Nursing Resume - Samples & How to Guide

Like in all the other industries and public sectors, nurses might find it challenging to create
their job application when looking for a new job or wanting to relocate to another city/country.

Therefore, our team researched with employers and recruiters and compiled this short guide
tailored for nurses looking for a new job including resume tips, examples of skills, how to
write your achievements and other specific details.

nurse resume example writing

Firstly, we cannot emphasize this enough, but make sure your resume is tailored for one
specific job at a time in order to increase your chances of getting hired faster.

Writing Duties and Achievements For a Nurse Resume

As a nurse, you have dozens of duties, responsibilities, and achievements, but it is important
to focus on the one that had the highest value for the institution where you apply. For
example, listing “Provided patient care” will not add value to your application, since this
expression is too general.

Writing general duties is a common mistake because applicants believe that nursing is
similar to different hospitals and departments, but in reality, your duties will differ between
different facilities. Consider answering the following questions when listing your duties, in
order to better write your duties:

Which type of medication did you administer?

What specific equipment/devices you have experience using? For example: automated IV
pump, patient-controlled analgesia pump, peak flow system, portable water collection
system, etc.
What was the range of the patients you look after? Since caring for children requires
different duties and skills than caring for an adult.
Did you start IVs?
Which are the industry processes, procedures or different protocols that you have
experience with?
Firstly, you will need to include in your nurse resume the duties you have experience with
and are mentioned in the job description, trying to match them as close as possible.

Your achievements can be framed together with the duties if possible, in order to include
both at the same time, so that you explain how you accomplished the results while you
performed your normal duties. This is not possible all the time; therefore the following
questions might help to identify the achievements to write on your resume:

Have you received any awards, praise or recognition from your previous work place?
Did your previous work place receive any awards or recognition? If yes, how did your duties
contribute to their success?
The following nursing resume template can be used as a source of inspiration and you can
create your resume for free by selecting the creative resume template from our resume
templates page.
nursing resume
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Nursing Skills Examples For a Resume
This profession is a challenging but rewarding one, where various hard skills are required.
You need to have a lot of medical knowledge and perform specific procedures.

Skills for a Nurse Resume:

Accuracy
Assisting in surgery
Administration of medication
Chemotherapy administration
Bedside monitoring
Bladder irrigation
Blood administration
Communication (verbal & written)
Critical thinking
Discharge
Emergency room care
Empathy
Healthcare software
Infection control
Lab testing
Intramuscularly injections or IV therapy
Maternal care
Observation (since you need to track subtle and small changes such as a change in the
color or odor)
Pain management
Physical assessments
Physical endurance (since you will work long hours and have to use sometimes heavy
equipment or patients)
Psychiatric care
Rehabilitation
Seizure precautions
Surgery preparation
Teamwork
Wound irrigation
Withdrawal of blood samples
Recommended Reading:

Most Common Mistakes in a Resume [2018] – How to Avoid Them

How to Improve Your Resume in 60 Seconds [Infographic]
Resume Keywords and How to Use Them [Examples]
Using our intuitive and professional builder; you can put into practice what you just learned
and get that interview you've been waiting for!

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