Best Nurse Manager Resume Examples for 2024
Secure your dream nurse manager career in 2022 by using our resume examples to shape yours, showcase your skills and impress hiring managers.
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What To Highlight in a Nurse Manager Resume
Becoming a nurse manager requires a lot of knowledge and skill, so your clinical nurse manager resume will need to show you’ve got what it takes while presenting all the relevant experiences you have that make you the best fit for the role.
There are specific requirements that will be stated in the job description, which you will need to pay attention to when crafting your resume. Highlight nursing skills and experience that match the description, along with your ability to lead teams, treat patients and collaborate with others.
Build my resumeStructure of a Nurse Manager Resume
The structure of your resume will depend on the type of resume format you choose. There are three types of resumes you can choose from:
- Chronological: Resumes that use the chronological resume format focus on employment history. If you have a lot of work experience and want your resume to reflect this, the chronological format is a great option.
- Functional: Functional resume formats focus on skills. If you are struggling with writing a resume because you don’t have extensive work experience, this structure will help you focus on your skills.
- Combination: Resumes that use the combination resume format focus on both skills and experience. This structure is perfect for anyone who can feature important abilities as well as work history.
Header
The resume header contains all of your key contact information. This is important as hiring managers will need to contact you to schedule an interview. In this section, you should include your:
- Full name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Location (city and state)
You can also include professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile. This is a good way to give the hiring manager more information about your key accomplishments.
Resume summary
To give the hiring manager an introduction to your competencies and experience, you need to write a resume summary. This two to three-sentence section summarizes your key skills and achievements. The goal is to provide a quick overview of your strengths, motivating the hiring manager to invite you to an interview.
Include experience or certifications that you believe the hiring manager values. Since a nurse manager position is a senior role, you should also indicate how many years of experience you’ve had in nursing as well as your major educational credentials and any specialties you have experience in, such as oncology or acute care.
Skills
Nursing managers are charged with many responsibilities which require hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are role-specific and gained through training and experience (e.g., critical care or case management). Soft skills are intangible traits that are transferable across many industries (e.g., communication or interpersonal skills.)
Consider using these bullet points for your nurse manager resume skills section:
- Staffing planning
- Staff member training
- Medical staff development
- Project management
- Tending to all patient needs
- Medication administration
- Working with interdisciplinary teams
- Intensive care nursing
- Wound care
- Communication skills
- Patient satisfaction
- Patient education
- Quality improvement
- Working with team members
- Collaboration with assistant nurse manager
- Working with healthcare providers
- Organizing medical records
- Working with human resource
- Delegating tasks to clinical staff
- Adapting to board of medical center needs
- Planning patient outcomes
- Critical thinking
- Delegating care units
- Patient assessments
- Creating treatment plans
- Mentoring staff
Work experience
The work experience section will be important for a senior role like a nurse manager, as candidates will need the experience to qualify for the job. Feature experience related to patient care and clinical operations. You should also include any experience you have in leading nursing staff.
List your experience in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent job. For each job, include bullet points that describe your top duties and accomplishments.
Education
The education section is key for a nursing manager’s resume, as you’ll need specific qualifications. To become a nurse, you will need to complete an accredited nursing program, have a bachelor of science degree with a major in nursing, or a diploma in nursing and pass a licensing exam. You will then need to pass the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses (NCLEX-RN).
For each academic credential you have, you should include:
- Title of your qualification (i.e., certification, degree, license)
- Name and location (city, state) of the institution where you got your credential
- Licensing board (if applicable)
If you have any certifications, such as the Basic Life Support (BLS) certification, be sure to include them in the education section.
Build my resumeDo’s and Don’ts for a Nurse Manager Resume
- Use a resume builder, resume template, and nurse manager resume sample to structure your resume, and give it a professional appearance, with the right content.
- Proofread your resume before submitting it. A nurse manager must be very detail-oriented, and misspellings, typos and grammatical errors will reflect poorly on you.
- Customize your resume for each application. Read the job description carefully and note phrases that spell out the primary skills and other requirements the recruiter is looking for. Then include these phrases in your resume (i.e., “empathy” or “medical records management”).
- Include your high school GPA. This is an example of unnecessary information. Focus on your major academic achievements in your education section.
- Forget to include relevant work experiences, even if they’re not in the nursing field. A previous job where you displayed management skills can be helpful, for example.
- Write large blocks of text. This might make your resume sections too long, impacts resume length and prevents the hiring manager from easily skimming your resume.
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FAQ: Nurse Manager Resumes
Have questions? We’re here to help.
Do I need to include a cover letter for a nurse manager application?
Yes! Since a nurse manager is a senior role, you should use a cover letter to explain why you’re the ideal candidate in further detail. You can explain why you have the right leadership skills and provide anecdotes from your previous nursing and healthcare experience. You should include any experience you have in leading healthcare teams, using initiative and clinical operations.
How can I write a nurse manager resume without a lot of experience?
A nurse manager role typically requires many years of experience in a healthcare setting. But you won’t necessarily need the experience as a nurse manager to get your first nurse manager role. If you lack extensive professional experience, focus on the experience and education you do have (including extracurricular or volunteer activities that feature important skills).
How do I change my nurse manager resume to apply to different jobs?
It is important to provide job-specific information in your resume. To customize your nurse manager resume, you update your resume summary, experience and skills sections to match each role you apply for. To do this, pay attention to the job description and highlight the primary skills needed. Then you will want to include these skills in your resume. For example, for a nurse manager role, “project management” might be listed as a primary skill, so you should include this in your resume (e.g., listing it in your skills section, or featuring a work experience that features this skill).
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