Great nurses are always in high demand, but it is also a highly competitive field. If you want to land your dream job, you will need the perfect resume. The perfect nursing resume has to present the experience and skills of the job seeker based on the needs indicated in the job description. This article will help you write the best resume possible and land a nursing job title.
Whether you are a nursing student about to embark on your first job search or you are an experienced nurse practitioner, your resume should showcase your nursing skills and qualifications first and foremost. Beyond your specific qualifications, your resume should highlight your personality. As a part of a healthcare team, you will need to be capable of effective communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution under stress. This means that your soft skills will be just as important as some of your hard skills and work experience.
Nurses may need to make use of a range of skills. A general practice nurse will need to list different resume skills than a specialist pediatric care nurse, for example. Nonetheless, the following skills are some of the most important skills to list on a nursing resume:
If you want to catch a recruiter’s eye, listing these resume skills alongside your clinical experience and professional affiliations is a great start. Of course, you will need great resume writing skills and knowledge, too.
Whether you are applying for a certified nursing assistant (CNA) job title or you want to be a senior nurse practitioner, you will need to consider applicant tracking systems (ATS) when writing your resume. An ATS system is designed to filter resumes that fit the need of the job posting from those that don’t. While listing the right skills, qualifications, and previous job titles will be helpful, your resume will also need to be properly structured. Here’s are the sections to include on a resume:
A resume header should include your full name, phone number, and contact information. You can also include professional social media links, such as LinkedIn. Ensuring that all your contact information is included and correct will help a recruiter contact you to schedule an interview.
The next section on a nursing resume is the resume summary or resume objective. A resume summary should sum up the skills, experience, and certifications that make you ideal for the role you are applying for. This is ideal for candidates with a lot of work experience. If you have a short or patchy work history, you should write a resume objective statement instead. This should be a statement of your career goals and intentions.
Your resume skills section should contain 8 to 12 bullet points detailing your most relevant skills. Be sure to include both hard skills and soft skills. Here are a few nursing skills you may consider for your nursing resume:
These are just a few of the skills a nurse will need. Depending on the specialty, such as geriatric nursing or oncology, the skills you list on your resume will need to reflect the specific requirements of the job you are applying for.
Your work history section should contain up to 10 years of experience, listed in reverse-chronological order. For each job, write 3-5 bullet points using action verbs (e.g., “Managed,” “Oversaw”) to describe your achievements and duties in previous roles. Address specific requirements you find in the job posting as you write your bullet points. For each job, include the facility name, your job title, and dates of employment.
Your education section will be important when you apply for nursing roles. List your bachelor of science in nursing or any other degrees you may have, as well as any specializations you studied. If you have several professional certifications, such as a certification in pediatrics or surgery, you should list these in a separate section.
If you want to make the process of creating your registered nurse resume easier, consider using the ResumeNerd resume builder. This free online tool offers access to high-quality resume templates.
Much of the information that you should not include on a nursing resume is information that you should not include on a professional resume of any kind. For example, you should not disclose information about your private life, sexual orientation, or health conditions.
A resume is always important to potential employers, of course, but the primary purpose of a nursing assistant resume is to prove that you have the qualifications and experience to fill this role. Nursing is a complex and high-risk role that puts a person in charge of the health and well-being of others, and hiring managers need to be certain of a person's skills. If you do not submit a good resume, you will not be able to get a nursing position.
Ideally, a resume should be no more than one page in length, but there are times when it can be acceptable to add a second page, especially if you have a lot of relevant experience to feature. This is also likely to be the case when you are applying for senior roles that require longer work history as well as many professional certifications.
