Charge Nurse Resume: Description, Example, and Skills

Charge Nurse Resume Examples

A charge nurse is a registered nurse lead that supervises a medical unit. They have several years of experience as a nurse and are responsible for delegating duties to less-experienced nurses and staff members, including LPNs and CNAs, coordinating nursing schedules, monitoring medications and supplies, and much more. A charge nurse position is a challenging role, so recruiters want to ensure you have what it takes to succeed.

In this article, you will learn what skills and experience you should highlight in your resume to land the charge nurse role you want.

What To Highlight in a Charge Nurse Resume

Charge nursing is critical in the operation of many clinical settings like hospitals, so it’s important to write a resume that shows you’re ready for this important role. In a charge nurse resume, you should highlight:

• Clinical nursing skills 
• Administrative abilities 
• Educational qualifications 
• Previous managerial experience

Structure of a Charge Nurse Resume

The first step you need to take to write your charge nurse resume is to determine which resume format will work best for your professional profile. Since a charge nurse usually requires several years of experience, the chronological resume format will probably work best for you but you can choose between a functional resume format that focuses on transferable skills and a combination resume format that showcases both your skills and work history. 

Once you determine your resume format, you can proceed with adding your information to the following resume sections:

Header

A resume header contains your contact information, full name, phone number and email address. Also, add your city and state as this will help the recruiter understand your commuting distance. Include your professional social media links, such as your LinkedIn profile — especially if you have over 10 years of experience that won’t fit on your resume.

Resume summary

In the resume summary section, you will explain how you’re the ideal candidate for the role. This two- to three-sentence paragraph summarizes your overall qualifications, experience and skills. This section is designed to hook the recruiter so that they will read your entire resume, so it’s important to include your most important achievements.

When writing your resume summary, you can reference specialist patient care or health care skills that separate you from other candidates. You should also explain how much experience you have as a registered nurse. Include metrics when possible, such as the number of staff you managed, the number of patients you were in charge of at one time or other examples that support your experience level.

Skills

Proving you have the right skills for a charge nurse role is very important because this is a diverse job. To ensure you do this, you should have a combination of hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are job-specific and gained through training and years of experience, such as charting or BLS. You’ll also need some soft skills which are not specific to any role, can be transferred to any other job and help you interact with others, such as your interpersonal communication skills.

In reading through the job description, highlight the key skills the recruiter is looking for, then include these in your skills section. These bullet points provide some examples of charge nurse skills you can include on your resume:

• Taking vital signs 
• Organizing critical care 
• Analyzing patient medical records 
• Patient assessment 
• Liaising with health care providers 
• Wound care and first aid 
• Creating treatment plans
• Inserting catheters 
• Critical thinking 
• Communication skills 
• Taking initiative 
• Interpersonal skills 
• Assuring patient safety 
• Time management 
• Collaborating with other staff members 
• Assessing patient needs 
• Setting up dialysis 
• Plan of care for inpatients based on patient condition 
• Organizing staffing 
• Setting up life support 
• Specialist geriatric knowledge 
• Compassionate with family members 

Work experience

In the work experience section, list the last 10 years of experience relevant to the charge nurse role in reverse-chronological order, with your most recent job listed first. Each job should have 3-5 succinct bullet points describing your best achievements and primary responsibilities. Also include the medical facility name, your job title and dates of employment. By formatting your work experience in this way, the recruiter will have an easy time understanding your career progression and experience.

Education

To become a charge nurse there is a long education section to fulfill, you must earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or a Master of Science in Nursing. You’ll then need to obtain a registered nurse license by passing a National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). You will need at least 3-5 years of experience working as a registered nurse in a medical center to qualify to be a charge nurse. You may also have certifications, such as Basic Life Support (BLS) or qualifications to work in a specialty. Be sure to list all your degrees and certifications in the education section of your resume.

Do’s and Don’ts for a Charge Nurse Resume

Here are some do’s and don’ts for a charge nurse professional resume:

Do:

• Include charge nurse skills from the job description in your resume. These keywords describe your nursing qualities and help get your resume past applicant tracking systems (ATS). 
• Use a charge nurse resume template or resume builder to structure your resume. 
• Proofread your resume. A charge nurse must update patient records, so must be very detail-oriented. If you have spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors, this will not reflect well on you.

Don’t:

• Mention your GPA. A recruiter is only interested in whether you have graduated and have all your nursing qualifications.
• Make your resume sections too long. If your resume is hard to read, a busy recruiter won’t look through it.
• Forget to provide evidence of your nursing skills. Include metrics when possible.