portion of your nursing resume.

Phone/Texting Number

Oh, technology! Yes, some employers will actually text their candidates. Make sure to indicate if you receive texts and whether the phone number is a cell phone or a home phone. This is a great time to make sure your voicemail message states your full name and is professional.

Email Address

It is in your best interest to ensure that you have a professional email address that does not reveal your age. Age discrimination is real, and listing your birth year or using an antiquated email service like AOL can definitely trigger it.

Your email address should include a variation of your name and some numbers if necessary. You can even make a totally separate email account and use it only for your job search.

LinkedIn Profile

If you have a LinkedIn profile definitely include it. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, you could be missing out on opportunities. Now is the time to create one!

In your settings, you can easily create a shortened LinkedIn URL that doesn’t have a bunch of random numbers and letters.

How Your Digital Footprint Impacts Your Nursing Job Search

Though you may not list it, you should consider your social media and online presence when you complete the contact information portion of your resume. Potential employers will likely look you up online. Many Recruiters tell us that looking a candidate up on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter is one of the first things they do. So, make sure everything you post online is what you would want an employer to see. 

Additionally, online behavior can benefit you. Do you have a nursing-related website or blog? Are you an Instagram celebrity? Maybe you created a successful YouTube channel when you were a newbie nurse. Include all this on your resume if it relates to nursing. This is all part of your unique brand!

Nursing Resume Credential Quick Reference Guide

According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center (AACN), the preferred order is Highest degree earned, Licensure, and National Certification.

Educational degrees include doctoral degrees (Ph.D., DrPH, DNS, EdD, DNP), master’s degrees (MSN, MS, MA), bachelor’s degrees (BS, BSN, BA), and associate degrees (AD, ADN).

Licensure credentials include RN, LPN, CNA, and APRN.

National certification , which is occasionally voluntary for nurses and obligatory for advanced practice nurses, is awarded through accredited certifying bodies such as the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), includes RNBC (Registered Nurse-Board Certified) and FNP-BC (Family Nurse Practitioner-Board Certified).

You may also choose to include awards and honors:

Outstanding achievements in nursing, such as FAAN (Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing).

Other certifications that recognize additional skills, such as the EMT-Basic/EMT, awarded by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.

Here is an example of contact information on a nursing resume that puts it all together:

Penny Lite, BSN, RN   Los Angeles, CA | Text/Call: (987) 654 - 3210 | [email protected] | www.linkedin.com/pennylitern

Professional Summary

Don’t make an employer (or ATS) search your entire resume for reasons to invite you to an interview. Tell them right off the top exactly why you are the best candidate for the role.

Every position is unique, and this is your first opportunity to optimize the resume for ATS and to also catch the employer’s eye. Spend a little time to target it and let your qualifications and accomplishments shine. 

While there is some debate about how to introduce your resume, we suggest using a professional summary as opposed to a career objective. The professional summary can be formatted in either a short paragraph or a bulleted list asserting qualifications and providing a concise career snapshot.

How to Write a Professional Summary for a Nursing Resume

Think of your resume summary as an “elevator pitch” - a quick, attention-grabbing, loaded statement that entices the reader to want to continue on. Your professional summary is unique to you and should be targeted to a specific role, just like the cover letters career counselors used to tell us about.

However, it could definitely include the following information: 

• Number of years of experience in a specialty 
• Common keywords found in nursing job descriptions e.g., excellent patient care, acute care, family education, compassionate
• Facility designations or info about facilities 
• Supervisory experience and number of subordinates
• Special certifications or awards
• Language abilities
• Soft skills such as patience, compassion, and a cooperative spirit

Nursing professional summary example: 

4+ years nursing experience with strong clinical background in critical care (CCU) and intermediate care nursing (IMCU). Proactively streamlines operations, initiates tasks, and supports the healthcare team while prioritizing excellent patient care. Champions patient and family education by providing compassionate, inclusive care that encourages self-sufficiency. Recipient of the Daisy Award. Bilingual in English and Spanish.

Nursing Skills and Areas of Expertise

List your nursing skills within the top ⅓ of the resume - Don't make the common mistake of adding them last. With the popularity of ATS, this mistake could cost you an interview. This is especially true in nursing, as the profession requires very specific skills. 

Additionally, your hard skills should be directly targeted to the role as expressed in the job description. Is the employer asking for a specific EMR that you are experienced with? List it! Are you an expert at starting IVs because of your five years of experience in the emergency room? List it!

This should not be a generic list of skills but a specific list that is as quantified as possible. It’s possible that if you are a newer nurse or are making a specialty pivot you may not have hard skills to include. In that case, it’s okay to omit this section and highlight your transferable  soft nursing skills within your job history.

While most nurses list their license titles on their resumes, it’s been our experience that they leave off a few very important details - most notably, whether the license is active and the expiration date. 

Why is this important? Including this information lets potential employers know that you are ready to start work ASAP. They don’t have to wait for the licensing process. Including your license number is optional, and you can make this decision based on your privacy comfort. The employer will likely be verifying your license online anyway (this is all public information).

If you are an advanced practice nurse, you may decide to leave off license numbers for privacy purposes, especially your DEA number or controlled substance registration number.

Here’s an example of how to list your licensure:

Registered Nurse - California, #RN00101, expires 4/17/2024.

Certifications and Credentials

This is another key section where some important details are typically missing on the nursing resumes we’ve seen. While most nurses list their credentials, it’s important to list them in a specific manner.

Don’t simply list acronyms, as some ATS systems may not be programmed to read shortened versions. Make sure to list the accrediting body, credential/certification number (where applicable), and expiration date. 

Here’s an example of how to list your certifications and credentials: 

Basic Life Support (BLS), American Heart Association, expires: 12/1/2021

Work History

Employers want to know what you can do for them, period.  Nurse recruiters we’ve talked to will zero in on this section. What are they looking for? Evidence, facts, quantifiable points - proof to support the assertions made in your resume summary.

Vague work histories are particularly frustrating to employers - especially when applicants copy and paste job descriptions. To avoid falling into those pitfalls, try incorporating these tips: 

Use simple section headers such as “Work History” or “Relevant Experience,” these are ATS friendly. “What I’ve Done” is not. 

List your experience in reverse chronological order.  If you have a lengthy employment history, you may consider only including the most recent 10-15 years of experience. This will shorten your resume and also limit the chances that you’ll encounter age discrimination. Looking at the big-picture experience from 25 years ago doesn’t necessarily speak to your recent nursing experience because employers care about what you can do for them now.

Work History Format

Adding your work history in a logical format can help your nursing resume beat the ATS and impress recruiters. We recommend using the following format for each work history segment:

1. Job Title and Specialty

This is a controversial subject, but we believe employers care more about what you’ve done than who you’ve worked for. Use the job title as it is listed in the job posting, or use a more industry-wide job title. Registered Nurse as opposed to Clinical Nurse II. 

2. Facility Name

Add the name of the facility or company you worked for after your job title. You can add this on the same line or a different line, but using the same line will optimize space.

3. Employment Dates  

These are important and can be listed in a number of ways. However, it’s been our experience that specific dates are not necessary for a resume. On an application, yes, on a resume, not so much. You can simply list the months and years (mm/yy - present).

4. Facility-Specific and Unit-Specific Information

This information is helpful and important to employers but is left off the majority of resumes we’ve seen, it includes: 

• Trauma level: level I, II, III
• Facility Designations 
• Total Hospital beds
• Total unit beds

Primary Duties and Accomplishments

This section looks best in a bulleted list of no more than six points and should include duties, noteworthy accomplishments, and achievements. It’s important to emphasize specific duties and not be too vague.

Also, try your best not to simply regurgitate basic nursing duties that would be assumed of your role. This will take up valuable space on your resume and not really tell the reader much about you !

Wondering what specifics to include? Here are a few questions to get those wheels turning:

• What illnesses, injuries, or traumas do you care for? 
• What cases do you work on? 
• What type of medications do you administer and how? 
• What therapies do you perform? 
• What equipment do you use? 
• How have you improved processes? 
• When have I been first or best?
• No. 1 achievement in each position?
• Which achievements have the most impressive numbers?
• When have I been publicly recognized?

Write Strong Nursing Resume Bullets

Wondering how to order your bullets and what to include? Try this: start with a verb leading to quantifiable data or a specific point and include a relevant duty.

Use our comprehensive tables to build compelling nursing resume bullets that make your achievements shine:

Here is a brief work history resume example for nurses that puts it all together:

Registered Nurse, Acute Care - Example Medical Center 09-19 - Present

• Supervised staff of 15 registered nurses, 8 certified nursing assistants, and 7 paramedics while multitasking excellent patient care. 
• Cared for up to 4 patients per shift with acute neurological disorders, including strokes, spinal cord injuries, and head trauma.

Education and Training

In the nursing profession, education and training are of utmost importance. If you have work experience, this section can be fairly brief.  You should list your relevant degrees in chronological order. 

There are varying opinions regarding the specific ordering of education. However, we believe that the degree or certification title should be listed first. Employers care firstly that you have the education requirement they need and secondarily where you obtained the requirement. 

We suggest the following format:  Degree or Certification Title (acronym), Institution Name 

Here’s an example: 

Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (BSN), University of Washington 

Should I Include Graduation Dates on a Nursing Resume?

You are not required to include your college or high school graduation dates on your nursing resume , as it could reveal your age. Age discrimination is the top form of employment discrimination and affects all age groups. If you graduated more than 10-15 years ago, it may be a good idea to omit the date.  But this is a personal decision you should make at your own discretion.

Should I Include My GPA on a Nursing Resume?

Including your GPA in your nursing resume is optional. If you are particularly proud of your GPA, by all means, add it! However, it is not required. If you graduated with honors that you are proud of, you can definitely include that as well. Again the resume is a unique snapshot of you!

Should I Include my Non-Nursing Degrees and Credentials?

If you possess other degrees not related to nursing, it is not necessary to include those on your nursing resume. Some second-career nurses like to list this information, especially if there has been an interesting career pivot or one that brings a lot of value to your role as a nurse. Remember, you are telling your personal, unique story, and you get to decide what to include.

How Do I Add In-Progress Advanced Education Programs?

If you are currently enrolled in higher education to advance your studies within the nursing field, that should be listed on your resume and state that the degree is pending or in progress. However, if you started a graduate degree program, never finished, and do not plan on finishing, it is unnecessary to include it on the resume. 

Should I Include my High School Education?

Nurses do not need to include their high school diplomas on their resumes. The nursing profession requires completion of higher education, and therefore, your higher degree trumps your diploma. 

Awards, Accomplishments, and Affiliations

Though this section is not required, we encourage including awards and accomplishments that are relevant to the nursing profession. These details will provide the potential employer with more proof and evidence of who you are as a nurse. 

In this section, you can include: 

• Awards and recognitions that are specific to the hospital or facility where you work, e.g. the Daisy Award, Employee of the Month, and Nursing Excellence Award
• Professional memberships and affiliations relating to nursing and/or healthcare
• Volunteer work, if it relates to nursing

We suggest the following format: Title, organization, year

Here are a couple of examples:

• Recipient, Nursing Excellence Award, Washington Medical Center
• Volunteer, American Red Cross - Haiti - 2012

Naming Your Nurse Resume Save File

One last thing, saving! Don’t just give your resume any old name! Hiring professionals sometimes receive multiple documents from candidates, and they don’t want to waste time sorting through every document to find the resume. Some prefer to organize resumes by specialty. Tell them exactly which document is your resume. 

We suggest the following format: firstlast_specialty_resume.doc

Here’s an example:

PennyLite_ICU_resume.doc

We’ve seen a lot of resumes over the years, and you might be surprised by the amount of strange information people have included on them. So, here are the top mistakes we’ve seen:

Woot! If you’ve made it this far you should have an excellent understanding of how to write a great nursing resume. We know it’s a lot of information right now, and we hope that you’ll use the information to advance your career.

For a little more help, try using our free resume templates. And when you’ve landed your next interview, check out the next part in this series, The Complete Guide to Nursing Job Interviews .

>> Download free nurse resume templates!

What should be included in a nursing resume?

• A nursing resume should include your education, experience, including clinical, work, and volunteer, any certifications you have, and skills. 

How do I write a nurse resume?

• You can use a template to fill out your nursing resume or fill out your own. 

How do I list my nursing skills on my resume?

• List skills that are in the job description or outline on the facility’s website. For instance, common nursing skills include critical thinking, teamwork, communication, team management, and high ethical standards. 

Do you put RN after your name on a resume?

• You can include "RN" or "RN, BSN"  if you have other credentials. If you haven’t passed your NCLEX yet, you can put G.N. for Graduate Nurse.

How long should a nurse's resume be?

• A nursing resume should be no longer than 1-2 pages. 

What is your greatest skill as a nurse?

• The most valuable skill you have as a nurse may depend on your exact role and specialty, but in general, communication, kindness, empathy, and critical thinking are highly valued traits as a nurse. 

How far back should a resume go?

• If you’re a recent graduate, you don’t need to go to high school, just include your college experience and degree. For experienced nurses, include all relevant experience. 

Amanda is an Ivy-league-educated nurse practitioner and career mentor who helps nurses find and land their dream jobs. She founded The Résumé Rx  in 2018 to help nurses with career and résumé strategy  Learn more about Amanda and her products at  www.theresumerx.com  and follow her on Instagram  @theresumerx.

Angelina has her finger on the pulse of everything nursing. Whether it's a trending news topic, valuable resource or, heartfelt story, Angelina is an expert at producing content that nurses love to read. She specializes in warmly engaging with the nursing community and exponentially growing our social presence.

Education: Bachelor of the Arts (BA), Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies - Ethnicity, Gender, and Labor, University of Washington

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How to Write a Nursing Resume

Are you ready to earn your online nursing degree?

Even with nurses in high demand, you still need a great nursing resume to stand out from other applicants. A strong resume conveys your skills and experience and how they fit an employer’s needs.

Learn to make the best possible impression through this collection of resume writing tips for nurses.

6 Resume Writing Tips for Nurses

These tips on writing a powerful nursing resume can help you stand out in a crowded pool of applicants. Recruiters spend an average of seven seconds on each resume, and you can make those seconds count for you.

1. Tailor Your Resume

Writing an effective nursing resume requires taking your prospective employer’s applicant requirements into careful consideration. Every hospital operates with its own culture and philosophy. Consult the organization’s website and social media presence to get an idea of what their goals and points of emphasis are. This shows the employer you understand their workplace and will allow you to communicate how you can help them achieve their goals.

2. Be Specific

Specificity can boost a resume. For example, while both positions require a great deal of stamina, a nursing home nurse does not fulfill the same responsibilities as an urgent care nurse. By framing professional experience through a personal lens, your resume stands out among the others.

What conditions or diseases do you treat? What types of medication can you administer and how? How about types of therapy and equipment you specialize in?

When describing duties, use action verbs (supervised, administered, collaborated) and positive adjectives (resilient, compassionate, observant) that reflect your dedication to patient care and organizational success. Quantify your impact by describing how you improved patient outcomes or organizational efficiency.

3. Save Your Resume Under a Professional Name

Remember that useful specificity is the goal. Instead of attaching a vaguely titled document, name your nursing resume so that employers can easily distinguish and retrieve it, such as “Firstlast_specialty_resume.doc.” Be sure to check your document’s metadata and edit it appropriately.

4. Make It Easy to Read

Although interesting fonts and attractive colors can make a nursing resume appear more interesting, they can also detract from the information. Employers may also perceive excessive formatting as an overcompensation for lack of qualifications.

You should strive for accessibility through logical placement and uniformity. Start with the most important information and make it the most conspicuous.

5. Include a Cover Letter

Employers recognize you cannot fit all your credentials and qualifications into a resume without it becoming incomprehensible. A cover letter offers you the chance to discuss your skills and achievements in greater detail. This is also a good place to describe how you would be a good cultural fit with the organization.

6. Keep It to One Page

Nurses, particularly those with less than 10 years of relevant professional experience, do not need more than one page to respond to a job listing. Abstain from wordiness, relying instead on economical usage of resume structure, including margin manipulations and concise usage of action-oriented descriptions.

These tips can help make your nursing resume easy to read, especially for a busy recruiter. As you take these resume writing tips into account, be sure to avoid common mistakes.

Common Mistakes Nurses Make on Their Resumes

Because nursing requires attention to detail, mistakes on a nursing resume can leave a bad first impression. The following list includes some of these oversights.

• Typos: Easy to fix but often overlooked, these mistakes can cost you an interview. Most employers see typos as a candidate’s lack of professionalism and competency. Edit your writing for errors and inconsistencies. Don’t rely solely on an online spell-checker, since many only flag misspelled words, not if the word is misused.
• Including Personal Information: Include your full name, phone number, and professional email. You do not need to supply a home address, city, state, or country. Presenting a nursing licensure type and number from the start helps employers differentiate you from unqualified candidates.
• Including Salary Information: Unless the employer penalizes former salary omission, do not include a salary. This may distract from your qualifications and impede you during the interview and subsequent negotiations. If pushed, speak in terms of benefits and professional goals, ensuring the employer that you are flexible in your expectations.
• Using Nicknames: Standard usage allows the shortened version of a name (Bill instead of William) or a middle name as a first name as long as you are consistent, especially if this nickname appears on official documents, such as state identification.
• Using an Unprofessional Email Address: While a Gmail address with a variation on “firstname.lastname” is marginally acceptable, some employers still see it as unprofessional. You can easily avoid this misstep by applying for your own domain name.
• First Person Pronouns: Do not waste valuable resume space by repeating “I.” The reader understands you speak through the narrative voice, so first person pronouns are redundant. Structure your sentences in declarative, action-oriented statements that reflect your professional character and achievements.
• Unprofessional Voicemail: An effective voicemail must be concise (under 25 seconds) and courteous in tone. Besides your name and a welcome statement, let the caller know when they can expect a response from you.
• Check Your Social Media Presence : Employers check social media and anything that suggests that you might have questionable personal judgment can be a red flag. Avoid references to heavy drinking, partying, or ever mentioning patients negatively.

Examples of Nursing Resumes

Nursing resumes are typically chronological, functional, or a combination of the two. Which type you pick should depend on the job and the format that best demonstrates your skill set. For your first job, a functional or combination resume that lists your skills will likely be most effective, while chronological or combination resumes are better suited for jobs requiring experience.

Reverse Chronological Resume

A reverse chronological resume usually lists your most recent job first. If your most recent job is not relevant, then a functional resume may be better. This reverse chronological example for a nurse manager position shows both that the applicant holds the desired experience and that the applicant achieved important objectives. Similarly, this ER reverse chronological nursing resume example uses the kinds of key terms an automated review system may recognize.

Reverse Chronological Resume Example

Combination Resume

This combination nursing resume for a new nurse starts by listing skills and credentials so that the employer first sees how your training has prepared you. This method clarifies that you have some nursing experience, but allows the employer to first see your skill sets.

Combination Resume Example

Functional Resume

This guide to writing a CNA resume provides examples of the types of skills you can use for a functional resume. This is especially valuable if your most recent position isn’t a good match for the one you’re applying for. Similarly, if you’ve worked multiple positions in a short period of time (for example, as a travel nurse ), listing each individual position you’ve recently held would take up space without showing your value as well as a cumulative list of your skills would.

Functional Resume Example

Featured Image: opolja / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Related Resources

10 Ways to Gain Professional Nursing Experience

Employers want nurses with experience, but it can be hard to get experience without a job. Here are 10 ways to get experience before the job.

Getting Clinical Experience as an Online Nursing Student

Nursing school clinical experiences are necessary for students to graduate — but how do clinicals work in online nursing school? Read this guide to find out.

Guide to Entry-Level Nursing

Interested in nursing but confused about how to enter the field? This guide will help you understand the various nursing career paths, educational requirements, financial aid, and job and salary outlook.

10 Crucial Soft Skills for Nurses

This guide details five soft skills for nurses that enable them to succeed in their careers and meet the AACN standards, along with methods for acquiring them and applying them in the workplace.

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33 Nursing Resume Examples That Worked in 2024

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Writing Your Nursing Resume

Although the demand for nurses is growing, getting a job in the nursing industry isn’t easy, especially if you’re making a start or submitting a letter of resignation at your current position. 

How are you supposed to know how to  write a stunning resume  so employers will immediately want to hire you and create a cover letter detailing your accomplishments? 

Getting into the nursing field is tough, so  we analyzed dozens of nursing resumes to learn what works and what doesn’t to help you get a great nursing job .

No matter your specialty or where you are in your nursing career, we’ve got 33 nursing resume samples to help you  make a resume online  from scratch or update your current resume to get you your next nursing job in 2024!

Nursing Resume

or download as PDF

Why this resume works

• One of the quickest ways to do so is by including your licenses in your title. This clearly signals to the employer that you’re qualified for the position.
• Adding an optional licenses section is another way to demonstrate your abilities, so if you have the room, make sure to add that section.
• Instead, tailor your resume to the  nursing job description . What keywords did they list? What responsibilities do they expect you to complete? Use this as your guide to include what employers most want to see.

Experienced Nurse Resume

• Some professions require CVs for senior-level officials, while other industries are fine with a resume no matter their seniority level. Check the job description to see what kind of information the employer requires, so you know what to write.
• Try to demonstrate the different specific responsibilities you’ve had throughout your career. What kinds of clinical techniques have you done? For example, have you assisted with ADLs, administered particular tests, or diagnosed specific types of diseases?

Nursing Student Resume

• The key is to be specific about what you contributed or learned during your time in school.
• How did you assist your peers or supervisors? Did you witness anything especially noteworthy? What did you learn? Listing details like these helps employers qualify your abilities. 
• While an objective is strictly optional, it’s a great way to convey your excitement for the position and some of your relevant skills. 

New Grad Nursing Resume

• If you lack experience, that’s okay! Just include more details about your clinical rotations. You can also mention non-healthcare-specific work experience if you have it.
• For example, does the job description talk a lot about compassionate care? Then you should include the phrase “compassion” in your skills section.

New Nurse Resume

• Including devices and software such as Hill-Rom smart beds, Omnicell, PeraHealth’s Rothman, and Vocera Badge shows employers that you’re all ready to hit the ground running and help senior nurses treat patients with the latest gadgets in hand.

• As you progress, unleash quantified achievements in your previous roles, emphasizing how you helped patients and improved outcomes (hint: reducing medication errors by 28% and enhancing patient safety).

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Resume

• In addition to your title, if you have any certifications or additional licenses, include them on your resume in a designated section.
• If you’re struggling to know what to write on your CNA resume, it can help to look at  CNA resume examples  and local CNA job descriptions to determine what employers want to see and what metrics to include. 

RN BSN Resume

• Go beyond helping patients and list all the times you’ve helped doctors treat a condition more quickly or improved after-surgery recovery rates. Add how you’ve endeavored to assist patients remotely during tough times (if any) such as providing remote sessions during COVID-19.

Registered Nurse Resume

Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) Resume

• If your current specialization is different from the job description, don’t stress! You should still be specific about your experience, but focus on transferable skills that go hand-in-hand with other fields.
• For example, do you specialize in long-term care, nephrology, or developmental disabilities? Include how you applied those abilities throughout your LPN resume.
• Of course, you need to include where you got your nursing degree, but don’t stop there! Adding a certifications or licenses section can show off your training and catch a hiring manager’s eye quickly.

Nursing Home Administrator Resume

• Begin with a careful analysis of the job listing and grasp the matching qualifications, skills, and requirements that resonate with your own experiences. Found them? Fantastic! Now, strategically incorporate those golden nuggets into your resume. In addition, picture how Amanda flaunts her nursing license–if you’ve got similar credentials or those shiny certifications, mention them somewhere in the side column.

Psychiatric Nursing Resume

• Take Sarah, for example. She didn’t just casually namedrop accomplishments like “reducing 30-day readmission rates by 14%” and “spreading awareness of mental health services among 1,280+ community members.” Nope. She made those wins pop out in her resume with bolding and underlining to wow the recruiter from the get-go.

Nursing Manager Resume

• How far back should you go? You wonder. If you have a master’s degree in nursing or healthcare management, make that the centerpiece of your education section. Otherwise, a bachelor’s degree fits the bill! Of course, don’t forget to add the institution’s name and the year you graduated.

Critical Care Nursing Resume

• Gain promotion and assume a new role with greater responsibility after that. Use this to show your dedication by backing your achievements with numbers.

Director of Nursing Resume

• List down all the variety of software you’re proficient in and write how you’ve used each right from the beginning of your career. Last but not least, never forget to add your RN license!

NICU Nurse Resume

• Use the career objective to frame your clinical experience through the lens of NICU by highlighting your ability to communicate with families or work in high-pressure environments.

Operating Room Nurse Resume

• Surgeons are always seeking cutting-edge technology that can unlock new medical capabilities. Showcase your expertise in working with these innovative systems—like robotic arms—to enhance your operating room nurse resume .

School Nurse Resume

• Are you skilled in using platforms specific to educational institutions, such as SchoolMessenger? Include them on your school nurse resume to prove that you’re prepared to handle the caseload.

Telemetry Nurse Resume

• You can bolster your telemetry nurse resume by listing any special certifications that further qualify you for the task, such as Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS).

Nurse Practitioner Resume

• The best format for nurses in 2024 is the reverse-chronological format since it shows how you’ve grown your skills over the years. However, if you have a gap in your job experience, there are other formats you can use to disguise that.
• Adding a few splashes of color to your  nurse practitioner resume  makes it look prettier and helps readability. Just be sure to choose a color that is easy on the eye (no neons, please).

ICU Nurse Resume

• To avoid the fear of the blank page, start by using a  resume outline  to give you a basic structure to follow and show you what your finished resume should look like.
• So, when you’re writing the work experience bullet points, use general responsibilities like “provided effective care”), but be specific about how you helped your patients (and what resulted from your ministrations). 

Travel Nurse Resume

• To help stand out above the competition, clarify your work experience sections so employers know if you’ve had traveling nurse contracts or not. 
• More likely than not, you don’t need a resume objective or summary, nor do you need to list individual projects. Remember that you can go into more detail about achievements and skills in your  nursing cover letter .

Charge Nurse Resume

• For example, have you had the opportunity to manage or lead co-workers? Have you ever trained a nurse and oversaw scheduling? Be specific about how you’ve managed projects and people and what resulted from your leadership.
• Want to know a quick and easy way to write a  charge nurse resume ? Start by using a  resume template  to format your information, then fill in the blanks with specific details about your past experience and skills.

Chief Nursing Officer Resume

• This formatting showcases your career growth and leadership development by highlighting your most recent (and likely most relevant) job. 
• We recommend you include six to 10 skills, with at least 70 percent hard skills such as BLS, QA/QC, federal compliance, and fiscal health analysis.

Telehealth Nurse Resume

• Luckily, there are multiple  resume tips  you can incorporate to make your resume a cut above the rest, including choosing specific hard skills in your skills section and formatting your resume in reverse-chronological order.
• If you have a degree higher than a high school diploma, ignore your high school information since employers don’t need it. If you have multiple nursing degrees, include all of them.

Nurse Consultant Resume

• Use business-related numbers like sales growth or revenue/profit increases to demonstrate your worth as an employee.
• Don’t forget to add other sections to showcase your training and certifications.
• If you decide to include these sections, keep them brief and include only what’s relevant to the job you’re seeking.

Office Nurse Resume

• Do your homework on the environment you’re applying to work in, and ensure you showcase why you’re a good fit for that specific job. After all, an ER unit with high patient turnover may be much more interested in your high-efficiency standards than an in-home clinic that consistently services a much smaller patient load.
• Sure, your resume may look good when you finish writing it, but have you run it through a  resume checker  yet? You might not realize you’ve been using passive voice or inconsistent punctuation, and even though you’re not applying for a job as an English Teacher, a hiring manager won’t be thrilled if you overlook little details when they’re going to literally put lives in your hands.

Home Dialysis Nurse Resume

• Unfortunately, as much as it may be interesting for you to look back over your life history, most hiring managers won’t be quite as thrilled about the prospect. Adding a career summary to your resume can give recruiters the highlights, without drowning them in a sea of information.
• Trust us on this, nothing bothers a hiring manager more than a resume that is 1.01 pages long.

ER Nurse Resume

• Certifications like the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) and Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) depict that you’ve done the work and undergone the rigorous training needed to be an ER nurse.

Labor and Delivery Nurse Resume

• If you’ve spent your time outside work organizing events to promote women’s health and reproductive rights, it’s a powerful statement that shows your passion and commitment and deserves to be mentioned in your resume.

Nurse Manager Resume

• If you’re well versed with a particular HR management tool or medical management software, it’s one less thing a hospital or healthcare center will have to train you on.

Pediatric Nurse Resume

• An extensive program, like a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, from an esteemed institute like Johns Hopkins University, for example, is a worthy inclusion in your pediatric nurse resume , demonstrating that you’ve learned from the best.

Staff Nurse Resume

• Take a good look at Allianah’s staff nurse resume and notice how she leverages a Registered Nurse (RN) license. This isn’t just another document that’s good to have but proof of the grit and effort it takes to be a professional nurse, which further adds to her existing value.

Related resume guides

• Physician Assistant
• Dental Assistant

Hiring managers typically receive a torrent of resumes whenever there’s an open position, so if you prepare your nursing resume haphazardly, you are more likely to get the boot than the job. To avoid that sad scenario, you need to make your nursing resume readable, logical, and pleasing to the eye. It should showcase your skills and experience while being ATS-compliant, and it should show off a bit of your personality, too. 

It make sound like an impossible task, but before your get overwhelmed, start by taking it one step at a time. First, choose your formatting style: reverse-chronological, functional, or hybrid.

Reverse-chronological, functional, and combination/hybrid format

A well-structured resume is essential for your job search. Even if your resume has perfect content, if your resume isn’t easy to skim at a glance, it’s unlikely you’ll be called for an interview. Your content matters, but so does  how  you present that content. Therefore, proper  resume formatting  is a salient feature you don’t want to get wrong.

There are three popular formatting options for designing your resume in 2024: reverse-chronological, functional, and hybrid. 

• Focuses more on your skills
• Ideal for a recent graduate or an entry-level candidate
• Reverse-chronological format
• The most common format
• Lists relevant experiences and skills in reverse-chronological order
• The best for making it past the ATS
• Combines functional and reverse-chronological features
• Highlights both your skills and experience
• Ideal if you have a handful of experience or are re-entering the workforce

The best bet for a nursing resume would be the reverse-chronological format. This helps the recruiter see your upward career progression. If you started as an intern in a given health organization, and then moved up the career ladder to become a full-fledged nurse, your potential employer will be able to track your progression and assess your qualifications faster.

Contact header

It’s important to include the relevant contact header information in the right order. If you’re a nurse, your   contact header should have the following:

• Your name —Employers won’t automatically know you, so you need to include your first and last name. 
• Phone number —Use your personal cellphone number instead of a work phone in case a potential employer calls when you’re not on the job.
• Email address —Include a professional email address, preferably combining your first and last name.
• City & state —This is optional but recommended so employers know if you’re local. 
• LinkedIn —Some employers require your LinkedIn profile, but even if it’s not mandatory, it’s helpful for employers to see your career progression.

The contact header should be, you guessed it, at the top of the page. Good font choices are Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri, all at 12 point size. When it comes to color, remain conservative with black and white. Some  resume templates  can format your resume to strikingly display your contact information, just like this header:

Will your nursing resume beat the ATS?

Optimizing your resume for the Application Tracking System (ATS) increases your chances of being called for an interview. The ATS is a tool that many companies use to quickly scan resumes and weed out applicants without relying on someone to read through them first.

Most resumes aren’t designed to beat ATS, and end up being filtered out before they ever reach the recruiter. However, if you know how to properly  format your resume , you’ll pass the ATS scan and make your way to a person. Here’s what you should know about the role of fonts, font size, margins, header names, logical order, skills, and page length, as far as ATS-friendly resumes are concerned:

• ATS-friendly fonts make it easy for a computer to read your resume. Some of the most commonly used ATS-friendly fonts include: Times New Roman, Calibri, and Arial. Preferably, they should have a font size of 10-12 points.
• Beyond just font type, font size also matters. Preferably, your body font size should be 10-12 points, while your headers can be bigger.
• Margins also matter, since the ATS automatically assumes your margins are the standard size of one-inch all around. Any bigger or smaller, and the ATS might mis-read your resume.
• Keywords are the main focus of the ATS, so make sure your skill keywords and header names match what’s in the job description.
• The ATS is not sensitive to the number of pages, but one page is the standard across professions. 

Writing your nursing resume

Putting together an effective nursing resume may seem overwhelming and not worth your effort. However, putting in the extra effort now will pay off when you get an interview. And remember, you’re not doing this alone. We’re dedicated to helping you  write an amazing resume  by providing advice on common frustrating decisions like this:

• When an objective is most useful on your nursing resume
• When a summary can be the preferred choice
• How to list your most relevant nursing work history
• Adding volunteer work and academic endeavors when work history is light

Do you need an objective or summary on your nursing resume?

When crafting your nursing resume, you have the option to use career objectives and summaries.

When to include a career objective in your resume:

• You can use an objective when changing or modifying your career.
• For instance, if you plan to change from a surgical assistant registered nurse to an emergency room registered nurse, you’d use an objective to highlight that you’re pursuing a new subfield within nursing.
• Use a career objective if you’re looking for an entry-level job and lack experience. 

When a summary is right for your resume:

• Use a summary to highlight your most valuable experience and skills. These are ideal when you have vast experience in nursing.
• For example, if you’ve worked in a health setting for 10 or more years, you can include a summary.
• A summary is effective for connecting varied work experiences.

When not to use objectives or summaries:

• Skip the objective or summary if you’re not planning to customize it to each position you apply for. Otherwise, it’s generic filler that takes up too much white space.
• This lacks specificity and reads “I just need a job to pay the bills.” While that may be true, employers want to know you’re passionate about your work and will improve your workplace.
• This lacks depth and work history details that should hallmark a summary. It’s void of substantial expertise, specializations, and skill specifics.

When objectives or summaries are worth including:

• This objective highlights the years of experience and the candidate’s field of expertise while also naming the potential employer.
• This summary highlights their years of experience, the key areas they’ve worked in, and their specialities within those fields.

Nursing work experience?

Don’t forget to indicate relevant experience in your resume. While we wouldn’t recommend including every job you’ve had since you were 16, you can get away with adding work experience from different fields if you’re an entry-level candidate.

However, if you’re applying for a senior position, you’ll need to include at least  three  nursing positions on your resume, especially if you’re applying for a managerial or specialty position. For instance, a director of care management requires nine years of experience, four of which must be managerial.

Conversely, a registered nurse position may require one year of direct patient care. The responsibilities, in this case, are not very demanding. If you lack experience overall, you can include any academic projects and volunteer work that is relevant to the  nursing job description .

Writing your job experience bullet points for your nursing resume

Three examples of poor job experience bullet points for nurses:

• Generally, you should avoid using “I,” and you should include specifics, not just generic statements of experience.
• This bullet includes “I” and lacks job specifics and quantifiable metrics.
• Although it may sound nice on the surface, it doesn’t answer exactly what the patient did and the results of their work.

Three examples of good job experience bullet points for nurses:

• This uses an action verb combined with quantifiable metrics.
• Again, this uses an action verb but furthermore, it describes exactly what the candidate provided (primary care training). 
• Specific, pertinent job duties show employers your skills and can also help you pass the ATS; two thumbs up for this one!

Quantify your impact as a nurse

When preparing your resume, remember that no employer wants to waste time reading vague statements about your performance. Instead, they want to see supporting details. So, whenever you can, you should quantify your impact and achievements.

For instance, if you say you “served many patients daily,” a potential employer might wonder about the exact number because ‘many’ is a relative term.

Examples of how to quantify metrics:

Suppose the  nursing job description  asks for a training specialist who can train other nurses. In that case, you can indicate the number of training sessions you conducted per day in your previous employment.

• Number of clinical training sessions per day
• Trained 75% of new hires on pre and postoperative care >20 days per month

Some of the health facilities labor under tremendous pressure. The number of patients you serve per day can help potential employers gauge whether you will cope well under pressure. So, it’s lucrative to include the number of patients you served per a specific amount of time.

• Number of patients served in a day 
• Worked in a setting with a 6:1 patient-nurse ratio, receiving 400+ visitors per day

Top skills for your nursing resume

It’s helpful to understand the differences between hard and soft skills to list in your  resume skills section . Keep the number of skills you list in between six and 10 to avoid overwhelming the reader.

Hard skills are those tools you use to do the job, aka technical abilities that require training. 

Examples of hard skills:

• ERM systems
• Medical documentation
• Infant and child care
• Emergency care
• Ambulatory care
• CPR certified

On the other hand, soft skills are abilities that are harder to quantify and are more personality-based.

Examples of soft skills:

• Communication 
• Professionalism
• Positive attitude

Get noticed! Look for keywords within a job description:

• Many companies use ATS to scan resumes for keywords from the job description, so it’s in your best interest to include the right keywords.
• Include keywords in both your  nursing cover letter  and resume. 
• Choosing keywords from the job description helps you customize your resume and thus, makes you more appealing to the hiring manager.
• Employing the right keywords makes your resume relevant and noticeable, giving you an edge over the competition.

Nursing education and certifications

When preparing your nursing resume, include all the elements that will increase your chances of getting the job. You need to indicate the following:

• Your education level
• Any certifications or licenses
• Your experience in other nursing environments
• Your years of experience as a nurse

On the topic of licenses, you need to share your area of specialization. Specialists include registered nurses (RNs), certified registered nurse anesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists. Including your area(s) of expertise helps potential employers determine whether you’re the right candidate for the job.

Besides, including this information is easy to do and shouldn’t take up much space! Simply place certifications and licenses in a short section toward the bottom of your resume: 

Should you add projects, interests, or hobbies to your nursing resume?

Most of the time, you don’t need to include projects or  interests/hobbies on your resume . However, you may be able to add them depending on your level of experience and the type of role you’re seeking.

If you’re an experienced nurse, you’ve likely gained tangible experience that’s more important than undergraduate projects you’ve completed. Instead, you should highlight your key areas of experience and show your new employer how you’ll impact their business.

In the same vein, you may not need to indicate your hobbies or interests unless it’s encouraged. However, you can gain an advantage over the competition if you have strong qualifications and hobbies that match the company culture. 

To help you determine whether or not to include hobbies, visit the company’s website and read the “About Us” section to gauge whether they have a unique cultural fit. 

If you’re an entry-level candidate or a recent graduate, listing hobbies and projects can help you fill space and showcase your personality. However, it’s always good to review the job description to ensure these additions are relevant. Either way, keep the project and hobbies lists short and at the bottom of your resume.

Examples of hobbies/interests:

• Volunteering for community health services
• Learning new languages

Examples of projects:

• Organized and led breast cancer awareness campaign for two consecutive semesters
• Researched mental and psychiatric issues for semester-long experiment

Adjust your nursing resume for every job application

Remember to customize your resume when applying for a new job. Even if you’re only applying for specific roles, like LPN jobs, that doesn’t mean every job description for that title requires the same qualifications. There’s usually something unique to each position. Thus, for every application, make sure you tailor the following sections:

• (These can stay mostly the same, but you should adjust responsibilities and keywords slightly.)

To recap, each job description comes with different skill requisites. Furthermore, remember to note keywords you can use within the body of your resume and cover letter.

Your nursing resume must be error-free

As a nurse, you need to show the hiring manager that you’re observant and have an eye for detail. Remember, you’ll be working with patients and should demonstrate accuracy and precision. To ensure a flawless resume, run your document through a  resume checker  and have your colleagues proofread it. Don’t let typos cost you a job!

Confidently land your next Nursing gig

Many job seekers languish in the job market, especially considering the number of nursing graduates produced by universities each year and the fierce competition. So, you must be creative and savvy to survive the market. Happily, you’ve already taken the first steps by reading this guide, so congratulations!

We know you’ve worked hard to get this far, and we wish you all the best as you write a power-packed nursing resume and get ready for interviews in 2024!