Registered Nurse Resume Examples & Templates
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Registered nurse resume example (text version)
James Scott
San Antonio, FL 33576
555 555 555
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Professional Summary
Dedicated and compassionate registered nurse with 12 years of experience working with HIV/AIDS patients. Proven ability to provide direct patient care in a fast-paced environment. Calm and level-headed with the ability to handle difficult patients and high-stress situations. Use strong verbal communication skills and humor to develop strong relationships with patients and their families.
Work History
May 2012 – Current
UT Health San Antonio – San Antonio, TX
Registered Nurse
- Center provides reliable HIV/AIDS testing and diagnosis to up to 500 patients per year
- Offer early intervention and regular treatment to a caseload of up to 75 patients
- Communicate, consult and collaborate with outside medical specialists to develop individualized treatment plans and coordinate care
- Educate patients about the disease and safe sex practices
- Administer medications, injections and IV treatments
- Advise patients about available community resources and support groups
March 2010 – May 2012
San Antonio AIDS Foundation – San Antonio, TX
Registered Nurse
- Provided a full range of services to a caseload of up to 50 patients
- Coordinated HIV education programs designed to prevent the spread of HIV
- Trained nurses to provide pre-and post-test counseling for those seeking HIV testing
- Administered medications and treatment to patients and monitored responses while working with healthcare teams to adjust care plans
May 2008 – March 2010
Alamo Area Resource Center – San Antonio, TX
Registered Nurse
- Care for at-risks individuals including the homeless and disable
- Specialized in providing care for patients with life-threatening and chronic illnesses, including, but not limited to HIV/AIDS
- Provided free HIV/AIDS testing and diagnosis to hundreds of patients each year
- Compassionately cared for a vulnerable patient population, reducing the treatment “drop-out” rate by 25 percent
Skills
- Preventive health
- Patient evaluation
- Intravenous therapy
- Medical laboratory procedures
- Strong clinical judgment
- Charting and clinical documentation
- Strong communication
- Staff supervision
Education
University of Texas Health Science San Antonio San Antonio, TX
Bachelor of Science Nursing
Minor in Health Administration
Important resume sections
Contact details
Add your contact information to the top of your resume so hiring managers can contact you. As our sample medical equipment technician resume shows, your contact information must include your full name, city, state and ZIP code, phone number and professional email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile and professional website, add them last.
Professional summary
Just like the sample registered nurse resume on this page, your professional summary should highlight your top skills and work experiences in one to three sentences. A professional summary is a short introduction that works as an “elevator pitch” where you present yourself to the hiring manager and encourage them to continue reading your resume.
The objective for a registered nurse resume summary is to succinctly detail your key medical skills, such as placing an IV and applying sterile dressings, while also highlighting skills that lend to good bedside manner, such as empathy and patience.
Skills
An excellent registered nurse resume will feature a blend of technical skills, hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills for a registered nurse resume are job-related abilities learned through training or at work, such as giving injections, obtaining vital measurements or changing wound dressings.
In contrast, soft skills are characteristics or personality traits that speak more about how you approach your responsibilities and patient care. For instance, you might consider noting your exceptional interpersonal communication, active listening and stress management skills on your resume.
We recommend scanning registered nurse job descriptions for resume skill ideas to get inspired. The job description is the best place to find relevant skills that the employer wants to see on your resume.
Work history
The best registered nurse resume work history sections focus on key professional accomplishments in addition to daily tasks and responsibilities. Keep this section relevant to the job you’re applying for and only include up to 10 years of work experience.
If you’re just starting your career as a registered nurse, use a functional format for your resume and focus on your skills. Emphasize your patient-focused approach and relay specific details about what you’ve learned while working with patients thus far.
For more guidance on detailing your professional experience, read up on how to write work experience on a resume for tips from career experts.
Education
Registered nurses must have a bachelor’s degree, an associate degree in nursing, or a diploma from an approved nursing program. Some earn a master’s or doctorate to advance their nursing careers.
Additionally, all registered nurses must have a state-issued license to practice. You must graduate from an accredited nursing program and pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN). Be sure to list your credentials in your resume for a registered nurse using bullet points.
Read our guide, “How to List a Degree on Your Resume” for tips on adding your degree to your resume.
See why MyPerfectResume is a 5-star resume builder
Action verbs for your nursing resume
Our nursing resume sample has a lot of action verbs at the beginning of each statement. Pack your resume with the right words using some from our list below:
- Addressed
- Delivered
- Developed
- Performed
- Cataloged
- Arranged
- Guided
- Supported
- Administered
- Scheduled
Use our registered nurse resume template free of charge or craft a new resume using our professional resume maker.
Skills for your nursing resume
Make sure the resume skills you include on your nursing resume are relevant to the job description and what the employer is looking for in a candidate. Here are some registered nurse resume skills examples you might consider:
- Critical thinking
- Great communication skills
- Compassion
- Detail oriented
- Emotional intelligence
- Excellent organizational skills
- Top physical stamina
- Basic life support
- Advanced cardiovascular life support
- Patient care
- Computer skills
- EHR proficiency
- Intravenous therapy
- Checking and monitoring vital signs
- Patient safety
- Urgent care
For more skills to include on your resume, take a look at our resume examples for a registered nurse or pull skills from registered nurse job description listings.
Certifications to include in your nursing resume
All registered nurses must have a license issued by their state to practice. To become a licensed nurse, you must graduate from an approved nursing program and pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN).
Additionally, registered nurses may be required by their employer to possess cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), basic life support (BLS) or advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) certifications. Other types of certificates are voluntary, but they demonstrate a level of expertise that some hiring managers will find highly attractive.
As a registered nurse, you can also become a certified expert in a specific area, like ambulatory care or pediatrics.
Include your certifications and licenses correctly in your registered nurse resume by creating a separate section for them and placing it under your education. List them out using bullet points.
Here are a few more examples of certifications a registered nurse might want to include on their resume:
- Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
- IV Therapy Certification
- Wound Care Certification
- Long Term Care Certification
- Nurse Anesthetist Certification
- Nurse Executive Certification
- Nursing Informatics Certification
Review our nursing resume examples for more ideas on how to add nursing certifications to your nursing resume.
Pair your resume with a matching cover letter
FAQ
What is a good objective for a registered nurse resume?
If you don’t have much work experience or are changing careers, you might consider writing a resume objective instead of a professional summary. A good nursing resume objective for a registered nurse resume should explain in a few sentences who you are, your career goals, and your top skills and abilities.
Look at this sample of a registered nurse resume objective: “Registered nurse specializing in pediatrics and two years of experience working in intensive care, seeking a position in the maternity ward. Knowledge of records organization, newborn care and breastfeeding practices.”
The above resume objective for a registered nurse effectively highlights years of experience and key nursing skills in a few brief sentences.
How to write a resume for a registered nurse position?
Your registered nurse resume should include the following key sections:
- Contact information
- Summary statement
- Work history
- Skills
- Education
- Licenses and certificates
You can take a look at our sample resume for registered nurses to see a visual of these sections. The order in which you write this will depend on your years of experience.
How to list a registered nurse license on a nursing resume?
You have a few options to list your registered nurse license on your nursing resume. You can include it as part of your education section with a separate bullet point or create a new section below your education dedicated to licenses and certification, where you can list them using bullet points.
How should you craft your nursing resume if you’re looking to take the next step in your career?
Take on more opportunities to develop your management and leadership skills, such as mentoring other staff members or being more involved in administrative and management processes. Also, look into joining professional nursing organizations where you can network with others in the profession.
Other advanced training, such as a Master’s in Nursing, or certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) or Nurse Educator (NE) gives you the credentials you need advance your career.
What are some examples of training and certifications to include on a nursing resume?
As we mentioned before, registered nurses must be licensed by their state and may be required by their employer to have specific certifications. The following are some certifications that you may choose to look into for further expertise and education:
- AIDS-certified Registered Nurse (ACRN)
- Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN)
- Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN)
- Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)
- Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)
- Patient Care Technician certification
- State Tested Nurse Assistant (STNA) certification
- Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse (CMSRN) credential
What is the best resume template for a registered nurse?
The registered nurse resume template you choose will depend on your stylistic preferences on the resume format you want to follow. We have a variety of resume templates to choose from in chronological, functional and combination formats to suit your needs.
Suppose you’re a registered nurse with over 10 years under your belt. In that case, we recommend using the chronological format – the registered nurse resume templates featured on this page follow the chronological format’s structure.
Mid-level job seekers with a few years of experience should use the combination resume format. Registered nurses who are just starting should consider using the functional format for their nursing resumes.
Read our How to Write a Resume article for a detailed guide on writing the best registered nurse resume. You can also review the registered nurse sample resume on this page for more inspiration.
Best practices
- Use measurable achievements to describe your nursing abilities and experience.
- Use action words to make an impact on your nursing resume.
- Tailor your resume to your target nursing job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your nursing resume.
- Format your nursing resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your nursing experience and skills.
- Boast about your nursing skills
- Include irrelevant personal information such as your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience that do not pertain to nursing.
- Forget to proofread. A nursing resume with errors is unprofessional.
Interview tips
Research the organization.
A few days before your interview, do your due diligence and check the organization’s website. Read through their mission statement and vision and learn more about their culture. What do they stand for? How happy are their current employees? Can you see yourself working for them?
Websites like Google Reviews and Glassdoor are also excellent sources of information.
Practice your answers.
It’s impossible to know what the interviewer will ask you, but as a registered nurse, you might have an idea of what they’ll be interested in learning more about you. Put together a list of questions you think they might ask and practice your answers with someone you trust or in front of a mirror. Some questions to practice include:
- “Tell me more about yourself.”
- “What was the toughest challenge you’ve ever faced?”
- “What are the most important rewards you expect to gain from your career?”
Go prepared with questions to ask.
Turn your interview into a conversation by asking the hiring manager questions about the organization, culture and expectations. There’s a high chance that they’ll open the floor for you at the end of the interview, so write a list of questions to ask, such as:
- What medical record systems will I use on the job?
- What does a typical day look like for someone in this role?
- Are there on-call requirements for this role?
- How do you define success in this role?
- What challenges do your nurses currently face that you want solved?
Create a document with your professional references.
Gone are the days of writing “References available upon request” on your registered nurse resume. Instead, create a separate document with your top professional references and save it as a PDF. The hiring manager will ask for your list of references further down in the hiring process.
Pro tip: Make sure your list of references has a similar design as your resume template for a registered nurse.
If you’re unsure where to start, read our How to List References on a Resume article.
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How we reviewed this article
Since 2013, we have helped more than 15 million job seekers. We want to make your career journey accessible and manageable through our services and Career Center’s how-to guides and tips. In our commitment to bring you a transparent process, we present our Editorial Process.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisitcs. Occupational Outlook Handbook. Registered Nurses
- American Association of Critical Care Nurses. Get Certified
- American Nurses Credentialing Center. Our Certifications
- Nurse.org. Complete List of Common Nursing Certifications
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Registered Nurse
Kellie is a Certified Professional Resume Writer with extensive experience in digital media. She is passionate about helping job seekers navigate their careers. She earned a B.A. in English and writing from Temple University.
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