Registered Nurse Resume Examples for You to Use This Year

Your certifications are very important in a registered nurse resume, but a hiring manager also wants to see that you’re knowledgeable about patient care. Whether you’re planning to apply as a nurse practitioner, nursing assistant, or another nursing position, you should showcase that you know how to provide nursing care for a wide variety of patients.

The actual structure of any specific resume may depend on the resume format you use: the chronological resume, the functional resume, or the combination resume. Generally, a nurse will use the chronological resume, as you’re likely to have the experience necessary to emphasize your experience. In any resume format, you’ll use these sections, although they might be in a different order depending on the resume format.

 

 

The contact information section is where you put all the information needed so the hiring manager may contact you. This includes your full name, phone number, town and state of residence, and email address.

 

 

The resume summary or resume objective is a 2-3 sentence paragraph at the top of your resume that highlights your years of experience and key achievements. It may also focus on certifications, licensure, and recognitions. Its intention is to serve as a short description that makes a hiring manager more interested in reading further. If you’re a first-time job seeker, consider an objective, which includes a statement about your career goals. Otherwise, go with a summary, which focuses on your experience.

 

 

Your work experience section needs to include all the experience you have in the nursing field. This may include the experience you’ve had in other jobs or experience you received as an intern. Even if your resume is not in chronological format, your work experience should still be in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent job first.

 

 

There are many nursing skills that you might want to list on your resume, but what you put in your skills section will depend on your job search, the actual job description, and your best skills. Here are a few of the bullet points you might want to list:

• ICU/Emergency room experience
• General first aid
• Post-operative care
• Pediatric care
• Taking vital signs
• Basic life support (BLS)
• Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
• Critical care
• Medication administration
• Communication skills
• Ability to work with a healthcare team

Remember that not only recruiters but applicant tracking systems (ATS) will look at your resume. Review our article on  ATS so your skills section hits all the relevant keywords for the job you are applying to.

 

 

The required education you list here will vary depending on the job you’re seeking. If you’re planning to become a certified nurse assistant (CNA), you may not have to go through very much training, whereas if you’re planning to become a registered nurse (RN), you will typically have to go through either two or four years of schooling. This is why it’s so important for nursing students to list their education on their resumes.

Do:

• Use action verbs to discuss your skills. Action words allow you to put your skills into an achievement context.
• Use a nurse resume sample to build your own resume. ResumeHelp has over 50,000 resume examples to choose from.
• Talk about actual situations you’ve been in that convey your experience as a registered nurse. This helps recruiters know that you actually have those skills.

Don’t:

• List just soft skills or just hard skills on your resume. You need to mix both hard and soft skills to optimize your resume skills section.
• List your GPA in your education section. If you have any academic honors or awards, however, you can include them as part of your education section.
• Wait until the end of a list to put your best skills or knowledge. You should start each list with your best skills and knowledge.