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It’s difficult to write a compelling nursing resume in 2020. For starters, nursing professions encompass hundreds of skills and career details. Therefore, it’s difficult to determine which details you 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 experience as nurse recruiters to provide everything you’ll need to create exceptional nursing resumes for 2020.

Our 2020 nursing resume writing guide is packed with information. Below is a table of contents to help you navigate. Simply select a link and you’ll be taken to the beginning of the topic:

Please note that we created this guide for experienced nurses. However, it’s also useful for students and new-grads.

If you’re a student or new-grad, then be sure to check out our guide for New-Grad Nursing Resumes. If you’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 general factors. First, they evaluate resumes based on the degree to which the content of the resume matches the job description.

This evaluation process is technical and robotic. Either the resume includes variables the employer seeks or it does not.

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 take a look at the content evaluation process nursing resumes typically go through.

Nursing Resume Content and Applicant Tracking Systems

In the vast majority of cases, you will apply for nursing jobs through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). An ATS is a software application that helps employers manage the hiring process. If you’re filling out an online job-application, then you’re almost certainly using an ATS.

It’s important to note that most ATS’s allow healthcare employers to choose which ATS features they want to use and which they do not.

How “Knock Out Questions” Affect Nurse Resume Screening

“Knock Out Questions” might be the most commonly used ATS feature in the healthcare industry.

Have you ever applied for a job online where the application asked you a question like, “Do you have 2 years of recent ICU Experience?” Or, “Do you have any violations on your nursing license?”

If so, then you have answered Knock Out Questions. Essentially, if you provide the wrong answer, then you’re out. It doesn’t matter 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 application where applicable. This saves you time.

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

ATS Ranking Systems for Nursing Resumes

Next, it’s possible that the ATS will 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 look for.

Then, the Applicant Tracking System might rank all the resumes from highest to lowest score. Recruiters can then start 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 do not make use of the resume scoring features.

That said, you must still optimize your nursing resume for the employer’s desired content.

Human Review of Nursing Resume Content

More importantly, several humans review nursing resumes during the hiring process. Like the ATS, they also screen for the employer’s desired content.

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

For most employers, a recruiter is the first human to review resumes. Afterwards, recruiters may or may not contact desirable candidates to ask a few questions and determine if the candidates are still interested in the job.

Once this process is complete, recruiters typically provide the best 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’s important to note that the “best” resumes are almost always the ones with all the critical details the employer desires. If the information isn’t there, then the resume stands a far greater chance 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 see. The Subjective Goal: Utilize your creative writing skills to differentiate yourself and demonstrate that you will excel at the job.

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

4 General Types of Content for Nursing Resumes

First, it’s important that we have a basic understanding of the 4 general types of content that are applicable to all resumes.

Hard Skills

Hard skills have two main characteristics. First, you 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 cannot be measured. They are often referred to as “interpersonal skills”. They commonly define how you interact with other people as well as how you manage yourself and your personal responsibilities.

Duties

Duties are more general in nature relative to hard and soft skills. Basically, you often utilize your hard and soft skills to accomplish your duties.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments convey how well you performed in your previous roles. They are often measurable. However, accomplishments can also 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 be “accomplishment driven”. Advocates of this approach advise against listing skills and duties on your resume.

However, nursing is a skills-based profession. Healthcare employers need to know that you have experience 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 two key solutions to this problem. First, there are certain critical details that every nursing resume should include when applicable. These critical details implicitly convey tons of information so you don’t need 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, you knock out two birds with one stone. We provide specific examples below.

And remember, not everything on your resume needs to be an accomplishment. The point 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 work on our nursing resume, it’s best to create lists of potential content we might want to use. This practice is akin to making “word clouds”. However, we’re not going to make a “cloud”; we’re going to make some simple lists.

We recommend that you make lists for the following 6 categories:

Resume Content Lists

A list of terms from the specific job posting

A list from researching the potential employer

A list of your current and previous jobs’ measurables

A list of your accomplishments from 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 only need to complete the lists that are specific to you one time. Once that’s done, you can focus on making lists that cover the employer’s you apply with, which is relatively quick and easy.

It’s an exercise that will save you tons of time in the long run. It will help you quickly create compelling nursing resumes customized for specific jobs. Let’s take a look at each list in detail.

List of Terms from the Nursing Job Posting

As we mentioned above, one of the primary goals for our nursing resume is to make sure that it includes content that matches the job requirements. The first step toward that goal is creating a list of terms from the job posting.

It’s a seemingly straightforward process. However, it’s tricky if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Let’s take a look at an example.

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

Sample List of Nursing Job Post Terms

Job ID: 2018-60127 (you can use this on your nursing cover letter)

Employment Type: Full Time

Department: Emergency Services

Shift: 12 Hour Nights

provides, coordinates and directs care to individuals and families using a holistic approach

The nursing process

critical thinking

problem solving

provide care within a safe and confidential environment

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

As you can see, this list includes hard skills and soft skills. It also includes a few items you might not think to put on your nursing resume; the shift and employment type for example.

The list also includes mention of the hospital’s values, mission and philosophy. However, these items are not defined. Therefore, you may want to find definitions for them when you research the potential employer.

Creating a List from Employer Research

The truth is that employer research is most useful for job interviews. However, it doesn’t hurt to conduct employer research to help with your nursing resume.

When conducting employer research for your nursing resume, you want to find details about the employer that converge with your own experience. When you’re successful, it’s a great 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 exact example. However, here is a list of considerations:

Employer Research Tips

Review the employer’s website in detail. Look specifically for a “Press Center” (like this one) or some other page where the employer is issuing news about themselves.

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 see how a hospital stacks up.

Use LinkedIn to discover connections or request introductions to current employees and contact them to inquire about details.

Creating a List of Your Current and Previous Jobs’ Measurables

When we use the term “Job Measurables”, we are referring to anything that is quantifiable. Here 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 Job-Related Accomplishments

Contrary to popular opinion, you can include both individual and team 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 Zero award during your tenure

Your hospital achieves Magnet status recognition during your tenure

If you have difficulty determining your accomplishments, then we recommend reviewing your previous job performance reports/reviews.

Creating a List of Job 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 description. This will help you articulate your duties in a way that is standard to the industry.

Almost every employer maintains an official job description for all positions, so it shouldn’t be difficult to obtain. In fact, your previous employers might even provide access to your former job descriptions.

If all else fails, we recommend that you review job advertisements for similar jobs.

Here are some examples:

Sample Duties

Assess patient and family needs

Develop plans of care

Coordinate and direct patient care

Ensure the physiological, psychosocial, safety, learning, rehabilitative, spiritual, cultural and self-care needs of patients and their families are addressed

Administer medications

Creating a List 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-Lead Interpretation

Arrythmia Interpretation

Ventricular Assist Device

Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump

Foreign Language Proficiency

General Computer Skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.)

EHR Proficiency (Epic, Cerner, etc.)

Here are some helpful questions to consider when you develop your own list:

Hard Skill Primer Questions

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

For additional assistance, we recommend that you join BluePipes and complete one of our free nursing skills checklists.

We have skills checklists for every major nursing specialty. You can download them as PDF documents and use 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 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 review various job-postings to help you identify potential soft skills to include on your list. Remember, include only those skills that are truly relevant to you.

Deciding What to Include on Your Nursing Resume

Obviously, you won’t have enough space to include all the information from your lists on your nursing resume. You will need to determine which details will make the cut. Remember, the two 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: Utilize your creative writing skills to differentiate yourself and demonstrate that you will excel at the job.

Matching Your Nursing Resume to Job Requirements

Other websites make it sound like 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. Therefore, resumes that include this information will get more attention. However, you 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. As a result, you’ll be stuck wondering what to include.

What Content Makes the Cut?

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 as 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 not fill 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 as you will most likely uncover details which are missing from your nursing resume.

Top 10 Details to Include on Your Nursing Resume

10. Professional Affiliations:

Many employers want to know if you belong to any professional associations. In fact, they’ll often ask about this on their job applications. Membership demonstrates your commitment to honing your skills.

Therefore, if you belong to associations like the American Association of Critical Care Nurses or the Emergency Nurses Association, then include the following details on your nursing resume:

Professional Affiliation Details

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

Example professional affiliation statement:

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

9. Honors – Awards – Special Assignments – Volunteer Work:

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

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

You should also include honors and awards earned by teams that you contributed to. Did your Emergency Department earn a Lantern Award? Did your hospital achieve Magnet Status during your tenure?

You may choose to place these items under their own heading. However, this isn’t necessary. You can also 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 management and learning development efforts on a PICU that achieved a gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence during tenure. Elected President of a Sigma Theta Tau developing honor society and made significant advancements toward chapter status during tenure.

8. Specific Nursing Education Details:

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

This is because employers almost 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) City, and State (required) Degree earned (required) Beginning date – Completion date (optional) GPA if it was really high (recommended) Achievements, awards, scholarly organizations and activities (recommended)

Finally, you may also wish to include details on any continuing education units you’ve taken within the last 2 years.

Bonus: If you are bilingual, then be sure to include it on your nursing resume! According to a recent study from TalentNeuron, “bilingual” was the second most commonly required skill listed on nursing job advertisements.

Example:

Education Bachelor of Science, Nursing (BSN) California State University Sacramento, Sacramento, CA Graduated magna cum laude (3.75 GPA)

Dean’s Award 2017: Exemplary Student

Recieved the Elizabeth Moran Award for Excellence – An award based on faculty nominations for a student who demonstrates academic excellence in nursing, critical problem solving in the clinical setting and potential for leadership.

7. Nursing License and Certification Details:

We highly recommend that you include the following for your licenses:

License Details

License type (LPN, RN, NP, CRNA, etc.) Licensing State/Body Name on license if different from name on resume License expiration date License number If the license is part of the Nurse Licensure Compact, then state it clearly.

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

Anyone can easily obtain a license number from a state’s Board of Nursing using the basic information on all resumes. However, the recruiter’s job is easier if you provide the license number. In a competitive job market, that could make all the difference in the world.

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

Certification Details

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

Example:

RN – Registered Nurse, CA, expires: Dec, 2020, # 625384 BLS – Basic Life Support, AHA – American Heart Association, expires: Dec, 2020 ACLS – Advanced Cardiac Life Support, AHA – American Heart Association, expires: Dec, 2020

6. Availability:

Unlike many professions, nurses work round-the-clock. Therefore, your resume should convey the shifts you’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 qualify for.

Moreover, employers store resumes in their ATS for future use. Recruiters will use the ATS to find candidates in their database who match future job requirements.

Availability can have its own heading on your resume. However, it’s best to simply add your availability to your Professional Summary.

Example:

Registered Nurse with over 7 years of Emergency Room experience, willing to work Day Shifts or Night Shifts within a 1-hour drive of Sacramento, CA.

5. Computer Skills:

According to a recent study by TalentNeuron, “Electronic Medical Record” was the most commonly required skill in nursing job advertisements. “Epic Software” and “Meditech”, popular EHR software packages, were also on the list.

It’s imperative that you list any and all EHR / EMR experience you have. You may also want to include any other computer experience you have just in case it may be of value to the employer, or to at least demonstrate that you have computer 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 commonly listed skills in nursing job advertisements. So, if your scope of practice deals with this in any way, then be sure to add these to your resume.

You can include a separate heading for Computer Skills on your resume. Or, you can include your computer skills in your resume Summary. You could also mention them in your job descriptions.

Example:

Epic Credentialed Trainer, over 3 years of experience with Meditech, and strong Microsoft Office skills.

4. Facility Details

Various Facility-Details tell the potential employer a ton about 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 Care, Long Term Acute Care, Senior Nursing Facility, etc. Trauma Designation: Include the trauma center level (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5). Teaching Hospital: If you worked at a teaching hospital, then mention it. Rural Designation: Designations like Critical Access Hospital, Rural Referral Center, etc. Magnet Status

You can include these details under the specific job description in your resume’s Work History section, or in your resume’s Summary. For example, if the job you’re applying for lists trauma hospital experience as necessary or desired, then it’s a good idea to identify your trauma experience in the resume Summary to make it stand out.

3. Number of Beds:

Just like the facility type, bed-counts tell the potential employer a ton about your experience with very few words. Include the following:

Bed Count

Total beds at the facilities you worked Total beds in the specific units in which you worked

2. Unit Details

Unit details also tell the employer a lot about your experience with few words. Consider including the following details and others like 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 it “Emergency Department” and your old job called it “Emergency Room”, then go with Emergency Department. Do not use things like “3 West” or “4 North”. Nobody else knows what that means. The nurse to patient ratio Number of patients per 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 should include information on those units. In doing so, include the percentage of time you spent in each unit.

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

The most important thing we want to convey regarding the details you include in your work history is what NOT to do. Simply put, do not list duties one after the other each on a single line. For example:

Do Not Do This!

Provided patient care

Administered medication as needed

Collaborated with care team

Applied the nursing process to patient care

First, this wastes a lot of space. 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 job.

Unfortunately, tons of nursing resumes use this approach. We’re not going to. Instead, we’ll combine skills, duties and accomplishments into cohesive statements in order to maximize results with less space.

Example Job Details for Nursing Resume

Provided patient care in a Cardiac ICU that took care of post-coronary intervention patients with IABP’s and Impella heart pumps, and post cardiac arrest patients requiring therapeutic hypothermia. Integral member of unit’s 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’s successful launch. Implemented discharge planning and provided health care education to the patient and significant 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, we don’t want to scare you away from listing hard 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, you’d want to highlight such skills if you have them. Additionally, you could list skills in order to match the job requirements.

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

Example Skills Statement

Proficient with starting IVs, Intra-aortic balloon pumps, 12-Lead 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. We’ll discuss format first.

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

Chronological Resume

The most common resume format is chronological. It emphasizes the candidate’s work history. It includes sections for Summary, Work History and Education. Work History and Education are listed in reverse chronological order. Hence the 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 after some time away. While this is the generally accepted recommendation for all industries, we believe it’s not a good choice for nurses.

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

Second, most nursing employers will only consider skills that the candidate utilized on the job within the last 2 to 3 years. As a result, a skills-based resume won’t work for new-grads or nurses who are reentering the workforce after many years away.

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

Choosing a Layout for Your Nursing Resume

The “layout” of your nursing resume refers to how you organize content on the page. In theory, there are an infinite number of possible layouts.

However, we can split layouts into two general categories. There are one-column layouts and multi-column layouts.

The traditional resume we’re all used to seeing uses the one-column layout. It’s 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 Best Layout for Your Nursing Resume?

We strongly urge nurses to use the traditional one-column layout. This recommendation is backed by our experience. It’s also backed by numerous studies.

For example, 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 little time to catch a recruiter’s eye.

Perhaps more importantly, the study found that the top-performing resumes shared several common traits. They are as follows:

Common Traits of Top-Performing Resumes

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

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

Common Traits of Worst-Performing Resumes

Cluttered layouts with multiple columns, long paragraphs and little white space. Layouts that did not make use of clearly defined section headers to draw the viewer’s eyes down the page. Keyword stuffing.

As you can see, the research strongly supports a traditional one-column layout for your nursing resume.

What Headings / Sections Should be on a Nursing Resume?

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

Personal Information Section – Required

Your name serves as the title header for your personal information. Include the following personal information atop your nursing resume:

Personal Information

Full name Full address Telephone number: Use cell phone numbers whenever possible. Many employers use recruitment software with text messaging. Professional email address: Refrain from using email addresses that are unprofessional.

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

How To List Nursing Credentials on Your Resume

You should list your nursing credentials after your full name in your Personal Information atop your nursing resume. According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center, they should be listed in the following 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 better to provide an Objective that tells the employer what your goals are.

We, 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 can help you. And that’s essentially what Objective Statements do. Objectives almost always say, “Hey, here is my employment goal, help me achieve it.”

Instead, use every opportunity to convey why and how you will excel at the job. That’s what a summary is good for. Summaries say, “I’m the solution to your problem. Here is why.”

Summary Section – Required

As mentioned above, studies show that resumes with clearly defined Summary headings perform better than those without. The Summary is a place for you to provide a quick, intriguing snapshot of who you 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 Section – Recommended

As we mentioned above, 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 we recommend you include.

Nursing Skills Section – Avoid

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

First, 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 set of skills within carefully crafted statements. You should select the skills based on the job description, employer research and/or uniqueness of the skill.

Third, if you include the details we recommended above, then you’re already giving the reader a thorough idea of your skill set. For example, if you list that you previously worked in a 32 bed ICU at a level 1 Trauma and Teaching Hospital, then the reader has a very good idea of your skill set.

Finally, we want to avoid “keyword stuffing”. The study we cited above found this practice is counterproductive. Our experience indicates the same. A Skills section almost always involves keyword stuffing.

Work History Section – Required

It goes without saying that the Work History title-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 University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville, TN Staff RN, Apr 01, 2015 – Present 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 1:1-3 dependent on acuity

surgical patients at nurse to patient ratio of 1:1-3 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 journal club

representative on hospital EMR committee, preceptor of new employees, head of unit journal club Multiple Daisy award nominations and Guardian Angel award recipient

Cerner EMR software

Should you Highlight Job Title or Employer on Nursing Resume?

Traditionally, career advisers recommended that you prominently display 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 do?

Well, the argument for highlighting job titles asserts that job titles say more about 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 highlight the names of your employers in most cases. The person reviewing your resume will know more about your experience if they see “UCLA Medical Center” than if they see “Staff RN”.

Education Section – Required

It also goes without saying that the Education title-heading is required on your nursing resume. Below is an example:

Education Associate of Science, Nursing (ASN) Sacramento City College, Sacramento, CA, 2005-2008 Graduated magna cum laude (3.75 GPA)

Fluent in Spanish

Optional Sections

The sections below are all optional. You may choose to include them for any number of reasons. Also, these sections are good to add if you have limited work history and have chosen to use a Combination Format for your nursing resume.

Specialties Section – Optional

A Specialties title-heading is the best way to make your specialties stand out. It’s also a great way to add some white-space to your resume, which will make it easier to read. Here is an example:

Specialties ICU – Intensive Care Unit (5 years of experience) SDU – Stepdown Unit (2 years of experience)

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

Computer Skills Section – Optional

As we mentioned above, computer skills are becoming increasingly important in the healthcare industry. Below is an example:

Computer Skills Epic: 7 years Meditech: 3 years

Professional Affiliations Section – Optional

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

Professional Affiliations AACN – American Association of Critical Care Nurses Sacramento Chapter – Member since 2014 Chapter Secratary since 2016

Honors and Awards Section – Optional

Of course, Honors and Awards are what resumes are all about! If you have many to highlight, or even a couple of prestigious ones, then you may choose to include a title-heading for them. Below is an example:

Honors and Awards DAISY Award – Received over a dozen nominations. Award winner for November, 2018. (http://www.daisyfoundation.org/daisy-award/honorees/your-name) Dianne Lanham Award Winner, 2018 – Recognizes the importance of leadership competencies as a component of nursing practice at the point of direct care.

Volunteer Work – Optional

Nurses are among the most caring and compassionate group of folks in any community. They routinely engage in volunteer work and greatly appreciate that their peers do as well.

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

Volunteer Work Mercy Ships: Spent two weeks in 2016 and 2017 providing patient care in the Operating Room of the Africa Mercy, the world’s 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.

As the study we cited above indicates, humans respond better to resumes with clean fonts and appealing white-space. Meanwhile, images and various uncommon formatting characteristics can confuse applicant tracking systems.

Follow these formatting tips to make sure your nursing resume is appealing to humans and software.

Nursing Resume Margins

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

However, margins also affect the amount of white-space on your resume.

Too much content makes your resume look busy and cluttered, which we don’t want.

Using 1-inch (1”) margins all around the document is the standard approach. That said, most experts agree that margins of .5” to 1” are best for your resume.

Whatever you choose to do, just make sure that the top 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 be 1 page. As a result, many people are tempted to use tiny margins and cram as much as they can on one page.

Please don’t do that! The conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, 2-page resumes are actually more successful.

In a study conducted in 2018, recruiters were 2.3 times more likely to prefer 2-page resumes.

If you’re still not convinced, please review our article on nursing resume length. Either way, please do not cram your resume with content just to make everything fit on one page!

Nursing Resume Font Type

Simply put, your nursing resume should use a font that is standard, common and simple. Do not use cursive, calligraphy or handwriting fonts. Also, do not use 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 Book Antiqua

Nursing Resume Font Size

Most resume resources recommend a minimum font size of 10pt. However, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Different 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 not use less than 10pt for any font type, but the minimum size for certain font types, like Times New Roman, should be 12pt. You’ll need to run some comparisons between fonts to determine whether the base font size for a particular font type is small or large.

With that in mind, you also want to use different font sizes and font weights to highlight certain aspects of your nursing resume. It’s good to experiment with this aspect of your resume, but the table below will help:

Nursing Resume Font Size Content Type Font Size Font Weight Your Name 20pt – 24pt (2x the Description font size) Bold Your Contact Information 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 information 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 record straight for nursing resumes.

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

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Moreover, nearly every applicant tracking system will prevent you from uploading unsupported document types. The example below is from Dignity Health. They use iCims which is one of the largest applicant tracking systems.

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A significant percentage of nursing jobs will go through one of the following ATS’s:

Healthcare Applicant Tracking Systems

Taleo

HealthcareSource

iCims

WorkDay

HealthStream

BrassRing

SuccessFactors

PeopleFluent

ALL of these ATS’s will let you know what document types they support. And they ALL support PDF and .doc formats among others. In fact, it’s difficult to find an ATS that does not support these document types.

Naming Convention for Your Nursing Resume

We recommend you name your nursing resume document as follows:

Firstname_Lastname_Credentials_Resume.pdf Example: Jennifer_Smith_BSN_RN_CCRN_Resume.pdf

Additional Items to Avoid on Your Nursing Resume

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

Things to Avoid

Avoid “special characters”. Standard bullet points (black dots) are fine. Don’t use arrows, checkmarks or other special characters in your lists

Do not include images or graphics on your nursing resume

Make no mention of references

Avoid using the “Header” and “Footer” for anything important. The ATS may not recognize them.

Make no mention of expected, current or previous compensation

Check for spelling errors and then check again

Avoid details about your private life

Avoid using obscure title-headings. Stick with the basics like “Summary”, “Education” and “Work History”

Avoid using scripted text from Resume Generators. These services advertise professionally written resume phrases to help you build your resume. You can 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! We’re confident that you’ll create an amazing resume by following the tips herein.

Below are some sample nursing resumes so you can see everything in action. We created these resumes with the free nursing resume builder on BluePipes.

BluePipes helps you manage your entire nursing career on one platform. You can create career related documents and manage your licenses, certifications and clinical records all for free. Join today to simplify your nursing career!

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

Sample Nursing Resume – 1 CVICU RN – Full Format

Sample Nursing Resume – 2 CVICU RN – Basic Format

Sample Nursing Resume – 3 ER RN – Full Format

Sample Nursing Resume – 4 ER RN – Basic Format

Sample Nursing Resume – 5 Telemetry RN – Full Format

Sample Nursing Resume – 6 Telemetry RN – Basic Format

Good luck with your nursing job search!