How To Write The Best Registered Nurse Resume For This Year

Stunning Nurse Practitioner Resume Examples for This Year

Updated August 24, 20221.1k

Nurse practitioners are responsible for much of the work in the medical field. Here’s how you can showcase all your skills as a nurse practitioner in your resume.

Nurse Practitioner Resume Examples

A nurse practitioner can provide primary care to patients. They often contribute to a significant amount of patient care, working with doctors to ensure that everyone gets the health care they need. Here’s how you can show a recruiter the skills necessary to do this important job.

What To Highlight in a Nurse Practitioner Resume

You must highlight work experience in your specific niche, pediatric care, geriatric care or some other specialty. Remember to read the job description and look through nurse practitioner resume examples for inspiration when writing your nurse practitioner resume.

Structure of a Nurse Practitioner Resume

Before you write your nurse practitioner resume, decide on the resume format that will work best for your needs. Choose the chronological resume format to highlight your work experience, the functional resume format to highlight your skills or the combination resume format to showcase both. You can then proceed to the resume sections.

Header

The header should include your contact information, full name, email address, phone number and professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile.

Resume summary or objective

The first paragraph of your resume is your resume summary or objective. If you have more experience, go for the resume summary, which focuses on your years of experience and your various successes. If you have less experience, you can use the resume objective, which focuses on your skills, education and what you wish to accomplish.

Skills

Your skills section needs to include soft skills, which are skills you’ve learned for general life and are transferable across all jobs, and hard skills, which are specific skills you’ve learned for nursing. Here are some bullet points to consider adding to your resume:

General patient care
Working with primary care providers
Creating treatment plans and follow-up appointments
Charting for patients
EMR systems
General patient interventions and screenings
Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
Providing acute care and critical care to patients
Helping patients manage chronic illnesses
Communication skills
Creating care plans
Administering diagnostic tests and reading test results
Helping with inpatient and outpatient care
Knowledge of medical conditions
Ability to pull medical records
General patient education
Management of physical examinations
Prescribing medication
Providing preventative care
X-rays

Remember to add specific skills that the hiring manager includes in the job description, not general skills that anyone might have.

Work history

Whether you’re working as a doctor’s assistant, a pediatric nurse or a family nurse practitioner, you should list specific experience in that area in your work experience section. If you worked with a health care team at a family medical center, this would be more relevant for a job as an FNP than a job as a surgical assistant. If your work experience doesn’t match up with your new job, indicate specifically how your skills will help you succeed in this job.

Education

You can include your education and certifications in your education section. It’s common for a certified nurse practitioner to have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, often a Master of Science or a Bachelor of Science in nursing. Your professional resume may also include American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) membership.

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

Here are some additional tips to help you write your nurse practitioner resume:

Do:
- Get referrals from people you’ve worked with. A reference letter is a great way to indicate your strengths to a potential employer.
- Only list the skills you’re good at. Listing skills that you’re not great at can make it seem like you’re padding your resume.
- List up to 10 years of experience on your resume. This can indicate a great track record and show that you plan to stay in the industry.
Don’t:
- Put the phrase “references available by request” on your resume. Hiring managers know this and will ask for references if they want them.
- Put any negative information about previous locations where you worked. Talking poorly about previous employers can make an employer worried about how you might talk about them.
- Neglect the resume writing process. Use the ResumeNerd resume builder to make the process as easy as possible.

FAQ: Nurse Practitioner Resumes

Do I need to include a cover letter for a nurse practitioner application?

It’s always important to include a cover letter in your job application. A cover letter allows you to elaborate on your skills and achievements benefiting your job search as a nurse practitioner. If you’re not used to writing cover letters, you can use the ResumeNerd cover letter builder to make the whole process much easier.

How can I write a nurse practitioner resume without a lot of experience?

Nurse practitioners have plenty of experience but that experience might not include a previous nurse practitioner job. Your relevant experience may include academic experience, internship experience and volunteer work. If you don’t have much professional experience as a registered nurse, you should focus on your skills and qualifications instead.

How do I change my nurse practitioner resume to apply to different jobs?

Before applying to multiple jobs, you want to ensure you have the perfect resume. That means changing your resume slightly depending on the job listing you’re applying to. Look through the job description and see how the hiring manager describes their perfect applicant. Then, include those skills in your resume to show the recruiter that you’re the best person for the job.

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About The Author

Cindi Cervone Carlson

Cindi Cervone Carlson is a Senior Vice President for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Cindi is responsible for developing, delivering, and implementing a dynamic, world-class organization dedicated to delivering outplacement consulting, training, support, and executive coaching. Cindi started her career at Challenger as a client who had lost her job. Over the past nine years, she has risen from an entry-level, part-time professional to Senior Vice President.