3 Most Valuable Nursing Skills To Land a Perfect Nursing Job

Use ResumeHelp’s three top skills employers value in nurses to get the right nursing job in this year. Find out more about nursing skills with our top tips!

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Nursing Skills

Due to the recent pandemic, the last few years have seen a large demand for healthcare professionals, such as nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses (LPN), registered nurses (RN), and intensive care unit nurses (ICU), to name a few.
To gain a successful nursing profession in today’s ever-evolving healthcare environment requires knowledge of modern and advanced medical tools and technology, and other specialized technical skills, or hard skills. But soft skills such as communication and teamwork are crucial for nurses looking to be valuable team members in the emergency room, pediatric operating rooms, and beyond. But, in the nursing field, these skills are anything but soft. They’re key skills for the well-being of patients and the peace of mind of patients’ families.

To land the perfect nursing job, you have to know which skills to showcase in your resume that are relevant to the position you’re applying for. In this article, we’ll show you the top three skills employers seek in nurses and how to best showcase these skills on your resume to impress them. Lastly, we’ll explore the foundation of the nursing field, referred to as the six C’s of nursing.

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How to Highlight Nursing Skills in a Resume

Nursing job positions attract hundreds of similarly-skilled nursing candidates. Therefore, it’s crucial for your nursing resume to stand out from the competition and highlight your greatest strengths as a nurse.

Hiring managers use specific tools that make their hiring process easier and more efficient. An example of such a tool is applicant tracking system (ATS) software. ATS aids the employer’s hiring process by filtering out irrelevant resumes and applications, so nurses need to tailor their skills section of their resumes to showcase relevant keywords to describe their nursing skills and work-related experience (most of which can be pulled directly from the job description). And in their work experience section, they should cite examples from previous job duties that showcase the skills mentioned in the job description and their results.

Here are some examples of hard skills you can add to your nursing resume:

Basic life support
Patient care
Familiarity with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Emergency and critical care nursing
Computer skills (e.g. proficiency with specific medical or database software)

It’s also important to highlight relevant soft skills, such as:

Effective communication skills
Empathy
Time management
Teamwork
Critical thinking skills

What Are the 3 Most Important Nursing Skills Employers Value?

If you’re interested in advancing your nursing career, you need to develop and refine the top in-demand nursing competencies. The following are the three most essential and sought-out nursing skills employers seek in nurses:

1. Medical skills: These are the critical hard skills, or technical skills, successful nurses need. These skills can include advanced competencies in specific medical procedures, technology, and data-driven decision-making.

The types of medical skills that are most important can vary depending on the type of nurse (emergency room nurse, CNA nurse, LPN nurse, etc.). Here’s examples of some of them – look for more in the job description for the particular job you want.

EIV Therapy
EGeneral medicine expertise
ENebulizer therapy
Expertise in national standards of care and treatment processes for common conditions (National Patient Safety Goals)

Nurses use technology to carry out their tasks on a daily basis, so some related technical skills to consider for your resume should include:

EElectronic Health Records
EMobile patient charts (usually on tablet devices)
EMedical devices, such as wearable devices like heart monitors
EIntravenous Devices

Organizational skills are also key for the nursing profession, as nurses must make use of various types of data to make informed decisions on managing hospital resources and patient assignments effectively. Important abilities in this area include:

ENurse Staffing
ENurse Scheduling
EPatient workload, based on the patient’s care needs
EPatient admission, transfer, and discharge needs

2. Leadership skills: This is an essential soft skill needed for nursing success. Employers are looking for nurses who are strong advocates for their patients and skilled in leading teams to achieve better clinical outcomes and results.

3. Flexibility and time management skills: Nursing often requires long shifts, traveling to different hospital locations, and handling a large influx of patients on short notice. It is crucial to show employers you have the motivation, energy, and commitment to get the job done while possessing the time management skills to carry it out efficiently.

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What Are the 6 C's in Nursing?

The 6 C’s are the central set of values identified by National Health Service (NHS) England Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings and launched in 2012 in the UK. These values and their associated behaviors provide a foundation of values ensuring high-quality care.

Care
Compassion
Courage
Communication
Commitment
Competence

When writing your resume, focus on how to best highlight your nursing competencies that showcase each of the 6 C’s. For example, you can showcase “Care” by highlighting your nursing technical skills that allow you to provide the best level of care to patients. Your “Compassion, Courage, and Communication” can be shown on your resume by providing examples in your job history that show you are a great patient advocate.

FAQ: Nursing Skills

Q: What are the typical working hours like for a nurse?

The working conditions and hours for nurses are usually very physically demanding. As such, nurses often work 12-hour shifts and must remain flexible in case time is needed to travel to other area hospitals or cover for other nurses in their absence.

Q: Is there a specific person, in particular, you work for?

Yes, nurses report to nurse managers. Nurse managers ensure that nursing professionals work as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Q: What is a 'Basic Skill Test' in nursing?

The Basic Skills Test for Nurses is an online test designed to check nurses’ vital healthcare skills and literacy, numeracy, and IT skills.

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