Nursing Resume Example & Writing Tips

When you’re crafting your perfect nursing resume, there are typical resume elements that you want to include to highlight your qualifications as best as possible. Whether you select a chronological, functional or combination resume format, you’ll include these sections:

Header and contact information

Your header includes your full name, phone number, location (city and state) and email address. You can also include your links to your social media or job networking profiles including LinkedIn.

Resume summary or objective

Below the header you will feature an abbreviated introduction into why an employer should hire you. This powerful paragraph is called a resume summary or resume objective. While both are two to three sentences and will summarize your career, each is used by different types of job candidates.

A resume summary gives an overall view of your work experience and best skills. A resume summary is ideal for job seekers with two or more years of experience in the nursing industry. 

Resume summary example:

Skilled RN with more than eight years of experience in the fast-paced emergency room setting, equipped to improve hospital patient wellbeing in critical care. Assists health care team of three doctors and three nurses in triage, diagnosing ailments and administering treatments. Repeatedly recognized for quality of service in Patient Satisfaction Surveys.

A resume objective is ideal for job seekers with less than two years of experience, career changers or recent graduates. The objective provides a brief career overview and includes your career goals.

Resume objective example:

Dedicated nursing student nearing completion of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) promoting four years of health care experience during schooling. Monitors patient vitals and reports abnormalities and changes in status. Demonstrates consistent quality of care with firm understanding of medical chart management. Excited about the opportunity to take the next career step at a hospital or medical center.

Skills section

Here you’ll present the skills that demonstrate your best qualities and performance as a nurse. Using bullet points, include a combination of 8-10 hard skills and soft skills. Here are some skills to consider on your nursing resume:

Example of nursing resume skills:

Hard skills:

Checking and monitoring vital signs
CPR, Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
Starting peripheral IV lines
Electronic Medical Record (EHR)
Ventilator care

Soft skills:

Communication
Empathy
Problem-solving skills
Attention to detail
Time management

Work experience section

The experience section is usually the second section in a resume, unless you’re a recent graduate. This section may be titled: Work History, Work Experience or Professional Experience. This section is more than just listing your jobs and the tasks you performed. You need to highlight accomplishments and specific responsibilities that match the nurse job description of the nursing position that you are applying for. Use action verbs to describe what you did and quantify achievements using numbers or percentages. Bullet points will allow the hiring manager to quickly scan your work experience.

The standard elements for each work experience entry are:

Job title

• Place of employment
• Dates of employment
• Brief description of your accomplishments and responsibilities in the job, as well as skills gained and used in that piece of experience

Here are some key guidelines for work descriptions:

• Don’t use personal pronouns. Instead, as in the examples above, start with a verb (“Managed”) and leave off pronouns, especially “I”.
• For past jobs, use past tense verbs. For any position you currently hold, use present tense verbs.
• Use bullet points, one for each sentence or phrase. You can end your sentence or phrase with a period or leave it off. Just be consistent — use one method or the other.
• Avoid superlatives. Nursing isn’t a sales role and exaggerating does not fit the culture. But use adjectives and adverbs that show your level of performance. Be concise and stick to the facts.
• Generally, use 2-4 bullet points per job. For jobs where you stayed many years and had several important components, you might use up to six or seven bullets.
• Quantify, quantify, quantify! Anytime you can tie in data, measurable results or specific numbers, do so.

Here are some work experience bullets you may consider for your nursing resume:

• Handled patient intake to document vitals, symptoms and make initial diagnosis.
• Treated an average of 22 ICU patients daily.
• Observed pediatric patients and reported observations to the RN or physician on duty.
• Improved outcomes by educating patients and families regarding health care.
• Consistently scored over 90% in patient satisfaction surveys.
• Assisted with laboratory diagnostics, collecting and preparing samples for testing.
• Carried out medication administration according to facility policies and proper nursing practice.
• Shadowed medical staff to analyze patient conditions and learn hands-on skills.
• Consulted with physicians to understand diagnosis and necessary care plans.

Education

Nurses require a college education and must prove their nursing credentials to prospective employers. For most job seekers, however, the education section will come last on a resume and will be very brief. It is also important to include licenses and certifications as well. You can include your GPA if it was particularly favorable (3.5 or over). Many people remove their GPA and even graduation date from their resume when it was a long time ago, such as more than 10 years. The most common way to list your education is with your degree or certification title first, followed by its acronym and then the institution name. 

Examples of education on a nursing resume:

Bachelor of Science: Nursing
Adelphi University, Garden City NY

• Graduated magna cum laude
• Dean’s Award 2017 – 2021
• President’s Award 2017 – 2021
• Nursing Student of the Year – 2021

Examples of nursing licenses and certifications:

• RN, State of New York, License #00000
• CNA and CPR – American Red Cross
• BCLS, ACLS – American Heart Association
• Basic Critical Care Certificate

Additional sections

If you have awards, volunteer work or attended nursing conferences, you want to include those accomplishments in additional sections on your nursing resume. These attributes can help you stand out among the competition so you certainly want to highlight them.

More resume examples

ResumeHelp has plenty of other resources and guides for writing a solid nursing resume to accompany your cover letter and job application. Here are some additional examples of nurse resumes and other health care resumes.

New grad nursing resume example – As a new graduate, this example can help you quickly create an effective resume to secure employment as a nurse.

Nurse manager resume example – If you’re looking to combine your nursing expertise with leadership skills to manage a team of nurses, this example can help you stand out as a leader.

Example of nurse practitioner resume – Follow this nurse practitioner resume example to showcase your graduate degree in advanced practice nursing.

Certified nursing assistant resume example – This CNA resume sample will help you write a certified nursing assistant resume that effectively highlights your qualifications.

Caregiver resume example – This caregiver resume example will allow your impressive skill set to be noticed by hiring managers and recruiters.

Home health aide – Follow this resume example to show your qualifications to provide reliable in-home health care and companionship.

Write a nurse cover letter to accompany your resume

Along with your impressive nursing resume, it’s advised you submit a professional cover letter as well. That means, even if the job posting does not require a cover letter, you take the time to write a cover letter anyway. The cover letter is your opportunity to expand on the information presented in your resume. It’s not a replica of the information on your resume but instead a thoughtful summary of your career highlights. You can also explain a career change or any gaps in your work history.

Consider these guidelines to writing your nursing cover letter:

• Mention your interest in the specific role, organization or industry.
• Do your research on the health care facility that you’re pursuing and mention an aspect that genuinely appeals to you.
• Highlight 2-3 particular relevant skills and areas of nursing expertise.
• PIck out highlights from your work experience section of your resume and provide more details.
• Share examples, even a story, to personalize your cover letter for the reader. 
• If necessary, explain any extenuating circumstances that make your resume look unusual.
• Address the cover letter to the hiring manager’s actual name.
• Write a cover letter between half a page and one page, three to four paragraphs.
• In the final paragraph, close by mentioning how you’re a good match and request a job interview.

ResumeHelp has plenty more cover letter writing tips like these, in addition to helpful nursing cover letter examples that you can use to write a professional cover letter. In fact, our Cover Letter Builder will help you create an eye-catching cover letter in minutes.

The big takeaways

Here are 10 key tips for creating a nurse resume that will get you noticed by hiring managers:

1. Be sure your contact information is up-to-date and your email address sounds professional.
2. Write a memorable resume summary or resume objective that highlights your career.
3. Include your best skills and achievements relevant to the nursing position.
4. Use a combination of softs skills, hard skills and transferable skills.
5. Include additional resume sections to feature awards, certifications and other achievements.
6. Choose the resume format that best shows your experience — chronological, functional or combination.
7. Format your resume with a professional and easy to read font like Arial, Helvetica or Verdana.
8. Set one inch margins on all sides and ensure line spacing is consistent throughout.
9. Save your resume in the file format requested in the job posting, typically PDF or MS Word. 
10. Craft an impressive nursing cover letter to accompany your resume and job application.