How do you write a nursing resume that really stands out from the pile? The job search website Zippia found in 2023 that hiring managers spend an average of only six seconds reviewing each resume, and only about 2% of resumes lead to an interview—so making sure your resume shines can help ensure you get the consideration you deserve.

For nurses, resumes are typically a requirement for positions at medical facilities, such as hospitals and clinics. These documents should list all nursing job experiences and highlight the professional skills that make the candidates a good fit for the role they’re seeking.

Whether they’re novices in the nursing field or graduates with advanced training in a post-master’s certificate program, nurses seeking new roles should focus on creating a resume that stands out. A nursing resume’s information and keywords can determine whether a job seeker makes it to the next step in the hiring process.

Key takeaways

• A well-tailored nursing resume can significantly enhance your chances of landing your desired role by aligning your skills and experiences with job requirements.
• Highlighting both hard and soft skills, along with relevant licenses, certifications, and education, ensures a comprehensive representation of your qualifications.
• Including specific achievements and measurable outcomes, such as patient care success stories or safety improvements, makes your resume stand out to hiring managers.
• Proper formatting, proofreading, and including keywords tailored to the job posting optimize your resume for both ATS and recruiters.
• Always accompany your resume with a personalized cover letter to make a strong first impression and demonstrate genuine interest in the role.

Nursing resumes serve two general purposes:

• Shaping an employer’s perception of the candidate: Sharing information about the candidate’s unique set of experiences working with patients and their loved ones, as well as other health care professionals
• Telling the story of who the candidate is: Listing and describing the nursing jobs and responsibilities that provided the knowledge and skills required for the job they seek

Given the short amount of time that hiring managers typically spend looking at a resume, applicants should organize their resumes to put the most important things up front. For new graduates with little or no work experience, this will usually mean leading with education and certifications. Nurses who have spent more time in the field, on the other hand, should lead with work experience.

Below are key sections in a typical nursing resume.

A resume should begin with a short summary or objective statement. This opening defines the focus of your resume and what you seek to accomplish by sending it. A well-written statement speaks specifically to the job you are applying for and shows that it fits into your long-term career goals.

A summary should clearly describe the applicant as a job candidate and why they’re a good fit for the position using pointed and descriptive language.

For example, a summary for a nurse practitioner seeking a role specializing in family care might read:

“Experienced family nurse practitioner skilled in holistic care. I have a passion for health promotion and preventative care that comes from more than ten years of treating people of all ages in family clinics.”

An objective statement describes your professional goals and the value you can add to an employer’s work. For example, a family nurse practitioner expanding their practice to include psychiatric mental health might read:

“Nurse practitioner in family practice for more than five years seeking to expand my area of focus by bringing advanced knowledge in holistic family care to help people of all ages overcome mental health challenges.”

A nursing resume should include information about each license or certification the candidate holds. These include state licenses and certifications for treating specific conditions and patient populations, such as women’s health or pediatric care. Each listing should include:

• The full name of the license followed by its parenthetical abbreviation
• The state in which the license was issued
• The expiration date
• The full name of the licensing organization
• The license or certification number

A resume’s education section should list all postsecondary institutions that you attended. Each listing should include:

• The name of the degree or certification
• The full name of the school awarding the credential
• The location of the school
• The start and completion dates of the degree program

Recent graduates should highlight any clinical rotations that they completed as part of their education.

Each resume should include a section outlining the nurse’s job skills. Candidates should only list skills at which they excel and which they use frequently. Resumes should include examples of how the nurse uses each of these skills and the outcomes they produced. For example, a candidate highlighting skills in patient safety might write:

“Led a team tasked with reducing incidence of medical mistakes in our unit. Developed work plans and incentive programs that reduced the medical error rate by 75% in six months.”

A nurse seeking to illustrate their aptitude in technology could write:

“Used electronic health records (EHRs) in different care settings and trained other health care professionals on securing the data in these records.”

A nursing resume should include all the candidate’s work experience. The document should list each job, starting with the most recent position:

• Work performed: Explain the main tasks for which the nurse was responsible in the role.
• Experience gained: Note the time period of employment.
• Lessons learned: Describe any relevant lessons learned and applied in the role.
• Skills required: Include information about key skills the role required.

Experienced nursing professionals who have worked in various roles should focus on their three most recent positions and provide greater detail of these roles.

Anytown Children’s Hospital Clinic, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, August 2019 – Present

• Assess and diagnose children and teens using clinical skills when treating patients with acute and chronic conditions.
• Order diagnostic tests and evaluate results, collaborating with physicians and other health care providers to address underlying conditions.
• Oversee well-child visits, including leading a weekly immunization clinic to meet the needs of community members.

Mentor other nursing professionals, conducting training sessions to share clinical lessons on topics such as communication with families and adhering to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

Candidates should include any volunteer work. Nursing-related volunteering should receive the greatest emphasis, along with any work with vulnerable populations, such as at-risk youth or the elderly.

Volunteer work shows potential employers that your passion for helping improve people’s lives extends beyond the workplace and helps underscore additional experience you may have in working with special populations or in external settings.

A nursing resume should also list any professional awards or nominations. This section can also note any leadership roles that the nurse received in recognition of their accomplishments.

A nurse should note, for example, if they earned or were nominated for a DAISY Award, for which patients and colleagues nominate outstanding nurses nationwide to receive special recognition. The DAISY Foundation is one of many nursing foundations, accrediting agencies, nonprofits, and other nursing-focused groups that recognizes top nurses or excellence in the field each year.

Because they typically review resumes quickly, hiring managers for nursing positions often pay closest attention to a candidate’s skills and how well they fit the position.

Candidates should list hard and soft skills that are relevant to the role they’re seeking.

• Hard skill s are technical competencies that relate to a specific profession or role. These skills may highlight patient care, education, certification, understanding of technology, aptitude with procedure, and so on.
• Soft skills are interpersonal aptitudes that can help people succeed in any workplace. These may include communication, leadership, bedside manner, professionalism, and critical thinking.

The nursing skills for a resume include both hard and soft skills.

Hard skills require the clinical expertise and competencies that a nurse calls on to provide high-quality patient care. Common hard skill areas that employees focus on are patient care, safety, and technology.

Outline your experience and aptitude for caring for patients. Because this is such a broad and common category, make sure to list specific examples. Listings may include:

• Assessing patients
• Checking vital signs
• Preparing patients for surgery
• Dressing wounds
• Understanding clinical terms

As a nurse, safety is of paramount concern. Practices that minimize the risk of patient harm, help maximize recoveries, or decrease liabilities can be listed, such as:

• Patient fall prevention
• Infection prevention and control
• Explaining home safety to patients

Nursing resumes should include information about the candidate’s nursing-related technology skills. Common listings include:

• EHRs: An understanding of the cloud-based systems that store patient data online
• Telehealth: The ability to use electronic imaging technology, such as digital stethoscopes, and remote meeting tools to offer online care
• Artificial intelligence: Knowledge about how to use support tools to inform and enhance their decision-making based on patient assessments
• Mobile applications: An understanding of how to use devices that monitor patient health through the use of an off-site instrument such as a pacemaker or blood pressure monitor

As professionals whose work involves direct interaction with patients and other health care professionals, nurses call on various interpersonal skills in addition to technical competencies. Among the soft skills that are helpful to emphasize on nursing resumes are:

• Attention to detail: Caring for many patients each day while providing the appropriate kinds of treatment and types of medication for each individual
• Critical thinking: Developing effective treatment plans, as appropriate, and using quick thinking to react to changes in patient conditions
• Empathy: Understanding and appreciating the needs and concerns of patients and their families
• Communication: Conveying information about medical conditions and treatments to patients, family members, and others responsible for providing care

Writing a nursing resume that gets the attention of potential employers calls for adherence to some standard best practices. Using the five tips below can make your resume more effective.

Each time a nurse submits a resume, it should fit the qualifications of the job they’re seeking as closely as possible. For example, if the job posting lists certain skills that the successful candidate should possess — such as using EHR software or showing attention to detail — then the nursing resume should emphasize and foreground those skills.

Many employers use an applicant tracking system (ATS) as a first step to screen and rank candidates according to specific words or acronyms on each resume.

Nurses should study the job posting to find terms likely to be priorities for the employer, such as types of skills or certifications. Whenever possible, they should include those terms on the resume.

Job candidates should carefully review the text on their resumes, checking for typographical and grammatical errors. They should verify that the document is easy to read, with consistent formatting and spacing.

A nursing resume generally should be no more than one page long. For nurses whose careers span longer than 10 years, the document may stretch to two pages.

Applicants should save their completed resumes as PDFs. Sharing the document as a PDF rather than as a Microsoft Word or Google Docs document helps to ensure that its formatting will remain intact when the employer views it.

A cover letter should always accompany your nursing resume. In this brief letter, nurses should introduce themselves, explain why they’re interested in the position they’re seeking, and expand on key points included in the resume.

Try to identify your reader by addressing the letter to the specific person or role who will read it. In other words, do not write “To whom it may concern”—instead, write the person’s name (if known) or title, such as “To the hiring manager” or “To the director of nursing.”

In the cover letter, you should also make sure to reference the specific position for which you’re applying. Briefly outline your relevant education and work experience as it pertains to the job. Be sure to also talk about why you are interested in working with this specific company.

Submitting a strong resume can put nursing job candidates in the best position to be selected for an interview. If you’re looking to gain advanced nursing skills or you’re seeking additional certifications that could help you in your job search, explore the Regis College online Post-Master’s Certificate in Nursing program.

Through this program, nurses can build on a master’s degree to prepare for a career as a nurse practitioner. Those who are already working as nurse practitioners can add an area of specialization to expand their practice. Both paths offer a focus on holistic health care and key skills in advanced nursing practice.

Discover how Regis College’s online Post-Master’s Certificate in Nursing program can help you pursue your professional goals.