The Best Resume Guide for Nurses

The Best Resume Guide for Nurses

Throughout this guide, you will learn how to customize your nursing resume to match an employer’s beliefs, goals, and job requirements. Whether you’re a recent nursing school graduate or an experienced healthcare professional, creating a nursing resume that effectively showcases your education, skills, and qualities is the first step towards securing an interview. As this document is the initial impression you make on a hiring manager, you must create a resume that creatively addresses the employer’s needs and highlights your accomplishments, setting you apart from other qualified candidates.

The nursing field heavily depends on practical training, certification, registered nurse licensure, and specialization. Therefore, your resume should emphasize your qualifications, including personal attributes that have practical applications (like how your compassionate nature helps you connect with patients or how your ability to speak multiple languages allows you to care for diverse populations as a nurse).

Tips for Working With a Recruiter in Nursing

Being specific can make a resume stand out. This guide can teach you how to tailor your nursing resume to match an employer’s goals and job description.

How to Write a Nursing Resume

1. Do Your Research

Learning how to write a nursing resume requires thorough research to customize information for your potential employer. Along with carefully reviewing the job description, explore the employer’s website and social media platforms to understand their culture and values.

Different healthcare facilities prioritize education and certification or prefer nurses with more clinical experience. Determine what qualities they seek in an ideal employee and adjust your application accordingly. Equally important is considering whether the job aligns with your career goals and personal satisfaction.

2. Write Down Your Key Points

Write down key points that address an employer’s criteria, such as education, certification, and professional experience requirements. Create an outline based on these points, elaborating where necessary while maintaining a professional tone that reflects both confidence in your achievements and approachability. This also involves acknowledging your weaknesses. Nurses often work in challenging situations, so employers value professionals who recognize their limitations and strive for improvement.

3. Format Your Resume

Expand your outline by turning key points into complete sentences organized under logical headings. Your final resume should be detailed and easy to read. Hiring managers spend only seconds scanning resumes to decide whether to move candidates to the next application stage or not. Enhance your chances by submitting a well-organized and visually appealing resume, without overusing different fonts and colors. Keep it concise and neat.

For more tips and examples, refer to our advice on writing a nursing resume.

Addressing Required vs. Preferred Qualifications

When writing a nursing resume, the main focus is addressing an employer’s specifications. Before writing, however, it’s important to differentiate between required and preferred job qualifications.

Nursing demands advanced education, professional training, licensure, and clinical experience. Job postings include extensive requirements categorized as either required or preferred qualifications. Required qualifications are those a candidate must have to be considered, while preferred qualifications are additional skills, experiences, and traits that benefit the role but aren’t obligatory.

An effective resume demonstrates how you meet required qualifications and as many preferred qualifications as possible without overwhelming the page. Nurses can use a cover letter to provide additional qualifications with anecdotes and data if possible.

While some healthcare facilities reject candidates without all required qualifications, most view the job listing as a guideline rather than a checklist. Even if you don’t meet all criteria, applying can still be worthwhile if you make a strong impression during the interview.

Types of Nursing Resumes

Ultimately, a resume reflects an individual’s education, achievements, qualities, and career potential. How do you craft a nursing resume that effectively communicates all these aspects? Choose the right format.

There are three main resume formats, each with its unique structure and purpose: reverse chronological, functional, and combination. Nurses should choose the format that best suits their skills and the position they’re seeking.

Reverse Chronological

The most common resume format, suitable for nurses with extensive and relevant professional experience. Past jobs are listed in reverse chronological order, with past employment being the most important. However, this format can highlight gaps in employment, frequent job changes, and the candidate’s age.

Functional

Also called the skill-based resume, this format focuses on achievements, awards, and training. It’s preferred for recent college graduates and professionals with limited relevant work experience. A drawback is that it can reveal limited nursing field experience.

Combination

The most complex format combines relevant experience, skills, and training. Experienced nurses, especially those with specialized clinical expertise, benefit from this format. However, its versatility makes it harder to construct, as too much information can confuse readers if not presented clearly.

Understanding Cultural Competence in Nursing

What Should I Include on a Nursing Resume?

Education and Training

The American Nurses Credentialing Center provides a standardized way of listing all your credentials. The preferred sectional order is education, licensure, state designations, certification, awards and honors, and additional certification. Start with your highest degree, then work backwards.

You do not need to include high school information or graduation dates. If you are currently working on a degree, state that completion is pending or in progress. Whether you provide GPA information is up to you. Generally, it is only worthwhile if you graduated in the last three years and earned a 3.5 or better.

Experience

Show your professional nursing experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position. If you have gaps in employment, be ready to explain them. Consider including specific details about the facilities and units you worked in, such as total beds, trauma levels, and patient demographics. Being specific in your nursing resume sets it apart from others.

For instance, a nursing home nurse has different responsibilities than an urgent care nurse, even though both require stamina. By personalizing your professional experience, your resume stands out.

Skills

This section benefits from using keywords the most. Analyze the job description to identify the skills the employer wants. Customize this section to match those needs. Group your skills into categories, such as basic care, technical, administrative, and computer skills.

Be strategic and precise. Instead of “defibrillation insertions,” write “automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator insertions.” Don’t forget about soft skills like reliability and adaptability, or special skills like foreign language proficiency. These details can make your resume unique.

Licensure and Certifications

As a registered nurse, you have a state-specific nursing license. Depending on your specialization, you may have pursued certification exams and further training. List them all, avoiding acronyms.

For licenses, list license type, licensing state/body, license name and number, nurse license compact, and expiration date. For certifications, start with the name, followed by the conferring organization, expiration, and certification number, if applicable.

Awards, Accomplishments, and Affiliations

Celebrate relevant achievements honestly, reflecting your dedication to nursing and your ability to excel in the new role. This could include academic recognition, awards, scholarships, fellowships, grants, and internships. Also mention membership in professional organizations like the American Nurses Association or Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing.

As an experienced professional, you might have many awards and accomplishments. Focus on the most prestigious and current ones that match the job you’re applying for.

Volunteer Work

Include volunteer work related to nursing or healthcare. Provide specific details that demonstrate your skills in action. For instance, if you managed a team to educate a neighborhood about HIV/AIDS prevention, mention it.

What Should I Put on My Nursing Resume If I Don’t Have Any Experience?

For recent graduates, career changers, and those with limited clinical experience, crafting a nursing resume might seem daunting. You can compensate for lack of experience with a functional hybrid resume format. Place academic credentials, qualifications, and skills above the employment section. Highlight state licensure, optional certification, and organizational membership to strengthen your resume.

Introduce yourself professionally, highlighting your values and education. To avoid a major pitfall of the functional resume, make your skills relevant to a nurse’s duties by relating them to real work scenarios.

Highlight skills like critical thinking, safe practice, customer service, and communication, which hospital managers seek. Use clinical training experiences to show your skills in action and frame them as achievements.

Utilize volunteer positions as their own section to show your practical qualifications and passion for patient well-being and equitable healthcare.

What Is a Resume-Reading Robot/ATS?

To manage a large number of applicants, employers use an applicant tracking system (ATS). Similar to a hiring manager scanning for standout resumes, the ATS ranks and categorizes nursing resumes based on designated keywords. This automated process reduces manual work and identifies filler content, often indicating unqualified candidates.

However, the ATS can also mistakenly reject qualified nurses due to automated processes. Learning how to write a nurse resume involves working within and overcoming the ATS framework.

Tips for Outsmarting an ATS

– Use Simple Headers: Include common header terms like “skills,” “professional experience,” and “education.” Mention your location to help employers filter candidates.
– Opt for a Clean Format: Choose a simple format without graphics or unusual fonts, as the ATS can’t process them. Standard fonts like Verdana, Tahoma, or Arial are best.
– Use Keywords/Phrases: Find relevant keywords in the job description or research nursing phrases like “patient care” or “clinical research.”
– Use Industry Jargon: Use keywords specific to the position and your skills. Be as specific as possible to the job you’re applying for.

In Summary

– Choose the resume format that highlights your experience, personality, and qualifications.
– Be specific to stand out.
– Format your resume for easy reading by both humans and ATS.