What Is On A Registered Nurse Resume

It's hard to write a compelling nursing resume in 2021. For starters, nursing professions encompass hundreds of skills and career details. Therefore, information technology's difficult to make up one's mind which details y'all should include on your resume. Moreover, it's difficult to differentiate your nursing resume from all the others with the same exact skills! In this article, we draw on over 40 years of combined feel as nurse recruiters to provide everything you'll demand to create exceptional nursing resumes for 2021.

Our 2021 nursing resume writing guide is packed with data. Below is a table of contents to help you navigate. Simply select a link and you'll exist taken to the starting time of the topic:

Please note that we created this guide for experienced nurses. Still, it'south as well useful for students and new-grads.

If you're a student or new-grad, so be sure to cheque out our guide for New-Grad Nursing Resumes. If yous're a travel nurse, then be sure to check out our guide for travel nursing resumes.

Guide For New Grad Nursing Resumes

Guide for Travel Nursing Resumes

Screening Nursing Resumes for Content

First, let's take a look at how healthcare employers screen nursing resumes.

Hiring managers, recruiters and software evaluate nursing resumes based on two full general factors. Starting time, they evaluate resumes based on the degree to which the content of the resume matches the task description.

This evaluation process is technical and robotic. Either the resume includes variables the employer seeks or it does non.

Second, they evaluate a resume based on how well it conveys that the candidate can excel at the job. This evaluation process is more subjective.

With that in mind, let's accept a look at the content evaluation procedure nursing resumes typically get through.

Nursing Resume Content and Applicant Tracking Systems

In the vast majority of cases, yous will utilize for nursing jobs through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). An ATS is a software application that helps employers manage the hiring process. If you lot're filling out an online chore-awarding, and so you lot're almost certainly using an ATS.

Information technology's important to note that most ATS's allow healthcare employers to choose which ATS features they desire to use and which they practice non.

How "Knock Out Questions" Bear on Nurse Resume Screening

"Knock Out Questions" might exist the about commonly used ATS characteristic in the healthcare industry.

Have you e'er applied for a task online where the application asked y'all a question like, "Exercise y'all accept ii years of recent ICU Experience?" Or, "Do you have any violations on your nursing license?"

If so, and so you take answered Knock Out Questions. Essentially, if y'all provide the wrong answer, then you're out. Information technology doesn't thing what your resume says.

What Happens to Your Nursing Resume in the ATS?

In any case, several things can happen when you upload your resume to an ATS.

First, the ATS might "parse" the content and automatically add it to the online awarding where applicable. This saves you time.

Second, the ATS might extract all of the resume'due south content and enter it into a separate file in the ATS. Recruiters and hiring managers might apply this version of your resume instead of referring to the actual certificate you upload. That's right, it'due south possible that your bodily resume is never even seen.

ATS Ranking Systems for Nursing Resumes

Adjacent, information technology's possible that the ATS volition score your nursing resume. The score is based on how the content of the resume matches the content that the employer programs the ATS to await for.

Then, the Applicant Tracking Organisation might rank all the resumes from highest to lowest score. Recruiters can so commencement reviewing the highest-ranking resumes first.

We've seen other articles about nursing resumes claim that these scoring systems are standard in the healthcare industry. Our experience indicates otherwise. Instead, healthcare employers often practice non brand use of the resume scoring features.

That said, you must still optimize your nursing resume for the employer'due south desired content.

Human Review of Nursing Resume Content

More than importantly, several humans review nursing resumes during the hiring procedure. Like the ATS, they also screen for the employer'due south desired content.

Additionally, the humans evaluate the resume to determine if the candidate tin excel at the job.

For most employers, a recruiter is the commencement human being to review resumes. Afterwards, recruiters may or may non contact desirable candidates to ask a few questions and decide if the candidates are still interested in the task.

Once this process is complete, recruiters typically frontward the all-time candidates to the hiring manager. Here again, the hiring manager typically reviews resumes for the desired content and judges whether the candidate can excel at the position.

It'south important to note that the "best" resumes are nearly always the ones with all the critical details the employer desires. If the information isn't there, and so the resume stands a far greater adventure of being removed from the process.

The Two Content Goals for a Nursing Resume

Essentially, the screening process necessitates that your nursing resume achieves two general goals pertaining to content.

2 Resume Goals

The Objective Goal: Make sure your resume includes content the employer wants to run across.
The Subjective Goal: Utilize your creative writing skills to differentiate yourself and demonstrate that you will excel at the task.

Accomplishing these goals is easier said than washed. Each goal has its own set of challenges. We'll discuss those challenges and provide tips for overcoming them in the sections that follow.

iv General Types of Content for Nursing Resumes

First, it'due south important that we have a basic understanding of the 4 general types of content that are applicative to all resumes.

Hard Skills

Difficult skills have two main characteristics. Get-go, y'all tin can learn them in a classroom, from a book, or on the job. Second, they are often quantifiable.

Soft Skills

Soft skills are subjective and typically unmeasurable. They are often referred to as "interpersonal skills". They commonly ascertain how y'all interact with other people as well as how you manage yourself and your personal responsibilities.

Duties

Duties are more general in nature relative to difficult and soft skills. Basically, you oft utilize your difficult and soft skills to attain your duties.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments convey how well you performed in your previous roles. They are frequently measurable. Yet, accomplishments tin besides involve the achievement of goals, awards and honors.

BluePipes: Professional Networking and Career Management Tools for Healthcare Professionals

Accomplishments vs. Duties on Your Nursing Resume

It's important to note that the conventional wisdom on resumes contends that your resume should exist "achievement driven". Advocates of this approach advise against listing skills and duties on your resume.

Notwithstanding, nursing is a skills-based profession. Healthcare employers demand to know that you accept feel with the highly technical skills they're seeking.

At the same time, healthcare employers want to know about your accomplishments too.

Fitting all of this information on your nursing resume is a major challenge. Managing this challenge represents a key difference between nursing resumes and most other resumes.

There are 2 key solutions to this problem. Showtime, in that location are certain critical details that every nursing resume should include when applicative. These critical details implicitly convey tons of information so you don't demand to list your duties and skills. We discuss these details below.

Second, use your creative writing skills to frame your nursing skills and duties within statements that convey your accomplishments whenever possible. Essentially, yous knock out two birds with one stone. We provide specific examples below.

And recollect, not everything on your resume needs to be an accomplishment. The betoken is to make sure you're thinking about your accomplishments and including them when you can. This is what will make your nursing resume stand out from the crowd.

Making Content Lists for Your Nursing Resume

Before we put our creative writing skills to piece of work on our nursing resume, it's best to create lists of potential content we might desire to utilise. This practice is akin to making "discussion clouds". However, we're non going to make a "cloud"; nosotros're going to make some simple lists.

We recommend that you make lists for the following half-dozen categories:

Resume Content Lists

A list of terms from the specific task posting
A list from researching the potential employer
A list of your current and previous jobs' measurables
A list of your accomplishments from electric current and previous jobs
A list of your duties from current and previous positions
A list of your hard and soft skills

Trust us, this is much less work than it seems. You lot but demand to consummate the lists that are specific to yous one fourth dimension. Once that's washed, you can focus on making lists that cover the employer's you apply with, which is relatively quick and like shooting fish in a barrel.

It's an practise that volition save you tons of time in the long run. It volition help you quickly create compelling nursing resumes customized for specific jobs. Let's take a look at each list in particular.

Listing of Terms from the Nursing Task Posting

Equally nosotros mentioned above, 1 of the primary goals for our nursing resume is to brand sure that it includes content that matches the job requirements. The offset stride toward that goal is creating a listing of terms from the task posting.

Information technology's a seemingly straightforward process. However, it'southward tricky if you lot don't know what yous're looking for. Let'due south take a expect at an example.

Below is a listing of terms we pulled from an actual chore listing for an ER Nurse. Click this link to view the job listing.

Sample List of Nursing Chore Post Terms

Task ID: 2018-60127 (you tin use this on your nursing cover letter)
Employment Type: Full Fourth dimension
Department: Emergency Services
Shift: 12 Hour Nights
provides, coordinates and directs care to individuals and families using a holistic approach
The nursing process
disquisitional thinking
problem solving
provide care within a safe and confidential surround
collaborating with members of the healthcare team
providing leadership
personal/professional development
conducting him/herself professionally
demonstrate behaviors consistent with the core (Mercy) values in support with Methodist Hospital and the Mission and Philosophy of Dignity Health
Current California RN license
One (1) year of experience as an RN in the Emergency Room, or a related field of nursing, required (Two (2) years preferred)
AHA BLS
AHA ACLS
AHA PALS
MICN
ENPC
TNCC
CEN

Equally you can see, this list includes difficult skills and soft skills. It as well includes a few items you might not retrieve to put on your nursing resume; the shift and employment type for case.

The list also includes mention of the infirmary's values, mission and philosophy. However, these items are not divers. Therefore, you lot may want to find definitions for them when you research the employer.

Creating a Listing from Employer Research

The truth is that employer enquiry is well-nigh useful for task interviews. However, information technology doesn't hurt to deport employer enquiry to help with your nursing resume.

When conducting employer research for your nursing resume, you want to observe details about the employer that converge with your own experience. When you're successful, it's a groovy way to differentiate yourself and gain an edge over other candidates.

Unfortunately, every employer and individual are different. Therefore, we won't be able to provide an verbal example. Notwithstanding, here is a list of considerations:

Employer Research Tips

Review the employer's website in detail. Expect specifically for a "Press Center" (like this one) or some other page where the employer is issuing news about themselves.
Bank check the company's social media accounts (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter).
Search for News on the employer (select the News option when searching on Google).
Use "Hospital Compare" on Medicare.gov to come across how a hospital stacks up.
Use LinkedIn to detect connections or asking introductions to current employees and contact them to inquire virtually details.

Creating a List of Your Electric current and Previous Jobs' Measurables

When we use the term "Job Measurables", nosotros are referring to anything that is quantifiable. Hither are some examples:

Your Own Measurables

Your own performance evaluation scores
HCAHPS scores
Nurse/Patient Ratios or Caseloads
Cases per day or per month (you, the unit and the hospital)
Find out how your current employer quantifies themselves and their performance
Find out how your current employer quantifies you and your performance

Creating a List of Your Task-Related Accomplishments

Opposite to pop opinion, you can include both individual and squad accomplishments on your nursing resume. Here are some examples of accomplishments:

Sample Accomplishments

DAISY Awards
Your personal performance evaluation scores
You were promoted and/or given charge duty
Your Emergency Room unit achieves a Quest for Cipher laurels during your tenure
Your infirmary achieves Magnet status recognition during your tenure

If y'all take difficulty determining your accomplishments, then nosotros recommend reviewing your previous job performance reports/reviews.

Creating a List of Task Duties for Your Nursing Resume

Job duties are difficult to articulate for your nursing resume. To simplify, we recommend that you review your current official job clarification. This will help you lot articulate your duties in a way that is standard to the industry.

Nigh every employer maintains an official chore description for all positions, so it shouldn't be difficult to obtain. In fact, your previous employers might even provide admission to your onetime job descriptions.

If all else fails, we recommend that you review chore advertisements for like jobs.

Hither are some examples:

Sample Duties

Assess patient and family needs
Develop plans of intendance
Coordinate and direct patient care
Ensure the physiological, psychosocial, rubber, learning, rehabilitative, spiritual, cultural and self-care needs of patients and their families are addressed
Administrate medications

Creating a Listing of Hard Skills for Your Nursing Resume

The nursing profession is absolutely loaded with hard skills. In fact, nearly every nursing specialty has hundreds of hard skills. Here are some examples:

Sample Hard Skills

12-Lead Placement
12-Pb Interpretation
Arrythmia Interpretation
Ventricular Assistance Device
Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump
Foreign Linguistic communication Proficiency
General Computer Skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.)
EHR Proficiency (Ballsy, Cerner, etc.)

Hither are some helpful questions to consider when y'all develop your ain list:

Hard Skill Primer Questions

Did you start IVs?
Did y'all administer medications? Which medications?
What type of patients did y'all care for? Renal? Cardiovascular? Neuro? Ortho? Rehab?
What was the age range of the patient population you cared for?
What specific equipment do you accept feel with? Did you read strips? Work with vents? Trachs? Balloon pumps? Swan-Ganz? da Vinci Surgical Organization?
Which manufacture-broad protocols, processes and procedures are you lot experienced with? For example, AIDET is among the nigh commonly listed requirements in nursing job advertisements. There are many like protocols, processes and procedures throughout the industry, so exist sure to make note of those that were used by your previous employers.

For boosted assist, we recommend that you join BluePipes and complete 1 of our free nursing skills checklists.

Nosotros have skills checklists for every major nursing specialty. You tin can download them as PDF documents and employ them to apply for jobs or bring them to job interviews.

Soft Skills for Your Nursing Resume

Given that nurses care for patients and commonly piece of work in teams, it's obvious that soft skills are a very important part of the profession. Here are some examples:

Sample Soft Skills

Emotional Intelligence
Communication Skills
Teamwork
Time Management
Work Ethic
Patience
Flexibility

We recommend that you lot review diverse task-postings to aid you place potential soft skills to include on your list. Remember, include only those skills that are truly relevant to you lot.

Deciding What to Include on Your Nursing Resume

Evidently, you lot won't take enough space to include all the data from your lists on your nursing resume. You volition demand to decide which details will make the cut. Remember, the ii primary objectives are as follows:

2 Resume Goals

The Objective Goal: Make sure your resume includes content the employer wants to see.
The Subjective Goal: Utilise your artistic writing skills to differentiate yourself and demonstrate that you lot will excel at the task.

Matching Your Nursing Resume to Chore Requirements

Other websites make information technology sound similar you only need to match the content of your resume to the content in the job posting. Doing so, they say, will ensure your resume includes all the content the employer seeks.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. First, employers don't always include every detail they're looking for in the job description.

For example, many nursing managers want to know if candidates have experience on units with a similar number of beds to their unit of measurement. Therefore, resumes that include this information will get more attention. However, y'all will rarely if ever see a job description that mentions the number of beds in the unit.

Second, some job descriptions are so massive that you won't be able to fit all the information on a resume even IF you had all the desired skills and experiences. Equally a upshot, you'll be stuck wondering what to include.

What Content Makes the Cutting?

Therefore, we provide a list of the top 10 details to include on your nursing resume. This list is based on over 4 decades of combined experience every bit recruiters who worked with hundreds of hiring managers. We often say that including these details will never get your resume rejected, but missing them might.

These details will non make full out your entire resume. Rather, they will serve as a base. You can then use your content lists to determine opportunities to shine with specific employers.

Please review this list carefully equally you will most likely uncover details which are missing from your nursing resume.

Top 10 Details to Include on Your Nursing Resume

x. Professional person Affiliations:

Many employers desire to know if yous belong to whatsoever professional person associations. In fact, they'll often ask about this on their job applications. Membership demonstrates your commitment to honing your skills.

Therefore, if you vest to associations like the American Association of Critical Care Nurses or the Emergency Nurses Clan, then include the post-obit details on your nursing resume:

Professional Amalgamation Details

Affiliation name
Your date of admission
Offices held
Brief clarification of your office or reason you chose this group over others

Example professional affiliation argument:

Member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses since 2014. Secretary of the Sacramento, CA Affiliate since 2016, collaborating, sharing all-time practices and developing leadership skills with local colleagues.

9. Honors – Awards – Special Assignments – Volunteer Piece of work:

As with all resumes, a nurse's resume should include whatever honors and awards they've received. Examples include honors and awards from school, work, volunteer piece of work, professional person affiliations, and even social clubs.

Nurses should also include whatsoever special assignments they were given at work. Did you always take charge-duty? Did y'all do any scheduling, mentoring or precepting?

Y'all should besides include honors and awards earned by teams that you contributed to. Did your Emergency Department earn a Lantern Laurels? Did your infirmary accomplish Magnet Condition during your tenure?

Y'all may choose to place these items under their own heading. However, this isn't necessary. Yous can as well add them where applicable throughout the rest of your resume.

Examples:

Selected as Relief Charge in recognition of demonstrated organizational, leadership and teamwork skills.

Contributed to knowledge direction and learning development efforts on a PICU that achieved a golden-level Beacon Award for Excellence during tenure.

Elected President of a Sigma Theta Tau developing honor society and made meaning advancements toward chapter condition during tenure.

8. Specific Nursing Education Details:

Y'all must include the degree you lot earned (ADN, ASN, BSN, MSN, etc.). When y'all don't include it, recruiters and hiring managers are more likely to remove your resume from consideration in favor of other resumes that include information technology.

This is because employers about always have a degree requirement and/or a preference. Meanwhile, the staffing office can't obtain this information easily on their own.

Here is a list of education details for your nursing resume:

Education Details

Name of school (required)
Metropolis, and State (required)
Caste earned (required)
Beginning date – Completion date (optional)
GPA if it was actually high (recommended)
Achievements, awards, scholarly organizations and activities (recommended)

Finally, you may also wish to include details on whatever standing education units you've taken within the final 2 years.

Bonus:

If you are bilingual, and then be sure to include it on your nursing resume! According to a recent written report from TalentNeuron, "bilingual" was the second nigh commonly required skill listed on nursing task advertisements.

Example:

Education

Bachelor of Science, Nursing (BSN)

California Land University Sacramento, Sacramento, CA

Graduated magna cum laude (iii.75 GPA)
Dean's Honour 2017: Exemplary Student
Recieved the Elizabeth Moran Honour for Excellence – An award based on faculty nominations for a student who demonstrates bookish excellence in nursing, disquisitional problem solving in the clinical setting and potential for leadership.

7. Nursing License and Certification Details:

Nosotros highly recommend that y'all include the post-obit for your licenses:

License Details

License type (LPN, RN, NP, CRNA, etc.)
Licensing Land/Body
Name on license if unlike from proper noun on resume
License expiration date
License number
If the license is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact, and so land information technology clearly.

Many people argue that nurses should not put license numbers on their resumes as a affair of privacy. However, nursing license numbers are a affair of public record.

Anyone tin easily obtain a license number from a country'due south Board of Nursing using the basic information on all resumes. However, the recruiter'southward chore is easier if you provide the license number. In a competitive task marketplace, that could brand all the difference in the globe.

When it comes to certifications, we highly recommend that you include the following for every certification you lot hold:

Certification Details

Certification name (BLS, ACLS, PALS, TNCC, etc.)
Certifying body (AHA, etc)
Expiration engagement, or engagement acquired if it has no official expiration appointment.

Example:

RN – Registered Nurse, CA, expires: Dec, 2022, # 625384

BLS – Basic Life Back up, AHA – American Center Association, expires: Dec, 2022

ACLS – Avant-garde Cardiac Life Support, AHA – American Middle Association, expires: December, 2022

6. Availability:

Dissimilar many professions, nurses work round-the-clock. Therefore, your resume should convey the shifts you lot're willing to work and indicate your willingness to relocate when applicable.

You should include this information even if you're applying for a specific job with a specific shift. You never know if the employer has another opening that is unadvertised which you may authorize for.

Moreover, employers shop resumes in their ATS for future use. Recruiters volition use the ATS to observe candidates in their database who match future job requirements.

Availability can have its own heading on your resume. Yet, information technology'south all-time to simply add together your availability to your Professional Summary.

Example:

Registered Nurse with over 7 years of Emergency Room experience, willing to piece of work Day Shifts or Dark Shifts inside a 1-hr drive of Sacramento, CA.

5. Computer Skills:

According to a recent study by TalentNeuron, "Electronic Medical Tape" was the most unremarkably required skill in nursing job advertisements. "Ballsy Software" and "Meditech", popular EHR software packages, were too on the list.

Information technology's imperative that you listing whatsoever and all EHR / EMR experience yous have. Y'all may also want to include any other computer feel you have just in case information technology may be of value to the employer, or to at least demonstrate that you take reckoner skills if you lack experience with EHRs.

Of course, billing codes are a big part of EHRs. Both ICD10 and ICD 9 are among the most ordinarily listed skills in nursing task advertisements. So, if your scope of practice deals with this in whatsoever way, and so be sure to add together these to your resume.

You tin can include a carve up heading for Computer Skills on your resume. Or, y'all can include your computer skills in your resume Summary. You could too mention them in your job descriptions.

Example:

Epic Credentialed Trainer, over 3 years of experience with Meditech, and potent Microsoft Role skills.

4. Facility Details

Diverse Facility-Details tell the potential employer a ton nearly your experience with very few words. Here are some examples:

Facility Details

Facility Type: Designations like Acute Care Hospital, Short Term Acute Care, Long Term Intendance, Long Term Acute Care, Skilled Nursing Facility, etc.
Trauma Designation: Include the trauma center level (1, ii, three, iv or v).
Pedagogy Hospital: If y'all worked at a teaching hospital, then mention it.
Rural Designation: Designations like Critical Access Hospital, Rural Referral Center, etc.
Magnet Status

You tin can include these details under the specific job description in your resume's Work History section, or in your resume'due south Summary. For example, if the task you lot're applying for lists trauma hospital experience as necessary or desired, then it's a adept idea to place your trauma experience in the resume Summary to get in stand out.

3. Number of Beds:

Merely like the facility blazon, bed-counts tell the potential employer a ton near your experience with very few words. Include the following:

Bed Count

Total beds at the facilities y'all worked
Full beds in the specific units in which you worked

two. Unit Details

Unit details also tell the employer a lot nearly your experience with few words. Consider including the following details and others similar them when available:

Unit Details

Unit Type (MS, TELE, ICU, CVICU, ER, L&D, etc)
Match your vernacular to the prospective employer. If the employer calls information technology "Emergency Department" and your old task called it "Emergency Room", then go with Emergency Department.
Do not utilize things like "three West" or "4 North". Nobody else knows what that ways.
The nurse-to-patient ratio
Number of patients per solar day (you and the unit as a whole)
Number of support staff (LPNs, CNAs, or MAs, etc.)
Did the unit take trauma patients?
Did the unit routinely deal with overflow from other units? If so, what types of patients were seen from overflow?
If you floated to other units, then you lot should include data on those units. In doing so, include the percent of fourth dimension yous spent in each unit.

1. Properly Framed Skills, Duties and Accomplishments in Your Work History

The near important affair we desire to convey regarding the details you include in your piece of work history is what NOT to do. But put, do not listing duties one afterward the other each on a single line. For example:

Practice Not Do This!

Provided patient care
Administered medication as needed
Collaborated with intendance team
Applied the nursing process to patient care

Commencement, this wastes a lot of infinite. All of these items could be listed continuously within the same bullet point. More importantly, it fails to differentiate you and demonstrate that you will excel at the task.

Unfortunately, tons of nursing resumes apply this approach. We're non going to. Instead, we'll combine skills, duties and accomplishments into cohesive statements in club to maximize results with less infinite.

Example Chore Details for Nursing Resume

Provided patient care in a Cardiac ICU that took care of post-coronary intervention patients with IABP'due south and Impella heart pumps, and post cardiac abort patients requiring therapeutic hypothermia.

Integral member of unit'due south Quality Assurance Team tasked with identifying and evaluating quality issues, managing patient census, and allocating staff assignments.

Selected as an original team member for the hospital's new CVICU. Assisted in developing the unit's policies and procedures and ensuring the unit of measurement's successful launch.

Implemented discharge planning and provided health care educational activity to the patient and pregnant other to promote recovery.

Selected to collaborate on Patient Satisfaction Taskforce tasked with developing, testing and implementing related policies and procedures.

Achieved highest possible quality review scores for duties realted to training and educating patients and families on ESRD.

Listing Skills

Finally, nosotros don't want to scare you lot away from listing difficult skills on your nursing resume. Again, nursing is a skills-based profession and listing skills is sometimes necessary.

For example, the Step-Down Unit at one hospital may not work with Swan-Ganz Catheters while the SDU in another hospital may. Therefore, yous'd want to highlight such skills if you have them. Additionally, you could list skills in guild to match the job requirements.

That said, we recommend against a heading specifically for list skills. Instead, list them with your job details. Or, list them in your summary. For case, yous might include the following on your resume if you're applying for a position in the CVICU:

Instance Skills Statement

Expert with starting IVs, Intra-aortic balloon pumps, 12-Atomic number 82 Placements, 12-Lead Interpretation, AICD Insertion, Beta Blockers, Argotroban, Atropine and other cardiovascular medications.

How to Format Your Nursing Resume

Now that we have all our resume content ready, we need to decide on a format and a layout. Nosotros'll discuss format outset.

Generally, there are 3 resume formats. Let's take a quick look at each.

Chronological Resume

The most mutual resume format is chronological. It emphasizes the candidate'due south work history. It includes sections for Summary, Work History and Educational activity. Piece of work History and Education are listed in reverse chronological club. Hence the proper name.

Functional Resume

A functional resume emphasizes the candidate's skills, prior responsibilities, accomplishments and various other attributes. A functional resume may or may not include a section for Work History.

Combination Resume

Simply put, a combination resume combines the attributes of chronological and functional resumes.

What is the Best Resume Format for Nurses?

The best resume formats for nurses are the chronological resume and the combination resume. We urge nurses to avoid the functional resume format.

Now, you'll see many articles on nursing resumes that recommend functional resumes for new-grads, nurses making career transitions, and nurses reentering the workforce subsequently some time away. While this is the mostly accustomed recommendation for all industries, we believe it's not a good choice for nurses.

Showtime, if you're a new-grad, then y'all tin add your clinical rotations in lieu of work history. New-grads tin can also include work history outside the healthcare field. Select this link to view our commodity for new-grad and student nursing resumes.

Second, most nursing employers will only consider skills that the candidate utilized on the job inside the terminal 2 to 3 years. Equally a upshot, a skills-based resume won't work for new-grads or nurses who are reentering the workforce after many years away.

The only reason nosotros tin imagine for nurses to use a functional resume format is if they are not a new-grad and have absolutely no piece of work history to listing. This is a very rare scenario. Again, we urge nurses to apply the chronological and combination resume formats.

Choosing a Layout for Your Nursing Resume

The "layout" of your nursing resume refers to how yous organize content on the folio. In theory, there are an infinite number of possible layouts.

Notwithstanding, nosotros tin can split layouts into two general categories. At that place are one-column layouts and multi-column layouts.

The traditional resume we're all used to seeing uses the one-cavalcade layout. It'south a classic F or E pattern. Each line spans the width of the page.

People commonly refer to multi-column resumes as "Modern Resumes" or "Contemporary Resumes". The reader must review content by section as opposed to drawing their eyes down the page while scanning from left to right.

What is the All-time Layout for Your Nursing Resume?

We strongly urge nurses to utilize the traditional one-column layout. This recommendation is backed by our feel. It'southward also backed by numerous studies.

For case, a study from TheLadders in 2018 found that recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds on their initial screening of a resume. While we believe this overdramatizes the reality, we agree that you have piddling time to grab a recruiter'due south centre.

Peradventure more importantly, the written report institute that the top-performing resumes shared several common traits. They are equally follows:

Mutual Traits of Top-Performing Resumes

Conspicuously marked section and title headers
Very simple layouts conducive to traditional F or E-design reading tendencies
Bold job titles with bulleted lists of accomplishments
A detailed summary at the top of the folio

The worst-performing resumes as well shared common traits. They are as follows:

Mutual Traits of Worst-Performing Resumes

Cluttered layouts with multiple columns, long paragraphs and little white infinite.
Layouts that did non brand employ of clearly divers section headers to depict the viewer's optics down the page.
Keyword stuffing.

As you can encounter, the research strongly supports a traditional ane-cavalcade layout for your nursing resume.

What Headings / Sections Should be on a Nursing Resume?

The research besides supports the employ of conspicuously marked section and title headers. Below is a list of potential headings or sections for your nursing resume. We also indicate if nosotros feel the section is required, optional, or if you should avoid it altogether.

Personal Information Section – Required

Your proper noun serves as the championship header for your personal information. Include the following personal information atop your nursing resume:

Personal Information

Full name
Full address
Telephone number: Utilize cell telephone numbers whenever possible. Many employers use recruitment software with text messaging.
Professional e-mail accost: Refrain from using email addresses that are unprofessional.

Likewise, you should consider creating an email accost just for job search purposes. You should also consider using burner phone numbers. Unfortunately, many chore boards and related services sell your contact information to third parties who will inundate you with marketing letters.

How To List Nursing Credentials on Your Resume

You should list your nursing credentials later on your full proper noun in your Personal Data atop your nursing resume. According to the American Nurses Credentialing Middle, they should be listed in the post-obit order:

Nursing Credentials

Highest earned degree
Licensure
State designations or requirements
National certifications
Awards and honors
Other recognitions

Objective Section – Avoid

Many articles and advisers recommend that new-grads and others with little experience use an Objective instead of a Summary. They assert that there isn't anything to summarize. Therefore, it's meliorate to provide an Objective that tells the employer what your goals are.

Nosotros, and many experts, completely disagree. First, everyone has a Summary to provide. Additionally, you can always include an Objective-Statement in your Summary.

That said, we firmly believe that you should avoid telling the employer how they tin help you lot. And that's essentially what Objective Statements exercise. Objectives almost always say, "Hey, here is my employment goal, help me achieve information technology."

Instead, use every opportunity to convey why and how you lot will excel at the job. That'southward what a summary is skillful for. Summaries say, "I'm the solution to your problem. Hither is why."

Summary Department – Required

As mentioned to a higher place, studies show that resumes with clearly defined Summary headings perform better than those without. The Summary is a identify for you to provide a quick, intriguing snapshot of who y'all are and how you can help the employer achieve their goals.

Select this link to discover how to write an amazing Summary for your nursing resume.

Licenses and Certifications Department – Recommended

As we mentioned higher up, we strongly recommend a title-heading for Licenses and Certifications. Every nursing job requires them. Therefore, they should be prominently displayed on your nursing resume.

Please select this link to view the information nosotros recommend y'all include.

Nursing Skills Section – Avoid

Many manufactures recommend that nurses include a title-heading for Nursing Skills on their resume. We recommend that you avoid doing this for several reasons.

Commencement, a skills title-heading is the cornerstone of a functional resume. We want to avoid this resume format at all costs.

Second, we recommend that you include a select prepare of skills inside carefully crafted statements. You should select the skills based on the task description, employer research, rarity of the skill and/or demand for the skill.

Third, if you include the details we recommended above, then y'all're already giving the reader a thorough idea of your skill set. For instance, if you lot list that you previously worked in a 32 bed ICU at a level 1 Trauma and Educational activity Hospital, so the reader has a very good idea of your skill set.

Finally, nosotros want to avoid "keyword stuffing". The written report we cited above found this do is counterproductive. Our experience indicates the aforementioned. A Skills section almost always involves keyword stuffing.

Work History Department – Required

Information technology goes without saying that the Piece of work History championship-heading is required on your nursing resume. Throughout this article, we've offered tips on what to include in this section. Below is an example:

Work History

Academy of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN

Staff RN, Apr 01, 2015 – Nowadays

24 bed ICU in a 581 bed Level I trauma and academic medical center. Recipient of Magnet, Comprehensive Stroke and Comprehenesive Cardiac Center designations.

Patient population includes medical and trauma patients in addition to recovery of cardiac and vascular
surgical patients at nurse to patient ratio of ane:1-3 dependent on acuity
Specialized training includes targeted temperature management, Impella, IABP, CRRT
Active in unit leadership and shared governance as relief team leader, representative on unit council, unit
representative on hospital EMR committee, preceptor of new employees, head of unit of measurement journal club
Multiple Daisy accolade nominations and Guardian Angel laurels recipient
Cerner EMR software

Should yous Highlight Task Championship or Employer on Nursing Resume?

Traditionally, career directorate recommended that you prominently brandish the names of employers on your resume. More recently, many recommend that you prominently display the job title on your resume instead. So, what should you lot exercise?

Well, the statement for highlighting task titles asserts that task titles say more nearly your experience and qualifications than do employer names. However, this isn't always the case in nursing.

For example, "Staff RN" is a very common job title in nursing. You could be a Staff RN at a Long Term Care Facility, a Rehabilitation Center or a Level 1 Trauma Acute Care Hospital.

Therefore, we recommend that you lot highlight the names of your employers in most cases. The person reviewing your resume will know more nigh your experience if they see "UCLA Medical Center" than if they see "Staff RN".

Instruction Section – Required

It also goes without saying that the Teaching championship-heading is required on your nursing resume. Below is an case:

Education

Associate of Science, Nursing (ASN)

Sacramento City Higher, Sacramento, CA, 2005-2008

Graduated magna cum laude (3.75 GPA)
Fluent in Spanish

Optional Sections

The sections beneath are all optional. You may choose to include them for any number of reasons. As well, these sections are good to add together if you accept limited work history and have chosen to utilize a Combination Format for your nursing resume.

Specialties Section – Optional

A Specialties title-heading is the best mode to make your specialties stand up out. It'due south besides a smashing style to add together some white-infinite to your resume, which will make it easier to read. Here is an example:

Specialties

ICU – Intensive Care Unit (v years of experience)

SDU – Stepdown Unit (ii years of experience)

You lot can add together Specialty information in your Summary if yous prefer. This will save space, but it will not stand out on the page as prominently.

Figurer Skills Department – Optional

Equally we mentioned higher up, estimator skills are becoming increasingly of import in the healthcare industry. Below is an instance:

Calculator Skills

Epic: 7 years

Meditech: 3 years

Professional Affiliations Department – Optional

As we mentioned above, professional affiliations are important to many hiring managers. Beneath is an example:

Professional Affiliations

AACN – American Association of Disquisitional Care Nurses

Sacramento Affiliate – Fellow member since 2014

Chapter Secratary since 2016

Honors and Awards Section – Optional

Of course, Honors and Awards are what resumes are all about! If y'all have many to highlight, or fifty-fifty a couple of prestigious ones, then yous may cull to include a title-heading for them. Below is an instance:

Honors and Awards

DAISY Laurels – Received over a dozen nominations. Award winner for November, 2018. (http://world wide web.daisyfoundation.org/daisy-award/honorees/your-proper name)

Dianne Lanham Accolade Winner, 2018 – Recognizes the importance of leadership competencies every bit a component of nursing practice at the point of straight care.

Volunteer Work – Optional

Nurses are among the virtually caring and compassionate group of folks in whatsoever community. They routinely engage in volunteer piece of work and profoundly appreciate that their peers do as well.

If you take a consistent and long-tenured history of volunteer work, so you should certainly consider including a title-heading to highlight it on your nursing resume. Below is an instance:

Volunteer Piece of work

Mercy Ships: Spent ii weeks in 2016 and 2017 providing patient care in the Operating Room of the Africa Mercy, the earth'south largest NGO hospital ship.

Loaves and Fishes: 2015 – Present: Provide assistance in multiple areas including resource allocation / distribution and clinic support.

Formatting Tips for Your Nursing Resume

Resume formatting involves things like fonts, margins, sizing, etc. Resume formatting affects both the humans and the applicant tracking systems that read your resume.

Every bit the written report we cited higher up indicates, humans respond amend to resumes with make clean fonts and appealing white-infinite. Meanwhile, images and various uncommon formatting characteristics tin confuse applicant tracking systems.

Follow these formatting tips to brand sure your nursing resume is highly-seasoned to humans and software.

Nursing Resume Margins

The margins on your resume will affect how much content you can fit on one folio.

Even so, margins as well affect the amount of white-space on your resume.

Too much content makes your resume look busy and chaotic, which nosotros don't want.

Using one-inch (one") margins all around the certificate is the standard approach. That said, most experts agree that margins of .5" to one" are all-time for your resume.

Whatever you choose to do, simply make sure that the height margin is equal to the bottom margin and the left margin is equal to the right margin.

How Long Should Your Nursing Resume Be?

The conventional wisdom contends that resumes should exist 1 page. Every bit a event, many people are tempted to employ tiny margins and cram equally much equally they can on one page.

Delight don't practise that! The conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, 2-page resumes are really more successful.

In a study conducted in 2018, recruiters were 2.3 times more than likely to prefer ii-folio resumes.

If you're nevertheless not convinced, delight review our article on nursing resume length. Either way, please exercise not cram your resume with content merely to make everything fit on one page!

Nursing Resume Font Type

Just put, your nursing resume should utilise a font that is standard, common and unproblematic. Do not utilise cursive, calligraphy or handwriting fonts. Besides, do not utilize fonts with awkward angles or variances in font weights.

Here is a list of clean, simple fonts for your nursing resume:

Font Families

Calibri
Arial
Verdana
Times New Roman
Georgia
Cambria
Helvetica
Volume Antiqua

Nursing Resume Font Size

Most resume resources recommend a minimum font size of 10pt. Notwithstanding, it's a petty more complicated than that.

Dissimilar fonts have different units of measurement. Therefore, the size of Times New Roman using 10pt is much smaller than Arial using 10pt.

We agree that you should non use less than 10pt for any font type, but the minimum size for certain font types, like Times New Roman, should be 12pt. You lot'll demand to run some comparisons between fonts to determine whether the base of operations font size for a particular font type is small or large.

With that in mind, yous also desire to utilize different font sizes and font weights to highlight certain aspects of your nursing resume. Information technology'southward skilful to experiment with this aspect of your resume, but the tabular array below will assistance:

Nursing Resume Font Size
Content Type	Font Size	Font Weight
Your Proper noun	20pt – 24pt (2x the Description font size)	Bold
Your Contact Data	10pt – 12pt	Normal
Section Headings	14pt – 16pt	Bold
Employers (or Job Titles)	12pt – 14pt	Optional (Bold or Normal)
Descriptions	10pt – 12pt	Normal

Document Type

Unfortunately, the internet is littered with misinformation and outdated data on what document types are best for resumes. This is largely the result of misconceptions about which document types applicant tracking systems can handle. So, let's set the tape straight for nursing resumes.

First, the ATS will let you know what document types it supports. For case, most ATS'south will display supported document types in clear view. The example below is from Davita Kidney Care. They utilise WorkDay which is one of the largest bidder tracking systems.

Select epitome to overstate

Moreover, nearly every bidder tracking system will forbid yous from uploading unsupported document types. The example beneath is from Dignity Health. They utilise iCims which is one of the largest bidder tracking systems.

Select image to enlarge

A significant per centum of nursing jobs will go through one of the post-obit ATS's:

Healthcare Applicant Tracking Systems

Taleo
HealthcareSource
iCims
WorkDay
HealthStream
BrassRing
SuccessFactors
PeopleFluent

ALL of these ATS'southward will allow you know what document types they support. And they ALL support PDF and .doc formats amongst others. In fact, information technology'south difficult to notice an ATS that does non back up these document types.

Naming Convention for Your Nursing Resume

We recommend you name your nursing resume document as follows:

Firstname_Lastname_Credentials_Resume.pdf

Case:

Jennifer_Smith_BSN_RN_CCRN_Resume.pdf

Additional Items to Avert on Your Nursing Resume

We've mentioned several things to avoid throughout this article. Hither are some additional items to avoid on your nursing resume:

Things to Avoid

Avert "special characters". Standard bullet points (blackness dots) are fine. Don't use arrows, checkmarks or other special characters in your lists
Exercise not include images or graphics on your nursing resume
Make no mention of references
Avert using the "Header" and "Footer" for anything of import. The ATS may not recognize them.
Make no mention of expected, electric current or previous compensation
Check for spelling errors and then check again
Avert details near your private life
Avoid using obscure championship-headings. Stick with the basics like "Summary", "Education" and "Piece of work History"
Avoid using scripted text from Resume Generators. These services advertise professionally written resume phrases to assistance you build your resume. Y'all tin check out this article for more information on resume builders for nurses.

Nursing Resume Samples

Kudos to you for making it through our nursing resume guide! Nosotros're confident that y'all'll create an amazing resume past post-obit the tips herein.

Beneath are some sample nursing resumes then you tin can see everything in activity. Nosotros created these resumes with the gratuitous nursing resume builder on BluePipes.

BluePipes helps you manage your unabridged nursing career on one platform. You tin create career related documents and manage your licenses, certifications and clinical records all for costless. Bring together today to simplify your nursing career!

Select a link or image to view the sample nursing resume:

Expert luck with your nursing chore search!