how to write an nurse resume

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

>> Related: New Graduate Nurse Resume Examples + Free Templates

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.

Creating a resume as a new grad with no nursing experience or with non-nursing healthcare experience can be challenging. Don’t worry, Nurse.org has two templates for you to choose from - depending on if you have healthcare experience or not. 

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>> Show Me Online RN-to-BSN Programs

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.

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.

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The Best Resume Guide for Nurses

NurseJournal Staff

Contributing Writer

Learn about our editorial process .

Updated July 26, 2023

Are you ready to earn your online nursing degree?

Whether you are a recent nursing school graduate or an experienced healthcare professional, writing a nursing resume that accurately and persuasively depicts your education, skills, and characteristics is the first step to getting an interview.

Since this important document is the initial impression you will make on a hiring manager, you must craft a resume that creatively addresses the employer's requirements and highlights your professional achievements, helping you stand out from other qualified applicants.

The nursing field heavily relies on extensive practical training, certification and registered nurse licensure , and specialization, so it is important that your resume highlights your qualifications. Even personal qualities should emphasize practical applications (e.g., how your compassionate nature enables you to connect with patients or how your bilingualism helps you accommodate diverse populations as a nurse ).

Being specific can make a resume exceptional. Through this guide, you can learn how to tailor your nursing resume to an employer's mission and job description.

How to Write a Nursing Resume

Do your research.

Learning how to write a nursing resume requires dedicated research that allows you to target information to your potential employer. On top of carefully going through the job description, look at the employer's website and social media platforms to figure out their culture and values.

Some healthcare facilities emphasize education and certification, while others want nurses with more clinical experience. Find out what they want in an ideal employee and tailor your application accordingly. It is equally important to consider your needs and if the job fits your standards for professional advancement and personal happiness.

Write Down Your Key Points

Format your resume, addressing required vs. preferred qualifications.

Addressing a potential employer's specifications is the main objective in writing a nursing resume. But before writing, it's important to identify required versus preferred job qualifications.

Because this profession necessitates advanced academic and professional training in addition to licensure and nursing clinical experience , job postings for nurses include extensive requirements that are either required or preferred criteria. Required reflects qualifications a candidate must possess to warrant consideration, while preferred is typically a wishlist of additional skills, experiences, and character traits that benefit the position but are not mandatory.

An effective resume details how an applicant fulfills required qualifications and as many of the preferred qualifications as possible without crowding the page and rendering the information inaccessible. Nurses can take advantage of a cover letter to elaborate and fill in additional qualifications with anecdotal evidence and data, if possible.

While some healthcare facilities outright reject applicants who do not possess all their required qualifications, most see the job listing as a guideline and not a checklist. Even if a nurse does not meet all the standards, they should still apply if they can impress during the interview.

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Types of Nursing Resumes

Ultimately, a resume represents the individual person, their academic standing, professional achievements, personal qualities, and career potential. How do you write a nursing resume that gets all these points across? Choose the proper formatting.

There are three main resume formats, each with their unique structure and distinct purpose: the reverse chronological, the functional, and the combination. Nurses need to use the resume style that best suits their particular skill set and the position they are vying for.

Reverse Chronological

The most commonly used resume type, this form benefits nurses who possess extensive and relevant professional experience. Here, past employment is the most important element, with positions listed in reverse chronological order. However, this reliable resume structure comes with drawbacks, as it can highlight gaps in employment, frequent job changes, and the candidate's age.

Also referred to as the skill-based resume, this format highlights awards, accomplishments, and training, making it preferable for recent college graduates and other professionals who lack relevant work history. One of the major drawbacks of the functional resume is that it can expose a candidate's limited experience in the nursing field.

Combination

The most complex resume type, the combination format eschews the either-or structure of the previous forms, enabling professionals to showcase relevant professional experience and skills and training. Experienced nurses, especially those with clinical specializations, benefit most from this resume form. However, versatility also renders it more difficult to construct, as the large amount of information can confuse readers if not conveyed clearly.

What Should I Include on a Nursing Resume?

Education and training.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center provides a standardized way of listing all your credentials. The preferred sectional order is education, licensure, state designations, certification, awards and honors, and additional certification. Start with your highest degree, then work backwards.

You do not need to include high school information or graduation dates. If you are currently working on a degree, state that completion is pending or in progress. Whether you provide GPA information is up to you. Generally, it is only worthwhile if you graduated in the last three years and earned a 3.5 or better.

Display professional nursing experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position. If you have gaps in employment, prepare to address them. Consider listing facility- and unit-specific information, including total beds, trauma levels, and patient demographics. Specificity when writing a nursing resume elevates it from good to great.

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 rest.

Out of all the resume sections, this one benefits from keyword use the most. You can usually find out what skills an employer wants by analyzing the job description. Tailor this section to meet those needs. Work in categories, such as basic care, technical, administrative, and computer skills.

Be strategic and specific. Instead of "defibrillation insertions," list "automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator insertions." Finally, do not neglect soft skills for nurses , like reliability and adaptability or special skills like a foreign or sign language. These details can set you apart from other applicants.

Licensure and Certifications

As a registered nurse, you've earned a state-specific nursing license . And because the profession consists of diverse and advanced nursing specializations , you also may have pursued certification exams and postdegree training in areas like gerontology or cardiac-vascular nursing. List them in their entirety and avoid acronyms.

For licenses, use this order: license type, licensing state/body, license name and number, nurse license compact , and expiration date. For certifications, start with the name, followed by conferring organization, expiration, and certification number, if applicable.

Awards, Accomplishments, and Affiliations

Celebrate all relevant achievements, but do it honestly and in a way that reflects your ongoing commitment to nursing and capacity for high performance in the new position. These achievements may include academic recognition; official awards; and competitive scholarships, fellowships, grants, and internships. Also display membership in professional organizations, such as the American Nurses Association or Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing.

As an experienced professional, you may find that you possess an abundance of awards and accomplishments. In these instances, narrow them to the most prestigious, current, and applicable to the job you are applying for.

Volunteer Work

Unpaid positions let prospective employers know you understand the importance of community education, outreach, and engagement. Only include volunteer work that relates to nursing or the health services field. As always, when writing a nursing resume, furnish specific details that showcase your skills in action (e.g., you managed a 10-person team to canvas a neighborhood about HIV/AIDS prevention).

What Should I Put on My Nursing Resume If I Don't Have Any Experience?

For recent college graduates, professionals switching careers, and those with limited clinical experience, learning how to write a resume for a nursing job may seem overwhelming. You can make up for inexperience by using a functional hybrid resume format that places academic credentials, qualifications, and skills above the employment section. Additionally, you have completed extensive training as a student and perhaps continuing education, so highlight state licensure, optional certification, and organizational membership to further bolster your resume.

Start with a personal introduction that states more than just the obvious (that you want the job), but also speaks to your professional values as a nurse and the training and education you possess. The lack of contextualization can represent a major pitfall of the functional resume. Avoid this by making your skills applicable to actual work scenarios that relate to a nurse's duties.

Hospital managers seek employees who display skills, such as critical thinking, safe practice, customer service, and interpersonal communication. As a nursing student, you completed hours of clinical training. Use these experiences to show employers your skills in action, framing them in terms of achievements.

Finally, take full advantage of volunteer positions, giving them their own section, to show that you not only display the practical qualifications for the job, but also care passionately about the well-being of patients and healthcare equitability for all communities.

What Is a Resume-Reading Robot/ATS?

To deal with a flood of candidates, many employers use an applicant tracking system (ATS). Like a hiring manager quickly scanning for standouts among the group, the ATS ranks and categorizes nursing resumes by how many designated keywords they contain. This automated process reduces an employer's manual workload and theoretically vets resumes with a large amount of filler content, an indication of unqualified applicants.

However, the ATS may also unnecessarily reject qualified nurses as part of automated software processes. To avoid this unfair outcome, learning how to write a nurse resume requires working within and overcoming the ATS framework.

Tips for Outsmarting an ATS

• Simple Headers: To accommodate the ATS, use header terms common enough to show up in keyword searches, such as "skills," "professional experience," and "education." Do not neglect to include city, state, and, if living outside the U.S., country, because employers generally vet candidates by location.
• Clean Format: Engaging visuals are useless if they make your resume difficult to read. Use a simple format that contains no graphics or unusual fonts because the standard ATS cannot process such information, resulting in an automatic rejection. In general, Verdana, Tahoma, and Arial fonts at the 10.5 point size or above are acceptable.
• Keywords/Phrases: You can usually glean relevant keywords from the job description. If not, conduct some research into phrases commonly found in the nursing field, such as "patient care," "clinical research," and "community outreach." Avoid abbreviations in all cases.
• Industry-Specific Jargon: ATS keywords reveal a candidate's relevant skills and experiences. The more specific a keyword is to the particular position you are applying for, the better. When in doubt, use the hiring employer's phrases first, industry standards second, and your current or previous employer's terminology third.
• Choose the nursing resume type that best highlights your experience, personality, and qualifications.
• Be specific; specificity helps your resume stand out from the rest.
• Format your resume using headers and keywords that make it easy to read — whether by a person or an applicant tracking system.

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The Ultimate Guide to Nurse Resumes: Examples, Template, and Practical Tips

Resume writing can stir up anxiety for most, and it can be difficult to find resources that speak specifically to nursing resumes. Our profession's unique nature, combined with its varying clinical and non-clinical roles, often makes it challenging to structure our experience to fit the guidelines of a standard resume. 

So, how do you effectively capture the depth and value of your experience as a nurse on your next job search? Whether you’re a travel nurse looking for your next travel nursing job , a new grad nurse seeking your first role, or a nurse looking for your next staff role, this guide has got you covered with tons of helpful tips - you can even download a version of your resume, ready to submit! 

Let’s get started! 

How Travel Nurse Resumes Are Used

The importance of a strong resume, ideal format and length for any nurse resume, nurse resume template, new grad resume advice, travel nurse resume tips.

• Download Your Perfect Resume Template

To really understand how to write a great travel nurse resume, you have to know how it’s used in the application process. The traditional image of a hiring manager with thick-rimmed glasses leafing through an endless stack of papers no longer applies to the general job market, let alone travel nursing. Recruiters primarily dissect your resume, and the hiring manager typically gets only the pertinent info of the candidates the recruiter has passed through to them.

Moreover, the use of applicant tracking systems (ATS) is becoming increasingly prevalent in most industries, including healthcare. An ATS is a piece of technology that can quickly screen applications to filter out those without the qualifications that the position needs- before your resume even gets to the recruiter! While this system might seem impersonal, it's absolutely possible to have them work in your favor- you just have to work the system!  The key is making sure that you have designed your nursing resume to be readable by the ATS and to include key qualifications for the role you’re applying to. Follow the information outlined in this guide and you’ll be good to go! 

Despite the nursing shortage, the most sought-after positions remain incredibly competitive, so it’s important to make a strong first impression through your resume. Even though hiring managers may not spend much time reading your resume, it’s still one of the best ways for a company or recruiter to quickly have a sense of what you bring to the table. Having all the information about your professional qualifications and work history succinctly summarized in one place will allow your recruiter to quickly determine which positions will be a good fit. By creating a solid resume base, you can easily add on and adapt it to each role you apply to in the future, so let’s get started! 

Before writing your resume, you’ll need a foundation to build upon. That's where your travel nurse resume outline comes in: it's a skeleton that organizes all the information you’ll need into neat, streamlined sections. Whether it’s seen by a recruiter, a hiring manager, or an ATS, the general rules that should guide the way your template looks and how it is written remain the same.

Formatting Your Nurse Resume

When it comes to formatting your nurse resume, always remember to keep it simple. Because your application will likely go through an ATS at some point, you want to make it as easy for the tracking system software to read as possible.  So while we’re all for aesthetics, you’re going to need to leave the pizzaz for the actual interview. 

Here are some tips to keep your resume ATS-friendly (and reader):

• Avoid fancy headers or footers.
• Avoid special fonts. We recommend Arial, Trebuchet MS, or Times New Roman. 
• Keep font size easy on the eyes.  For headers, aim for 28-35pt, individual section headers 14-16pt, and body content: 10-12pt.  Don’t go smaller than 10- no ones likes reading fine print! 
• Don't insert pictures, videos, graphs, or any other visuals.  Using a straight line is the only acceptable graphic. 
• Keep it black and white (no fancy font colors or backgrounds).  Do this and you’ll get to show your true colors when you are given the opportunity to speak with the manager. 

Ideal Length of a Nurse Resume

When it comes to nursing, especially travel nursing, having a longer-than-normal resume is okay.  In an industry where it’s common for nurses to switch jobs as frequently as every one to three months, it’s actually expected by hiring managers that your resume will exceed one page! However, for in-person networking, it may be wise to have a short and sweet version with only your most recent and/or relevant work experience listed​.  

A good travel nurse resume concisely details your professional accomplishments, and grammar and vocabulary play a huge role in that. Focus on including a skimmable list of your professional accomplishments, not writing a long essay about them. Structure your entries as bulleted lists, and keep your bullet points as straight-forward as possible, beginning each bullet point with a verb or adjective to avoid writing full sentences.  

Every nurse resume, whether you’re a new grad nurse, an experienced nurse, or travel nurse resume, should have these key sections:

Contact Information: 

Include your full name, phone number, email address, and location.

Professional Summary:  

A brief, compelling statement about your career goals and value proposition.  Ideally, you should optimize this section to include as many relevent keywords you find in the job description as possible.  Doing this will set off bells within the ATS that you are a good match for the job! 

Licenses and Certifications: 

Be sure to note if you have a license in hand for the job you’re applying to! Also, highlight your certifications- all of them! Everything from the basics required for the role, like BLS, all the way to where you’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty, like CCRN.  

Work Experience: 

Detail your professional experience with a focus on achievements, not just duties. In this section, it’s great to include your facilities trauma level, number of beds, and any magnet certification.  This helps to paint the picture of what that experience was like for you!

Education: 

Finally, be sure to list your educational background, with your most recent education listed first.  If you were a scholarship recipient or received any special awards or honors in school, be sure to include that too.  

Bonus sections:  

You want to be sure to include anything that makes you stand out, so if you have volunteer experience, speak multiple languages, received a Daisy or another award, or led any research or major projects, be sure to create a section for those as well! 

As a new grad, you might feel like you don't have much to put on your resume, but that's not true. Here's a few things you should incorporate in order to create a standout new grad nurse resume:

• Focus on Clinical Rotations: Even if you don't have paid work experience, your clinical rotations during nursing school provide valuable experience. Detail the skills you've gained and the types of medical settings you've been exposed to.
• Make Your Education Section Robust: Put more weight on your educational background. In addition to your degree, include any relevant coursework that may have been outside of the normal track, any projects you took lead on, or any research you contributed to.

Travel nurses face unique challenges when crafting their resumes due to how frequently their experience is changing. Here's some advice to create an impressive travel nurse resume:

• Highlight Your Adaptability: Travel nurses need to adapt quickly to new settings and teams. Include examples of your adaptability and teamwork in your work experience section by noting floating assignments you took or other ways you went above and beyond to be flexible and helpful. 
• Detail Each Assignment: We know it may grow to be a long list, but for each of your travel nursing assignments, include the location, facility type, unit type, and dates. Be sure to highlight any specific achievements or challenges you overcame.  Managers hiring travelers are looking for someone who is confident and experienced- ready to hit the ground running! 
• Show off Your Leadership and Curiosity: Travel nursing requires confidence and lifelong learning.  Show that you’re committed to being the best nurse you can be through continuing education opportunities and roles where you can contribute to the education of others, such as taking a charge or preceptor role. 

Download Your Perfect Resume Template! 

Creating a resume, especially a travel nurse resume, can be a daunting task. That's why at Trusted Health, we're committed to helping you ease the burden. When you sign up for a Trusted profile and enter your work experience, we'll do the heavy lifting for you. Our platform will organize your professional journey into a sleek, ready-to-go resume.

No more worrying about formatting, keywords, or what to include and exclude. With Trusted Health, you get a resume just like the one above that's tailored to your career, designed to impress, and ready for download as a PDF. All you have to do is create a profile and enter your information! We’ll do the hard work for you. 

So why wait? Sign up for a Trusted profile today and conquer your nurse resume worries! Get ready to step into your next adventure with confidence.

Audrey McCollough, RN, BSN, is a pediatric critical care nurse who traded her scrubs for a laptop to come work internally at Trusted two years ago. With eight years of critical care experience and four years of travel nursing under her belt, Audrey now uses her experience and expertise to support others in the healthcare industry, particularly her fellow nurses. When she's not at work, Audrey loves to explore the great outdoors! Hiking, skiing, or just soaking up nature's beauty - Audrey is all about it.

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The Best Nursing Resume Guide for 2024 With Templates

Dec 20 2022

Career Resources / Job Searching / Nursing Resume Guide

Reviewed by: Kiley Griffin, R.N.

Imagine a registered nurse going into a patient’s room without a stethoscope or wearing sandals with their scrubs . The patient would feel confused and uneasy. This example is extreme, but it would relay to the patient their nurse isn’t prepared.

The same holds true regarding your nursing resume. You don’t want to walk into an interview without a quality resume to present to the hiring board.

You may be thinking

“I don’t have time to write a resume, and if I did, where would I start?”

Nurses work long shifts, which can make it difficult to devote time to working on anything outside of their scheduled hours. Accordingly, we have created a guide to help you quickly and easily craft a resume. 

This guide will help you enter the interview feeling confident and prepared. We will explore:  

Nursing Resume Templates

Steps to formatting a professional nursing resume, what to include in your contact section, how to get around the ats, writing your nursing resume objective or summary, how to showcase your skills and duties.

• Keys to Writing Your Experience Section

How to Organize Your Credentials Field on a Nursing Resume

Additional sections to add to your nursing resume.

• Write a Cover Letter to Go With Your Resume

Create a professionally-designed, interview-ready resume in minutes.

We’ve provided three sample nursing resumes as guides along with templates so you can create your own.

Hiring experts generally agree that formatting and content are the most critical elements to focus on when crafting a resume. 

Many healthcare employers are now using applicant tracking software (ATS) as part of the hiring process. This means up to 75% of resumes get rejected before the hiring manager ever sees them.

An ATS quickly scans resumes and then sorts and ranks them based on qualifications. Optimizing your format to key on education and experience can help you gain approval from an ATS.

While you can choose how to format your resume, we encourage you to incorporate a reverse chronological design . This format lists jobs beginning with the most recent first. 

Next, it is essential to choose a format that employs effective white space and utilizes efficient subheadings . We suggest that you set your margins to 1 “. You should align your text to the left since it makes it easier for the ATS robots to scan. 

The best fonts to use for an ATS are Times New Roman or Arial . 

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What's your current role?

No need to overthink this. It doesn’t take a quantum leap to make this deduction: Your resume always needs to begin with your name at the top. It would also help to make it the largest font on your resume. 

Next to your name, make sure you include: 

• Credentials : Starting with your highest degree earned, license, state designation, and national certifications.
• Location : You don’t have to include your physical address. City and state will suffice. 
• Phone number : Check that you include the phone number to receive text messages from as some employers will text candidates. 
• Email address : Use a work-appropriate email here. An employer might not take you seriously if your email is: [email protected] . Specifically, for 35% of employers, an unprofessional email address is a major problem.

The applicant tracking software has helped make the recruiting process much more efficient for hiring managers. While there isn’t a definitive process to always beat the ATS, there are general rules to follow to create a resume that will increase your success rate.

• Design your resume to match the job description
• Optimize for the ATS by aligning your resume keywords to the job description
• Use the long-form and spelled out acronyms such as BSN (Bachelor’s of Science)
• Save your file as a .docx, .doc or .pdf format
• Don’t use headers or footers
• Use plain, black bullet points not any special bullet types
• Do not include tables since an ATS can’t read them
• Don’t include a photo or use creative fonts

Think of your nurse resume objective or summary as an elevator pitch. Crafting a good objective is all about precision and brevity.

When to use an objective

Whether you write a nursing resume objective or summary depends on your experience. If you don’t have a lot of experience in nursing, then you should write an objective . Objective statements highlight training and goals for the future. 

Don’t make the mistake of over-emphasizing your relative inexperience. 

Highlight what experience or training you have accumulated. For example, lead with any licensure or state designation you’ve earned to begin your objective. Then go into some of your skills that make you a good fit for the job. 

When to use a summary

If you have experience in the field, we suggest that you use a resume summary. 

Within the summary, make sure you include how many years you’ve been in the field with your designation or licensure and specific field expertise. Then outline your goal in applying. 

Here’s an example:

Hard-working and passionate Registered Nurse with over eight years of management/supervising experience and paramedic background looking to continue to grow and enhance my skills for the wellness of the facility. Currently completing my master’s in nursing with a specialty in Executive Leadership .

A good nursing resume will highlight hard and soft skills. A lot of your job depends on performing specific duties, and the recruiter will hone in on those when scanning your resume. 

Most professions emphasize accomplishments in a resume over skills and duties . For many, accomplishment-driven resumes highlight what an individual can do for a company. However, the nursing field prefers a skill-driven resume . Healthcare employers need to feel comfortable that you can perform the skills necessary for the job.

That said, employers also want to know about your accomplishments as well. The best nursing resumes are able to incorporate a professional accomplishment with a skill.

• Hard skills display your understanding of job-specific roles and obligations (such as taking vital signs or administering medication).
• Soft skills demonstrate your personality fit within the team (such as communication or leadership skills). 

Tailor your skills to the role outlined within the job description. If you have administered chemotherapy drugs or radiation therapies, then place it in there. Be specific! 

Keys to Writing Your Experience Section 

This is the meat and potatoes of your resume. Writing a striking experience section will go a long way in securing a terrific nursing job. 

Nursing recruiters are not looking for fluff or abstraction. They want specific and detailed accounts of your work over the years. 

Make it scannable

To start, you want to use easily distinguishable section headers such as “employment history” or “relevant experience.” These buzzwords make the ATS happy. 

We suggest writing your experience down in reverse chronological order. 

Start with your most recent position and go from there. Now, if you have held jobs dating back to the Reagan administration or when The Sopranos was on TV, maybe don’t include those. 

Try to keep your job history within the last 20 years. 

Quantify your experience

Instead of just listing your responsibilities with bullet points, convey your accomplishments using quantitative measurements when possible.

For example, instead of saying: “Helped discharge patients.”

Try instead: “Administered 10 discharges an hour during my shift. Provided ample health care education to patient and family members.”

The second example is more specific and detailed. It gives your employer a good idea as to your efficiency. Also, “administered” evokes more responsibility than “helped.”

Here’s an example of an excellent experience section:

You should also consider including the unit type you worked in. Did you work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or an Emergency Room ?

Be descriptive

When highlighting your experience, use strong action verbs such as “assisted” or “displayed.” 

Lastly, highlight transferable attributes that can apply to any position , including leadership skills, project development, or communication.

You may have significant credentials to help you secure a great nursing position. There’s no problem with having credentials. The problem occurs when you don’t know how to organize your credentials effectively. 

Imagine a symphony conductor with great individual cello players that don’t know how to play in sync with each other–it would be chaos.

The same goes for organizing your certifications. You may have great credentials, but not arranging them correctly could create issues for your resume. 

Luckily, there is an industry-standard for listing your credentials. 

The following order is encouraged:

Education : Start with the year you graduated, degree type and major, university name, and GPA (if it was 3.5 and above). If you went to a prestigious school, you could also start with that. Additionally, if you are worried about age discrimination, we’d suggest you leave out the years studied. Unfortunately, ageism sometimes plays a role in the hiring of nurses.

2012-2014 Master’s of Science in Nursing Duke University School of Nursing, 3.7 GPA

Your Licensure : With licensure, the important part is determining where to put them. If nurses have one or two licenses they will put them after their degree. However, if you have an extensive list of licenses, it may be better to place them in their own section.

It’s crucial to include the following:

• License number
• License type ( LPN , RN , or CNA )
• Name of the license (if different than the name on your resume)
• State of licensure
• Expiration date
• If you have a license that falls under the nurse licensure compact

Sample Nursing Resume License Entry:

Registered Nurse (RN): License number 3378931 Arizona State Board of Licensing, Active since January 2018

State Designations: These generally include more advanced destinations for nurses at the state level. Examples include the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist and Nurse Practitioner . 

Certifications : Your certifications demonstrate a commitment to improving as a nurse. Nurses can work without certifications in many cases. However, some jobs offer pay raises for nurses that have them.

We suggest the following order for listing your certifications:

• Name of the Certification and the Acronym: For example, Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, ACNP-AG
• The Certifying Organization: Such as the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
• The Certificate’s Expiration Date
• The Certification Number

Sample nursing resume certification:

Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, Current – 2018

Awards and Honors: Your awards and honors can include those received in school or at another job. You want to list the name of the award, the awarding body, and the date received.

You may feel like you’ve put a lot of work into your resume up to this point. You have. Since you’re trying to land the perfect nursing job, you want to make sure that you round out your resume . The other sections you should add to your resume are:

Conferences and courses

List any additional terms you have completed as a nurse and any conferences you may have attended or even spoken at.  

The ability to speak multiple languages gives you a leg up over your other nursing competition. Don’t hesitate to put in if you know other languages and designate your level of proficiency. 

An employer is hiring a human being, not a robot. They want to hire someone who they can get along with, so listing your hobbies and interests may serve you well. Additionally, listing a hobby might give your supervisor an idea of whether or not you’d be a good culture fit on the team.

Before you wrap up your resume, make sure you proofread it , and if you can, have someone else read it over for you.

You don’t want your resume to get rejected because you spelled “stethoscope” wrong. Last, when saving your resume, make sure you cave it as a word document or PDF compared to any alternative, older file.

Write a Cover Letter to Go With Your Nursing Resume

Our last parting wisdom to you is to have a cover letter that complements your resume. 

The cover letter gives your recruiter the confidence that you are interested in them specifically.

Having a great resume is fine and all,  but it’s much like giving someone a handshake and not giving a greeting.  It’s a complementary piece that needs a cover letter to reinforce and expound on the ideas covered within it. 

 In other words, the cover letter explains why you chose the company and helps them understand that you aren’t just spamming several companies with your resume. 

You’ve made it. Congratulations!

By this point, you’ve put a lot of time into your resume. You should feel proud of yourself. You’re on your way to landing that new job. Now, it’s time to prepare for the interview . If you need help with that, we’ve got you covered as well.

Resume FAQs

You can write it either way. However, make sure you separate each with a comma. For example, write Jane Doe, RN, BSN or Jane Doe, BSN, RN.

There isn’t one skill that stands above the rest as nurses have to possess many different skills. However, some of the most important ones include problem-solving, attention to detail, organizational skills and multitasking.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice ( DNP ) is the highest degree a nurse can obtain within academia.

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28 Nursing Resume Examples That Worked in 2024

• Nursing Resumes
• Nursing Student Resumes
• Nursing Resumes by Credentials
• Nursing Resumes by Role

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’re in your nursing career, we’ve got 28 nursing resume samples to help you  build a resume  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.

• 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.

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.

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! 

Nursing Resume: 35 Writing Tips for Nurses and ATS Tricks

An outstanding nursing resume is vital even in the face of the nursing shortage . That ideal nursing job you want – chances are that others will feel the same and you at least want to get past the screening and land that interview .

You can use any standard resume formats and information accessible on the internet as a guide for writing your nursing resume. Still, there are various fields, and avenues in nursing – even nurses who have just completed their course have varied clinical experiences, interests, and strengths. A good nursing resume needs additional details to properly showcase how you will be a good fit for the vacancy.

Always bear in mind that your resume is an advertisement of your knowledge, skills, experience, and accomplishments. Use the following tips to help you to write a great resume that is not too general and missing in critical details.

Tailor your nursing resume to the job you are applying for.

You should never see your nursing resume as a one-size-fits-all document cast in stone – you can never list all your skills and the duties you have performed.

1. Customize each resume for the job posting. Look carefully at what the job posting is asking and make sure your resume fits the qualifications listed as closely as possible.

2. Know what qualifications you have to emphasize.  As a job applicant, you need to let each job listing and the type of organization, guide you on what to emphasize. You may be applying for jobs in the same broad field – for example, trauma care, adult ICU or pediatric ICU – but for each application, you might need to make small adjustments to highlight your experience and accomplishments in the particular area.

Get your resume noticed by the ATS

A large percentage of job agencies and employers now use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to electronically screen and rank job applicants. ATS scans the resume for keywords and only the highest ranking applications are forwarded to the hiring manager. This process means, that even if you are the perfect candidate for the job, your resume may not make it if you don’t make it past the ATS. If the ATS did not pick your resume, your nurse application might end up at the bottom of the pile.

3. Duplicate the exact terminology. Another tip for your nurse resume is to duplicate the exact terms or keywords used in the listed job requirements and make sure that your resume includes all the critical details.

4. Determine the keywords from the job posting.  Read the job posting carefully to extract the keywords and target those keywords. These job-related terms describe the skills and qualifications the employer is looking for and are probably the keywords that the ATS has been programmed to use.

5. Job listings might sometimes not be well written and not include all the requirements fed into the ATS. Identify other details that are particularly relevant to the job. For example, an advert may say “Vacancy for an experienced pediatric nurse ” but does not explicitly lists “experience as a pediatric nurse” again in the requirements.

6. Research the facility you are applying to. This could be as simple as visiting their company website to know their core values, history, and other details that may be important to them. Try to highlight at least all the minimum requirements listed in the job post, as well as those included as preferred qualifications. List them all in the summary statement at the beginning of your nursing resume.

Find the right balance when describing your jobs

Most general guidelines on resume writing suggest that resumes are kept as short as possible but this is mostly relevant for general jobs with clearly defined skill sets. Longer resumes are acceptable in cases where there are a variety of fields requiring different skills and duties although you still have to be concise and select what you feel are the most significant details for the job opening.

7. List your work experience clearly and correctly. When listing your work experience, identify the type of facility – for example, whether it was an acute or long-term care facility, child care or adult care, large or small hospital. Include the number of beds in the facility and the unit where you worked, also specifying the type of unit. Where possible add numbers and statistics, for example, “Supervised a team of four registered nurses in a 20-bed high-care trauma unit”. In this way, you communicate a lot about the scope of your experience in a few words.

8. The resume is more pleasing to the eye when it’s concise and well summarized. Fine, you have a lot of achievements and skills, but try to summarize the information you think are not that important or eliminate them all from your resume. Trust me; thick resumes are not that attractive.

9. Showcase your accomplishments. Most advice these days is that nurse resumes should focus on accomplishments – for example, that you supervised teams or were in charge of a nursing unit, committees that you served on, and received a high score on your employee evaluation Accomplishments could also include positive changes in the patient care metrics in the area where you worked or special awards that you or your team received. If you are a fresh grad, your accomplishments during your schooling also work.

10. Highlight your technical skills.  Healthcare employers are however also interested whether you have the required technical skills and experience for the job. Here, you will have to consider carefully and find the right balance between accomplishments and listing specific skills and duties (for example expert at inserting IV’s ) that relate to the work you will be doing.

11. List your main qualifications.  For each nursing qualification listed, add where and when you have obtained it. You don’t have to include your marks but can choose to do so if you achieved exceptionally high marks and any awards or prizes. This is usually relevant if you are just starting on your nursing career.

12. List down other necessary qualifications.   More and more health care facilities are using electronic records (e.g., computer charting systems) so be sure information on medical software packages you know how to use.

13. Do you speak another language?  Bilingualism is another sought after skill in nursing, given the diverse society we live in, so be sure to mention it if you speak another language.

14. Hobbies?  Also, avoid listing hobbies and sports in a professional resume unless it relates directly to the job you are applying for.  

15. List your credentials.  List your current nursing licensures. Include the type of licensure, the state, expiration date, and license number. List national and other certifications you have obtained, also providing the date obtained and the expiration date. Lastly, do not forget to write your credentials correctly, we have a whole guide about writing nurse credentials here .

16. Some information won’t do you any good if you write it on your resume. These include your political views, religious affiliation and such. Try to avoid placing these on your resume unless absolutely necessary.

17. Highlight professional involvement.  Membership to professional organizations demonstrates a commitment to the nursing profession and can earn you bonus points with recruiters.

18. List the professional organizations you belong to.  List the professional organizations you belong to , the date you joined, and any positions you may have held within the organization. If you were elected to serve on bodies such as student representative councils and community organizations, list these as well, together with any positions you held. This applies particularly if they were health- related, for  example serving on the safety committee of the local school board or the board of the local cancer society.

19. Your online profile.  If you have a successful nursing blog or YouTube channel, be sure to include that as well. Do also note that hiring managers may  screen your social media profiles as well, be sure to remove anything that may jeopardize your application.

Create a professional appearance for your nurse resume.

Now that you have a wonderfully compiled nursing resume that identifies you as the most qualified nurse for the job, it’s time to make sure your resume clearly conveys what it intends to do. Many of the points below are important for ATS readability.

20. Appearance matters.  If your resume appears messy, difficult to read, or filled with typographical and grammatical errors, it will create a negative impression on the employers and probably not make it past the first screening.

21. Use the same format throughout. Create a clean and neat document using the same format for the whole document. Some ATS have difficulty reading highly formatted resumes. Provide straightforward headings to delineate different sections – for example, “work experience” and not “Where have I worked?”.

22. List with action verbs.  Avoid long descriptive sentences to list duties and skills – use bulleted lists starting with action verbs instead.

23. Abbreviations.  Unless it is widely accepted and recognized (e.g. ICU, ER), don’t use an abbreviation as some ATS may not be able to distinguish between terms.

24. Don’t make your resume jammed with letters and texts. Sure it’s better to have one or two pages at most, but enough white spaces will help your resume look more readable and less straining to the eye.

25. Don’t overstuff keywords. Tricking the ATS by oversaturating your resume with keywords may not reflect well once read by the hiring manager. Only use keywords in a natural sounding way.

26. Don’t make your resume look like you live in an era where the technicolor movie industry just began! Avoid making your resume colorful, for it would only reduce its professional feel. Only use black ink when making a resume.

27. Font choices and sizes.  Keep the appearance of the nursing resume professional and avoid trying to be creative with unusual fonts and different colors. Use the standard fonts that are easy to read, such as Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. You can use larger font sizes for your name on top and headings, but never use a font size smaller than 10pt.

28. Document format.  Also, check whether the job posting asks for the document to be sent in a specific format such Word or a PDF file. For ATS, it’s safer to upload your documents using the “.doc” formats.

29. Use an appropriate filename.  On the other hand, if you are to submit your resume via email or online, don’t name your document simply as “resume.doc”. Go for something specific like “JohnSmith_Resume.doc”. This helps track your resume better –imagine all the other applicants naming their resume as “resume.doc”

30. Photographs?  Photographs are generally frowned upon except for jobs where appearance matters such as a model or a TV broadcaster.

31. Appropriate email address.  If you have a funky-style e-mail address from way back when you were a teenager – something like “coolchick16” – now is the time to get a new one specifically for job searches.

Proofread your nursing resume.

Writing and completing the details for your nursing resume is half the job. The other half is to make sure it’s reviewed and edited correctly. Here are some tips:

32. Check and re-check what you have written. Make doubly sure that your telephone number, e-mail address, and other contact details are correct. Just imagine if they wanted to call you for an interview and you typed “5” instead of “6”. Proofreading the material is the ultimate step that must be considered before a resume can be regarded as complete.

33. Let the resume sit for a day or two and look at it again with a fresh perspective . Spellcheckers sometimes don’t pick up all the typos and errors (for example, “in” instead of “is”). You can miss these errors because your mind recalls what you have just written and scanned over the content from memory without actually seeing. Also, reread the job listing to make sure you have addressed all the requirements, and you may even have new insights about the content after a break.

34. Ask another person to read through the resume.  To make sure everything is clear and to find any remaining typing and grammatical errors. A nurse friend who knows you well might also come up with important skills and experiences you didn’t think of.

35. Regularly update your resume. Make sure to regularly update your resume as being a professional includes countless experiences that need to be put on your paper like seminars attended and new skills that you’ve obtained.

Writing a great resume is necessary but it does not mean that you surely land on a job as there are other factors too. After crafting your nurse resume, the next step is to prepare for the interview and beat those employment tests. Put your best self out there and we hope with these tips, you’ll land that dream nursing job!  Best of luck!

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Nurse Resume Example & How-to Guide for 2024

As a nurse, you know a lot about taking care of people and helping them be healthy.

But when it comes to resume writing, maybe you could use a little help of your own.

Are there specific resume strategies that nurses should follow?

Just how detailed do you need to be when describing your medical skill set? And how do you highlight all those certifications you might have?

We’re going to walk you through the entire process of creating a nurse resume step-by-step!

• A nurse resume example that is proven to work
• How to write a nurse resume that will get you invited to interviews
• How to make your nurse resume stand out [with top tips & tricks]

Here’s some inspiration to get you started:

A nurse resume example , created with our very own resume builder:

Now, read on to learn how to create a resume that looks as good (or better) than the above example!

How to Format a Nurse Resume

The first step to creating your nurse resume is to decide on a format.

Just like any other career, hiring managers want specific information to jump out at them when reviewing resumes. So nurses need to make sure their resumes are formatted properly.

In 2024, the most common resume format remains the “reverse-chronological” format. So this is your best bet. 

Of course, there are other resume formats you can try…

• Functional Resume - This format is a lot more about your skills as opposed to professional experience. It’s good if you don’t have a lot of experience, are transferring to a new industry, or have gaps in your employment history.
• Combination Resume - As the name suggests, a combination resume is a mix between “Functional” and “Reverse-Chronological.” Meaning, it focuses both on skills AND work experience. You can use a combination resume if you have a lot of work experience or changing industries.

Once you’ve decided on the format, you need to get your resume layout right.

Here’s what we recommend…

• Margins - One-inch margins on all sides
• Font - Pick a font that stands out, but not too much. Do: Ubuntu, Roboto, etc. Don’t: Comic Sans
• Font Size - Use a font size of 11-12pt for normal text and 14-16pt for headers
• Line Spacing - Use 1.0 or 1.15 line spacing
• Resume Length - Don’t go over the 1-page limit. Having trouble fitting everything into one page? Check out these one-page resume templates.
• As a nurse you have probably earned some certifications for different areas of medicine. Create a dedicated section for your certificates so these stand out in your resume.

Use a Nurse Resume Template

Are you used to creating your resume in Word? Painful isn’t it? 

It’s easy to spend more time tinkering with formatting than it actually takes you to fill in the contents.

Then, you decide to make a single, small layout change, and BAM! Your entire resume layout falls apart.

There’s a better way than using Word: use a nurse resume template .

What to Include in a Nurse Resume

The main sections in a nurse resume are:

• Contact Information
• Resume Summary
• Work Experience
• Certificates
• Awards & Recognitions

If you want your resume to stand out more, you can also try these optional sections:

Conferences & Courses

• Professional Affiliations

Interests & Hobbies

Now, we’re going to go through each of those sections, and explain how to write them.

Not sure which sections to use? Check out our guide to What to Put on a Resume .

How to Get Your Contact Information Right

Maybe you’ve created the perfect resume with amazing content on your skills and experience. But if you mess up the contact section, you won’t be getting a lot of interview invitations (mainly because they won’t be able to call your misspelled phone number).

For your contacts, include:

• Title - For nurses, your best bet is likely “Registered Nurse”.
• Phone Number - Double-check, triple-check this. One typo can really mess up your chances of an employer contacting you.
• Email Address - Make sure to use a professional email address ([email protected]), and avoid that email you created back in 5th grade ([email protected]).
• (Optional) Location - Applying for a job abroad? Mention your current location.

How to Write a Nurse Resume Summary or Objective

Fun fact - recruiters spend less than 6 seconds reviewing each resume. This isn’t that surprising, though. You can’t expect them to read the hundreds of resumes they receive from end to end.

So, if the recruiter doesn’t see that you’re relevant for the job in a single glance, your resume won’t even be read.

Now, the question is, what can you do to hook the recruiter the moment they look at your resume.

The answer is simple: use a resume summary or objective .

As a quick intro, both the resume summary and objective are sections that go on top of your resume, just under the contact information section.

The main difference between the 2 sections is that…

A resume summary is a 2-4 sentence summary of your professional experiences and achievements.

• Trauma Certified Registered Nurse with more than five years experience working in emergency care. Compassionate, ethical health-care provider with a proven ability to stay calm during crises. Hold a Master’s of Science in Surgical Nursing. 

A resume objective , on the other hand, is a 2-4 sentence snapshot of your professional goals and aspirations.

• Patient-focused nursing student with 2 years of healthcare experience. Pursuing internships as part of career goal to become Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse.

So, which one do you pick? A summary, or an objective?

As you can see from the above examples, the key difference between the two is that a Resume Objective is better-suited to those who are new to a field (student, graduate, or switching careers). Always go for a Resume Summary if you have already established your career path.

How to Make Your Nurse Work Experience Stand Out

Work experience is the most important section in your resume.

Sure, your medical skills are super important, but so is your professional experience. Here’s how to structure your work experience section…

• Position name
• Company Name
• Responsibilities & Achievements

Brooklyn Hospital

01/2015 - 06/2019

• Obtained and recorded patients’ vital signs, intake and output and blood glucose
• Worked in the cardiatric and oncology wards of the hospital
• Used EHR software to record patient information

Now, if you really want to stand out, you should focus on talking about your achievements instead of responsibilities.

Instead of saying:

“Screen patients upon arrival at emergency ward.”

“Administered emergency ward intake evaluations for up to 25 patients each hour by measuring vital signs and prioritizing cases accordingly.”

So, what’s the difference between the two?

The second one is more specific . You know exactly what the person did, and you can say that he/she can work efficiently. 

The first example, on the other hand, is too generic. Screening patients could be as basic as checking whether they have health insurance and entering their personal information into the hospital system. There is also no mention of how many patients this person is used to handling.

What if You Don’t Have Work Experience?

Maybe you’re a current student trying to land an internship or a recent graduate looking for your first full-time nursing job?

Fortunately, nursing students or graduates gain plenty of practical experience as they navigate their way through their studies. Only so much of the medical field can be taught in the classroom. 

By the time you are in your second year of school, chances are high you’ve been in a health-care facility helping evaluate and treat patients. You may not be a registered nurse at this point, you can absolutely include the skills and procedures you’ve learned in school on your resume.

If you’re a recent graduate, you might want to check out our guide on how to make a student resume !

Use Action Words to Make Your Nurse Resume SHINE!

“Responsible for”

“Worked in”

These are the most common words you’ll find on ANY resume.

And since you want YOURS to stand out, we’d recommend avoiding them as much as possible.

Instead, use some of these power words to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out:

• Administered
• Specialized

How to List Education Right

The next section in any Nurse resume is the “Education.”

This one’s pretty straightforward. Simply list out your education entries, and you’re gold!

• Degree Type & Major
• University Name
• Years Studied
• GPA, Honours, Courses, and anything else you might want to add

MSc in Nursing

University of Southern California

• Relevant Courses: Radiological Nursing, Advanced Surgical Procedures, Oncological Diagnostics

Clear? Good!

Before we move on, here are some of the most frequent questions we get about education on a resume (and their answers!):

• What if I haven’t finished college?

Whether you’re still a student, or you dropped out, you should still mention your degree. All you have to do is include the years studied, and you’re good.

• Do I list my high school education?

Only if you don’t have a higher education. No one cares about your high school education if you have a B.A.

• What goes first, education or experience?

If you have any relevant work experience, then experiences go on top. If you don’t, though, then education.

Still have some questions? Check out our guide on how to list education on a resume .

Top 30 Skills for a Nurse Resume

When the HR manager is going through your resume, they’re looking to see if you have the right skills for the job.

Imagine this: you’re the best nurse in the world and your resume is impeccable. BUT, you still get rejected, because you didn’t mention that you know the exact procedures or techniques that the health centre needs. 

Not sure which skills to pick?

Here are some of the most common nurse skills:

Hard Skills for Nurse Resume:

• Assisting in surgery
• Administration of medication
• Chemotherapy administration
• Bedside monitoring
• Bladder irrigation
• Blood administration
• Emergency room care
• Healthcare software
• Infection control
• Lab testing
• Intramuscularly injections or IV therapy
• Maternal care
• Pain management
• Physical assessments
• Psychiatric care
• Rehabilitation
• Seizure precautions
• Surgery preparation
• Wound irrigation
• Withdrawal of blood samples

Soft Skills for Nurse Resume:

• Attention to detail
• Communication (verbal & written)
• Critical thinking
• Physical endurance (since you will work long hours and have to use sometimes heavy equipment or patients)
• Observation (since you need to track subtle and small changes such as a change in the color or odor)
• As a general rule, we’d recommend not to go overboard with “Soft Skills.” They are certainly important in the medical field, but they are also harder to back up. Doctors need people with hard skills standing next to them, so give these priority. 

Looking for a more comprehensive list? Here’s a mega-list of 150+ must-have skills in 2024 .

Certifications for a Nurse Resume

As we mentioned before, many nurses will attain special certifications as they progress in their careers. These should be highlighted in your resume. For example:

• CPR certified through the American Heart Association
• Family Nurse Practitioner
• Advanced Holistic Nurse, Board Certified

Other Resume Sections You Can Include

At this point, you’re probably ready to wrap up your resume and call it a day.

After all, we’ve covered all the essential sections, right?

Well, not exactly. See, the #1 goal of your resume is to stand out.

And if your resume looks exactly the same as everyone else’s, that’s where you fail.

If you’re already a good match for the job in terms of skills and experiences, these sections could end up being the deciding factor that gets you hired (and makes you stand out from the rest).

As part of their career development, many nurses will participate or even speak at nursing conferences. These are great to list on a resume because they highlight your dedication to the profession.

Meanwhile, nurses also participate in courses devoted to specialized topics in nursing or medicine. Perhaps these courses don’t involve formal certification in a specific area, but they do demonstrate certain career interests.

For example, maybe after five years of working in nursing, you decide to take a course in End-of-Life Care because it’s an area you may want to pursue future certification. Once you’ve taken the course, there’s no reason not to put it on your resume.

If you’ve got the space, try to include a Conferences & Courses section on your resume.

An extra language or two can always come in handy, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the position you’re applying for. You never know when a foreign language might help save a life.

If you know any foreign language & have extra space in your resume, feel free to add a language section.

Make sure to split the languages by proficiency:

• Intermediate

Now, you might be thinking, “what does my hiking hobby have to do with my profession as a nurse?”

Well, nothing, but it does have something to do with you as a person. Strong teamwork is essential in the health-care field, so doctors and administrators are looking for someone they’ll get along with.

And what’s something you can bond with potential employers about? Hobbies and interests, exactly!

Not sure which hobbies & interests you want to mention? We have a guide for that!

Match Your Cover Letter with Your Resume

Yep, that’s right.

You might be thinking, “A cover letter?! Surely the nursing skills on my resume speak for themselves!”

Well, here’s the thing: cover letters are still very important .

They show the recruiter that you’re passionate about working for THIS position in THIS company, and you aren’t just sending your resume all over the place.

Having a solid cover letter with your resume can significantly boost your chances of getting the job.

The first step to writing a convincing cover letter is to get the structure right. Here’s how to do that.

And here’s what you’d write in each section:

Contact Details

Your personal contact information, including full name, profession, email, phone number, location.

Hiring Manager’s Contact Information

Full name, position, location, email.

Opening Paragraph

Your introduction should be very strong. If you don’t manage to hook the hiring manager here, chances are, they’re not going to read the rest of it. So, mention:

• The position you’re applying for
• Your experience summary and top achievement

Once you’ve got the hiring manager hooked, you can go through the rest of your background. Some of the points you can mention here are:

• Why you want to work for this specific company.
• Anything you know about the company’s culture.
• What are your top skills and how are they relevant for the job.
• If you’ve worked in similar industries or positions.

Closing Paragraph

This is where you:

• Wrap up any points you missed in the body paragraph
• Thank the hiring manager for their time
• End with a call to action. Something like, “I’d love to further discuss how my experience as an X can help the company with Y”

Formal Salutations

Use a formal closing, such as “best regards” or “Sincerely.”

Need more inspiration? We get it - creating a cover letter is very hard work. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with your step-by-step guide on how to write a cover letter .

Applying for a different position in the medical field? Our related resume examples can come in handy:

• Medical Assistant Resume
• Pharmacist Resume
• Dentist Resume

Key Takeaways

If you followed everything we just taught you to the T, you’re pretty much guaranteed to land the job.

Now, let’s go through everything we’ve learned real quick:

• Get the right formatting for your nurse resume. Use a reverse-chronological format, and follow the best practices we mentioned on getting the layout right.
• Use a resume summary or objective to catch the hiring manager’s attention.
• In your work experience section, try to talk more about your achievements than your responsibilities.
• Emphasize hard skills more than soft skills (both are important but hard skills save lives)
• Match your nurse resume with a convincing cover letter.

Suggested Reading:

• Use Resume Keywords to Land the Job [880+ Keywords]
• 26+ Biggest Interview Mistakes (To Avoid in 2024)
• How to Write a CV That Gets Noticed (With 2024 Examples)

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6 New Grad Nursing Resume Examples + How To Write

Are you a new grad nurse or about to complete your nursing degree? If so, congratulations on your impressive accomplishment! At this point, you may be wondering what is your next action in the strategy to secure a job. If so, read on for vital information to help you successfully navigate the unchartered territory of finding employment as a nurse. Preparing a top-notch resume is an essential step in securing a position after graduation. When thinking about how to compose a resume, you might ask, what are some exceptional examples of new grad nursing resumes? This article, 6 best new grad nursing resume examples, will guide you through the process of creating a professional new grad nursing resume that is sure to impress. Additionally, well-structured resume examples will visually aid you in designing your resume that is sure to catch the eye of your future employer.

What Exactly Is A New Grad Nursing Resume?

How is a new grad nursing resume different from an experienced nursing resume, 4 reasons why an exceptional resume makes a difference to new grad nurses, 1. you may be competing with experienced nurses-, 2. there may be many candidates-, 3. highlights new skills-, 4. helps to get your foot in the door-, what are some exceptional examples of new grad nursing resumes, example #1: resume of diane joyner, diane joyner, licenses and credentialing, clinical experience, student nurse.

• Performed new mom, baby and labor and delivery patient care duties on a 12-bed obstetrics unit. • Team leader for student nurse rotation on 2 occasions. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-3 patients each week. • Completed 75 clinical hours in obstetrics.

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 28-bed pediatric unit. Commended by clinical instructor, preceptor, and unit nurses for ease of adaptation, enthusiasm, and expert nursing care of children on unit. • Team leader for colleagues on 4 occasions. • Developed nursing care plans on 3-10 patients per week. • Developed and instituted engaging quiet activity lessons and entertainment boxes for children while in the hospital. • For children in quarantine, developed exercises to promote circulation and heart health while recovering in isolation, if applicable. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics.

• Provided nursing care in a busy inner-city ER, ICU, and CCU. • Completed 90 hours total of critical care clinical hours. • Evaluated at 100% by the instructor for competence in critical care skills.

• Completed 30 outpatient hours as a public health nurse, either traveling for home visits or at a community clinic. • Evaluated and developed plans of care for patients from 7 months to 70 years old. • Completed 30 additional outpatient hours in a public elementary and middle school.

• Performed basic nursing care in a 400-bed community hospital with 2-4 adult patients daily. • Administered nursing services to seniors and disabled patients in community rehab and nursing facilities. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours.

Work History

Certified nurses aid.

• Performed basic hygiene and health aide services in a 300-bed nursing facility during vacations and summer.

Secretary to Bloomsburg University Department of Nursing

• Performed basic office duties such as filing, answering phones, and typing reports.

Babysitter for 2 diabetic sisters

• Hired to babysit and carefully monitor 2 diabetic children where carb counting, blood sugar monitoring, and insulin injections were necessary.

• Hostess, waitress, cook, and dishwasher duties as needed in a bustling restaurant.

Volunteer Work

• Mother of a newborn • Candy striper • Campus Catholic Organization • Church nursery worker • St Francis Soup Kitchen • Campus blood drive

What Makes This An Exceptional New Grad Registered Nurse Resume:

Example #2: resume of jan beck, licenses and credentialing.

1/2021-4/2021 Boseman, Montana

• Performed new mom, baby, and labor and delivery patient care duties on an 8-bed birthing center. • Developed nursing care plans on 1-2 patients each week. • Completed 75 clinical hours in obstetrics.

9/2020-11/2020 Boseman, Montana

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 20-bed pediatric unit. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-4 patients per week. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics.

1/2020-5/2020 Boseman, Montana

• Provided nursing care ER, ICU, and CCU. • Completed 90 hours total of critical care clinical hours. • Evaluated at 99% by the instructor for competence in critical care skills. • Selected consistently by the staff and clinical instructor to work on Covid and burn units along with special cases.

11/2019-12/2019 Boseman, Montana

• Completed 30 psychiatric clinical hours at a 150-bed psychiatric hospital. • Completed psychiatric evaluations and instituted and monitored mental health treatment plans on 2 patients per day.

9/2019-10/2019 Boseman, Montana

• Completed 30 outpatient hours in a high school health clinic.

1/2019- 5/2019 Boseman, Montana

• Performed basic adult nursing care in a 200-bed community hospital with 2-4 patients daily. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours.

WORK HISTORY

University lab assistant.

5/2019-Present Boseman, Montana

• Selected by nursing faculty to assist in Anatomy and Physiology labs along with Microbiology lab.

Student Tutor

1/2020-Present Boseman, Montana

• Tutored students in course work for science, health, computer technology.

HONORS AND AWARDS

• Graduated second in nursing class with a 3.96 GPA • Received 4.0 in all clinical rotations • Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society • Award for future nurse in excellence and scholarship

Example #3: Resume of Joan Zimmerman

Joan zimmerman.

1/2021-4/2021

• Completed 60 clinical hours rotating between urgent care and family health clinic. • The preceptor stated she felt very confident in all skills and knowledge to independently care for patients under her supervision.

9/2020-11/2020

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 60-bed pediatric unit. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-4 patients per day. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics.

1/2020-5/2020

• Provided nursing care ER, ICU, and CCU. • Completed 90 hours total of critical care clinical hours. • Evaluated at 100% by the instructor for competence in critical care skills. • Team head 3 out of 10-week rotation. • Nurses on the unit commented daily on my advanced knowledge of cardiovascular conditions and ability to handle patient care efficiently.

11/2019-12/2019

• Completed 30 psychiatric clinical hours at a 241-bed psychiatric hospital. • Completed psychiatric evaluations and instituted and monitored mental health treatment plans on 2 patients per day.

9/2019-10/2019

• Completed 60 outpatient hours rotating between units for women’s health, labor and delivery, NICU, PICU, and newborn nursery.

1/2019-5/2019

• Performed basic nursing care on adults in a busy 600-bed hospital with 2-4 patients daily. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours.

Walmart Cashier

5/2017-Present

Honors and Awards

• Graduated first in nursing class with a 3.99 GPA • Received 4.0 in all clinical rotations • Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society • Future Nurse Leader Award • School of Nursing Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

Volunteer and Leadership Experience

• President of Student Nursing Association • Captain of the high school basketball team

Example #4: Resume of Lizzie Arndt

Lizzie arndt.

1/2021-5/2021 Jersey City, New Jersey

• Completed 60 clinical hours performing home health services on patients of a variety of ages and conditions, including prenatal and postnatal care. • Developed new mom instructional videos on breastfeeding and bathing.

9/2020-11/2020 Eastman, New Jersey

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 62-bed pediatric unit. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-4 patients per day. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics. • Rotated onto pediatric burn unit.

1/2020-5/2020 Eastman, New Jersey

• Provided nursing care ER, ICU, CCU, and adult burn unit. • Completed 90 hours total of critical care clinical hours.

11/2019-12/2019 Eastman, New Jersey

• Completed 30 psychiatric clinical hours at a state prison on both men’s and women’s units. • Completed psychiatric evaluations and instituted and monitored mental health treatment plans on 1-3 patients per day.

9/2019-10/2019 Eastman, New Jersey

• Completed 60 outpatient hours rotating between units for women’s health, labor and delivery and NICU, PICU, and newborn nursery. • Achieved 100% on clinical skills and knowledge testing. • Developed competency checklist for pre- and post-natal teaching of pregnant women and new moms. • Established support reference material for new mom packet.

1/2019- 5/2019 Eastman, New Jersey

• Performed basic adult nursing care in a busy 575-bed hospital with 2-4 patients daily. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours in the hospital and adjoining rehabilitation center.

Swim Instructor and Lifeguard

5/2017-Present Jersey City, New Jersey

• Graduated first in nursing class with a 3.95 GPA • Received 4.0 in all clinical rotations • Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society • Outstanding Nursing Student Award • Scholarship for swimming • Scholarship for academic excellence

Extra-Curricular Activities

• Division I swimming all 4 years in college

Example #5: Resume of Lynn Horton

Lynn horton.

• Performed new mom, baby and labor and delivery patient care duties on a 50-bed women’s health unit. • Completed 75 clinical hours in obstetrics.

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 20-bed pediatric unit. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-4 patients per week. • Rotated onto pediatric oncology unit to care for 1-2 oncology patients per day. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics.

• Provided nursing care in ER, ICU, and CCU units. • Completed 96 hours total of critical care clinical hours.

• Completed 30 psychiatric clinical hours at a 40-bed detox and substance abuse facility. • Completed psychiatric evaluations and instituted and monitored mental health treatment plans on 2-3 patients per day. • Assisted nursing and psychiatric staff with detox and substance abuse treatment and therapy.

• Completed 30 outpatient hours in a home health agency to include care for adults and children with cancer.

• Performed basic nursing care in a 600-bed community hospital with 2-4 patients daily. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours.

Certified Nurse Assistant

• Provided comfort and basic care to adult patients with cancer.

• Graduated Magna Cum Laude • Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society • Award for future nurse in excellence and scholarship

Volunteer and Extra-curricular Activities

• Served as a companion and nurse’s aide to a friend dying of cancer • Division III university softball player

Example #6: Resume of Paul Linney

Paul linney.

1/2021-4/2021 Tampa, Florida

• Performed new mom, baby and labor and delivery patient care duties on a 30-bed birthing center. • Performed basic nursing and prenatal care to walk-in women’s health center. • Completed 75 clinical hours in obstetrics and women’s health.

9/2020-11/2020 Tampa, Florida

• Performed patient care duties on a busy 38-bed pediatric unit. • Developed nursing care plans on 2-3 patients per week. • Completed 75 clinical hours in Pediatrics.

1/2020-5/2020 Tampa, Florida

• Provided nursing care in ER, ICU, and CCU units. • Completed 90 hours total of critical care clinical hours.

10/2019-12/2019 Tampa, Florida

• Completed 30 psychiatric clinical hours on a 62-bed psychiatric unit, which included detox and substance abuse treatment. • Completed psychiatric evaluations and instituted and monitored mental health treatment plans on 2-4 patients per day. • Assisted nursing and psychiatric staff with detox and substance abuse treatment and therapy. • Achieved 100% for clinical rotation. • Selected as team leader 5 out of 8 weeks on unit. • The Nurses and the preceptor remarked weekly about comfort level and ease with working with psychiatric patients.

9/2019-10/2019 St. Pete, Florida

• Completed 30 outpatient hours in a community center for at-risk youth. • Held group sessions for abused and traumatized teens. • Met individually with 2 patients per week for individual counseling and psychiatric sessions and care.

1/2019-5/2019 Tampa, Florida

• Performed basic nursing care in a 300-bed community hospital with 2-4 patients daily. • Completed 100 hours total of med-surg clinical hours.

VOLUNTEER AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

• Boys Club of Clearwater • Paxton Ministries Soup Kitchen • Special Olympics

HOW TO WRITE AN EXCEPTIONAL NEW GRAD RN RESUME?

1. proper format.

• Your name and contact information at the top of the page • Easy to read (not fancy) fonts such as New Times Roman, Arial, and Calibri • Font size 11 or12 • Stay consistent in fonts and style types • Be concise • No abbreviations or slang

2. Summary or objective

• Professional goals • Name of unit and institution where you are applying • Nursing skills and qualities pertinent to the position • Degrees and professional certifications

3. Licenses and credentialing

• The full name of your license or certification • Institution or body that issued license

4. Education

• Official school name • Location of the school • Dates you attended or graduated • Degree that you completed

5. Clinical rotations

• The type of the clinical rotation • Dates of the rotation and total hours completed • Name of institution (and city/state) of clinical • Name of unit you worked on

6. Work history

• Position held, then the name of the company/organization where you worked and the city and state with starting and ending date of hire • In a few words, describe the job

7. Volunteerism

• Church bake sales, nursery work, chicken BBQ worker, soup kitchen, and vacation bible school assistant • Hospital candy striper • Homecoming committee • Musical lighting and props • Prepped dinners for a homeless shelter • Assistant to professor • Staffed nursing department booth for college fairs • Blood pressure checks for health fairs • Assisted with blood drives on campus

8. Honors and awards

9. skills/language summary, 10. appropriate length, 11. match your resume to the job, 12. proofread, 7 common mistakes to avoid when writing your new grad nursing resume, 1. not including non-work experience-, 2. being too modest-, 3. too wordy-, 4. not personalized-, 5. leaving out accomplishments-, 6. not customizing-, 7. not proofing-, 3 consequences of a poorly written new grad rn resume, 1. you may never get an interview-, 2. your resume sets the stage-, 3. you may receive lower compensation-, my final thoughts, frequently asked questions answered by our expert, 1. what is the difference between new grad nurse resume and new grad nurse cv, 2. as a new grad nurse, when should i write my resume, 3. do i need a different resume for each new grad nursing job i apply to, 4. how long is my new grad nursing resume good for, 5. how many words should a resume be for a new graduate nurse, 6. how much time does it take to write an exceptional resume for a new grad nurse, 7. what is the best resume format for new grad nurses, 8. should i put my gpa on my new grad nurse resume, 9. should skills be on my new grad nurse resume, 10. what is a good objective for a new grad nursing resume, 11. how to list registered nurse license on my new grad nursing resume.

• Full name of nursing license • The body that issued the license • Expiration date

12. Should I Put Clinical Experience On My New Grad Nursing Resume?

13. should i include preceptorship on my new grad nursing resume, 14. can i ask someone else to write my new graduate nurse resume, 15. is it a good idea to use ready templates to write my new graduate nurse resume, 16. are there any online apps or tools that make writing a good resume for a new graduate nurse easy.

How to Write a Nursing Resume

Step-by-Step Guide for Writing and Formatting a Nursing Resume

Writing a nursing resume for is a specialty in itself. 

There are so many degrees and specializations available in the field of nursing that a resume writer not closely familiar with the healthcare industry won’t be able to portray a precise picture.

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Moreover, the many intricacies associated with the daily duties of an nursing can make this task even harder. 

So, what should you do when it comes to writing or updating your nursing resume?

Should you go around searching for specialized resume writers , or should you do it yourself? 

Well, in both cases, knowing how to write a nursing resume will surely help you in the process. 

In this article, we will provide a section-by-section how-to guide and all the tips that you need to create your nursing resume. 

First, take a look at a sample RN resume so that it becomes easier to follow along with the guidelines explained below: 

How to Write a Nursing Resume – Contact Information

At the top of your resume, you will place your name and contact information. 

Put your designation, specialty degrees, and certifications beside your name after a comma.

Here’s an example from an Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) resume. 

You can see “Jane Smith” is also a Registered Nurse Practitioner (RNP) – Board Certified, and a certified Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurse (WOCN). 

If you are an ADN or a BSN-qualified registered nurse, put only RN beside your name. 

Keep revisiting and updating this section as you grow your career and get new degrees, certifications, and specializations.

Some of these might include Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP), Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), and Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS).

Also, make sure you are using a professional-looking email address. 

Use one with your name and initials instead of something fancy like [email protected] . 

Professional Title & Resume Summary for Nursing Resumes

The next part of your RN resume is your professional title and resume summary. 

The practice of writing resume objectives is no longer in use. 

Go for a resume summary instead, as this showcases what you bring to the table as a registered nurse. 

Your resume summary is a five to six-sentence overview of your career right below your professional title. 

Include only the most impressive career details, skills, accomplishments, and experience. Always remember to keep every detail in as close relation to the job you are applying for as possible. 

Also, try to include numbers to quantify your achievements if possible. 

Your professional title and work summary will keep evolving as you move ahead in your career. 

Here’s how the professional title and the summary evolved when the BSN-prepared RN completed an MSN and became a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP):

You will have to make changes accordingly if you go for a DNP instead of, or along with, your MSN. 

Similar changes will also have to be made if you choose other specializations, such as becoming a Certified Nurse Practitioner (CNP) and Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), instead of choosing to focus on a career as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP).

Adding Skills to a Nursing Resume

After the summary section, you will want to add the skills section of your resume. 

You can title the section in a few ways, such as: 

• “Core Expertise” 
• “Areas of Excellence” 
• “Core Competencies” 

In this section, use a bullet list of all the major skills, specializations, expertise, and other competencies that you have gained as an RN.

Make sure to include mainly the skills and competencies that will be ideal and/or required on the job you are applying for.  

As an example, if you are applying for a role at the Adult & Geriatric Care unit of a facility, including pediatric unit experience is not required. 

However, you can choose to include it if you have limited experience, and enough space on your resume to fit it in. 

Use a Chronological Nursing Resume Format 

From this stage onwards, your resume content and design will vary depending on the resume format you have chosen for your RN resume. 

For most cases, you will only need to be aware of three resume formats. 

• Chronological resume format
• Functional resume format
• Combination resume format

In chronological format, your experience section gets the most prominent presentation. 

With the functional resume format, the skills section gets the center stage. 

And, as the name suggests, the combination format combines the two strategies and provides equal attention to both aspects of your career. 

In nursing, on-the-job training and experience are of utmost importance. So, always go for the chronological resume format where your experience and clinical training rotations would be most prominent. 

Also, some nurses worry about including experience from a unit that they do not want to work in anymore, such as having extensive experience in med-surg but hoping to move into NICU. 

Yes, you should still include all relevant nursing experience on your resume . 

Not including any specific experience can leave an employment gap on your resume, which can be seen in a negative light by employers and hiring managers. 

Include all of your experience, but balance the focus and prominence according to your target job. 

Experience Sections in a Nursing Resume

For adding your job experience to your resume, start with the most recent role. 

• Name of the institute 
• Location 

As shown below:  

Then, move on to describe your main responsibilities and accomplishments. 

For reading ease, try to mix the use of paragraphs and bulleted sections. 

Write down your duties and responsibilities in a paragraph and then list all your relevant accomplishments using bullets. 

As with all the sections on your resume, tailor each of the details you include in response to the job description at hand:

• Which department and unit are you going to work at? 
• What kind of nursing activities will you be performing? 

Give the most focus to similar duties and accomplishments from your previous roles. 

If you have recently graduated from a nursing program, make use of your clinical rotations, internship, and experience as a student nurse.

As much as possible, utilize numbers to indicate the volume of patient care you are adept at handling.  

You can also include any prior healthcare experience that you have. 

Maybe you were a CNA or had other technical experience in nursing. If so, add a separate section to your RN resume titled “Additional Relevant Experience.” 

The above example also serves as a good reference of the use of numbers in your experience section, as well as utilizing both paragraphs and bullet lists. 

Nursing Resume Education Section

As a new graduate, it would be a good idea to include the education section of your resume above the clinical rotation and experience section. 

Just include:

• Name of the degree or program
• Name of the institute
• Year of completion

Also, include your certifications and licensure in this section. 

You may use a separate subtitle such as “Professional Development” to indicate your certifications and licenses. 

If you are a member of any professional organizations or associations, this can be a good place to include them. 

Here’s something important to note:  

Depending on the amount of your professional experience and the year you completed your education, the placement of the education section will vary on your resume. 

If you have recently completed a nursing degree that is important for the role you are applying for, place it above the experience section. 

On the other hand, if your degrees were achieved more than a year ago and you have been working at a facility as an RN after getting the degree, place your education after the experience section. 

Suppose, after a few years working as a BSN -qualified RN, you obtain your MSN . 

Then you can again prioritize the education section in your resume by moving it higher up to showcase your recent degree and clinical rotations.

By formatting your RN resume this way, you provide the most visibility and prominence to your recent degrees and clinical hours instead of experience from a few years back. 

As you obtain additional degrees, specializations, and certifications, simply keep adding them to your education section. 

Here’s how your education section might look like after completing your DNP and a few other programs and certifications:

Should a Nursing Resume Be One or Two Pages? 

While describing your experience section, education, certifications, and other marks of professional development, you’ll want to keep the length of your resume in mind. 

For most entry-level positions, keeping your resume to a single page is the best practice. 

However, if you have a few years of experience under your belt and you need more space to detail all of your relevant experience and expertise, you can go up to two pages. 

On the other hand, if you are struggling to fill up your one-page resume, you can expand it by adding any volunteering and extracurricular experience you have. 

But make sure they are related to nursing or healthcare. 

For instance, you might have volunteered for a literary event at your nursing school, but that’s not relevant. 

However, if you helped organize an event at nursing homes and senior care facilities, you’ll definitely want to include that. 

In Conclusion, A Few Important Tips for Nursing Resumes

For each job you are applying to, always study the job description carefully and tailor your resume accordingly. 

Sending the same generic resume to all the jobs can significantly reduce the number of interview calls you get. 

Also, do not forget to search for the most prominent keywords from the job descriptions; place them within your resume content to make sure it gets past the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). 

Don’t ignore the age-old advice of revising and proofreading your resume multiple times. 

You want to show yourself as a razor-sharp professional, and an error on your resume certainly wouldn’t help. 

And what about the text formatting and design – font size, margins, alignment, font colors, etc.? 

Pay close attention to these seemingly insignificant details as well. 

All these details affect the primary appearance of your resume and determine how visually appealing it might be. Play around with these options to find the perfect, professional combination. 

So, that’s about it! 

In closing, writing an RN resume is not an easy task. 

But with this comprehensive guide at hand, hopefully, you will get it done quickly and painlessly and be ready for the next opportunity that comes your way. 

Take the next step toward your healthcare future with online learning.

• About the Author
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P. Shreffler started her nursing career in 2010 as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). After working for almost five years she decided it was time to go back to college and further her education. In June of 2015 she passed her NCLEX on the first attempt and can finally put that RN behind her name! Her background has been in the long-term care setting for these past 5 years with a small amount of experience in acute care during RN school. I am excited at where my career may take me and I enjoy knowing that I may make the difference in many, many lives down the road!

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Navigating the Transition from Staff Nurse to Nurse Leader

• Transitioning from staff nursing to a nurse leader requires flexibility, resiliency, and constant improvment.
• Balancing the needs of your team, and their productivity can be a difficult balancing act for new nurse leaders.
• Dr. Gyekye explains their career journey and shares tips to help nurses transition into leadership roles.

Michael Gyekye

DNP, MSN, BSN, RN

The nursing office called a meeting one morning, and it was decided that I would take over as the new unit manager. I was quite anxious and unsure of the type of nurse manager I would be.  

I couldn’t comprehend what someone with only four years of nursing experience could do when I observed their difficulties in hiring staff, managing budgets, recruiting and retaining employees, enforcing discipline, and participating in various union initiatives.  

Little did I know that my proficiency and leadership qualities shone brightly, my supervisors took notice from the very beginning. I demonstrated exceptional clinical skills and a genuine empathy towards my patients in my unit, despite the outgoing manager’s recommendation that I be a good fit to lead the unit.  

Although I was devoted to my team’s needs and thought I was a fantastic team leader in their eyes, I did not think I was the best candidate because other senior nurses on the same unit had given me orientation when I first started out as a nurse.  

My coworkers valued my ability to remain composed in stressful situations and my unwavering commitment to offering high-quality treatment.  

Patients and their families praised me for my kind bedside approach and frequently mentioned how much of a difference I made in how they felt about the hospital. However, as an immigrant, I found this challenging because I had to serve in a variety of leadership roles, which I found challenging.  

The transition from being a devoted staff nurse to taking on the position of nurse leader or manager is a transformative experience that has its own set of problems and difficulties. The healthcare environment is significantly shaped by nurse leaders who also mentor teams and guarantee the best possible patient outcomes.  

Advancing from Staff Nursing 

As nurses advance in their careers, they come across a variety of difficulties that call for careful thought and deft navigation. To navigate this change and deal with the issues that develop along the road, proper planning and adaptability are necessary.  

As it entails adjusting to new tasks, managing interpersonal dynamics, and sustaining patient-centered ideals, this shift is not without its problems and difficulties. This article goes over the problems that nurses frequently run into during this transition and how to handle them wisely.  

Finding the correct balance between upholding my clinical competency and accepting new administrative tasks was one of the biggest challenges I encountered when I moved into a leadership position. While a staff nurse’s primary concentration is on providing direct patient care, nurse leaders are also required to assign duties, oversee finances, and make strategic choices.  

The difficulty is maintaining managerial responsibilities without losing sight of the clinical side and ensuring that administrative acumen is developed without sacrificing clinical skills.  

Nurse managers can solve this problem by scheduling recurring clinical shifts or having staff nurses shadow them. This procedure promotes a greater comprehension of the difficulties faced by frontline nurses and helps nurse leaders stay up to date with clinical procedures.  

To stay current on the most recent clinical developments, nurse leaders should pursue opportunities for continued education and skill development. Additionally, time for clinical involvement can be freed up by assigning some administrative responsibilities to dependable team members.  

To stay current on clinical developments while effectively carrying out their administrative duties, nurse leaders should schedule time for ongoing education, attend workshops, and promote peer-to-peer mentorship.  

Frequently, nurse leaders are forced to choose between upholding organizational norms and regulations and fighting for the welfare of their nursing workforce. It might be difficult to strike a balance between the needs of frontline nurses and compliance with institutional policies.  

Here, effective communication is crucial. Open communication between nurse leaders and their teams is essential for addressing issues and stressing the value of following established procedures. As a result, nurses feel supported and are more likely to uphold the organization’s principles.  

Interpersonal difficulties frequently arise when someone transitions from a peer connection with coworkers to a leadership position. Keep in mind that once we were peers.  

Relationships may become strained when a supervisor transitions from being a colleague. Nursing executives could struggle to uphold policies while keeping personal relationships. They might encounter circumstances where they must handle problems with their performance or disputes among their former classmates.  

It can be difficult to strike a balance between upholding unity and imposing authority. Relationships may be strained, and emotions of loneliness or resentment may result from the change in power dynamics.  

Nurse Leader Expectations 

The key is honest communication. Clear expectations should be set out front and center, an open-door policy should be established, and constructive criticism should be given in private. Transparency can help nurse leaders create a productive team environment by fostering trust.  

Leaders in the nursing profession should create open lines of communication, welcome criticism, and set a good example. Nurse leaders can keep good connections by addressing issues sympathetically while upholding professional boundaries.  

It is possible for nurse leaders to lose sight of the patient-centered principles that drew them to nursing in the first place when they become immersed in administrative duties. It might be hard to prioritize patient care while juggling other obligations.  

In order to build relationships with patients and frontline workers, nurse leaders should occasionally work clinical shifts or spend time on the floor. This practical experience not only keeps their professional skills sharp but also keeps them sensitive to the needs of the patients.  

It’s important to establish good ties with your team members. You’ll need to win their confidence, encourage their professional development, and attend to any worries they may have.  

It is a necessary component of the function to resolve disputes between team members or between the team and other departments. Maintaining a harmonious workplace will be easier with the development of good dispute/resolution skills.  

It can be satisfying and difficult to lead a team that was formerly made up of peers. Team members who were previously on an equal footing may reject or be reluctant to recognize the authority of nurse leaders. It might be difficult to strike the ideal mix between approachability and aggressiveness.  

Nurse leaders are entrusted with making higher-level decisions that affect the entire unit or department, whereas regular nurses frequently adhere to established norms and procedures. The weight of these choices and their possible repercussions can be debilitating.  

Taking up a leadership position might result in imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Nurse leaders may doubt their capacity to lead successfully, particularly in trying circumstances. Building a network of like-minded nursing leaders and looking for mentorship can serve as a support structure for exchanging experiences and knowledge. Confidence can be increased by frequently reviewing achievements and asking for comments.  

Training in leadership development that emphasizes communication, conflict resolution, and team-building skills should be provided for nurse leaders. By enlisting the help of seasoned leaders and taking part in leadership development programs, nurse leaders can improve their decision-making abilities.  

It may be easier to make the change if trust is established and a team’s success is shown to be important. When possible, collaborative decision-making can also aid in responsibility sharing and improve the standard of options.  

The change to a leadership position for nurses entails increased accountability and duty. The performance of their team and the caliber of the treatment provided are two more factors for which nurse leaders are responsible in addition to their own behavior.  

This increased accountability may result in enormous strain and moral conundrums. Effective task delegation is a critical competency for nurse leaders. However, choosing which duties to assign and which to keep in-house can be a difficult issue.  

Nurse leaders must understand that delegation is about maximizing the strengths of the team, not about unloading responsibilities.  

Leaders in the nursing profession should become familiar with legal frameworks, ethical standards, and quality improvement ideas. Making wise decisions can be aided by embracing a culture of ongoing learning and looking for mentorship from seasoned nursing leaders.  

It is critical to promote a culture of mutual respect and have clear communication regarding expectations. Nurse leaders should assist and mentor their teams while having faith in them to do a great job on the responsibilities assigned.  

It can be difficult to transition from a clinical to a managerial position. You must put your attention on assigning duties, establishing standards, and making choices that will affect your team and patient care.  

Increased workloads and levels of stress are frequently associated with the transition from staff nurse to nurse leader. While overseeing their teams and carrying out their administrative duties, nurse leaders must take care to prioritize their own wellbeing. Setting boundaries, putting self-care first, and using stress-reduction methods are essential. Nurse leaders may set an example for their teams by taking care of themselves and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.  

Balancing New Responsibilities 

Striking a balance between their busy professional positions and personal lives is a difficulty that nurse leaders frequently face. The increased workload, administrative responsibilities, and constant availability might cause burnout and adversely affect general well-being.  

Self-care should come first for nurse leaders, and they should delegate work whenever possible. Leaders in the nursing profession can maintain a better work-life balance by using time management strategies like clearly defined priorities and boundaries.  

The transition from staff nurse to nurse leader is fraught with challenges that call for serious thought and strategic planning. Nurse leaders can be empowered to effectively traverse these conundrums by accepting the challenges of this transformation and approaching them with an open mentality, good communication, a dedication to ethical leadership, and continual learning. By doing this, they promote nursing practice and improve patient care outcomes in addition to contributing to their own personal growth.  

The Bottom Line

Finally, the transition from staff nurse to nurse leader is a transformative process that calls for flexibility, resiliency, and constant improvement. The difficulties and obstacles encountered along the route provide chances for growth and education.

Nurse leaders can successfully navigate these conundrums and thrive in their leadership roles by embracing ongoing education, effective communication, strategic decision-making, patient-centered care, and self-confidence. In the end, this will help to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.  

Love what you read? Share our insider knowledge and tips!

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How to Write Effective Resume Bullets

The Formula

The p.a.r. framework, make an appointment.

Writing resume bullets is often the most challenging aspect of writing a resume. Yes, settling on the best design and format and determining the most relevant experiences to highlight on your resume can take time; however, effectively describing your experience is the most important task. In many ways, this is because your bullets provide the majority of the content and context for your resume, and it is the content of a resume (i.e. the resume bullets) that will distinguish an average resume from a competitive one.

The first step to writing more effective bullet points is to recognize that your bullets can and should be more than just a list of the tasks and responsibilities you managed in a particular role. Don’t just copy and paste directly from your position description. While a job description is a great place to start, simply listing your duties doesn’t harness the full potential of a resume bullet. It doesn’t communicate the skills that you have developed nor does it distinguish you from someone else who has been in the same role or had similar experiences. Most important, it doesn’t demonstrate the impact or results of the tasks and the responsibilities you had.

Instead, think of your bullets as accomplishment statements . Using this framework, you are able to focus more on the results of your work and the skills you have developed through your various experiences. Ask yourself: What did you accomplish? Why and how did you complete this task? What was your unique impact or contribution within this role? What sets you apart from others in this or a similar role? The answers to these questions will help you outline the skills you will bring to your next position and demonstrate the results you are likely to produce once you are in the new role.

To help you get started, use the following basic formula to craft your resume bullets:

In addition to the above mentioned formula, many students find it helpful to think about their experiences using the Problem - Action - Result framework. For each task or responsibility, what problem were you seeking to address? What action did you take to address this problem? What were the results of your action? Once you have determined these answers, you can summarize the content into one (or more) bullets. 

We’ve compiled a list of “before” and “after” resume bullets to help demonstrate how you can transform your bullets from good to great.

If you are having difficulty turning your resume bullets into accomplishment statements or you would like someone to review your newly created bullets, set up an appointment with your Advisor for Career Exploration (ACE) or an industry/field Career Advisor in Handshake ! You can also come to Career Education Drop-In Hours for a quick resume review.

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