Showcase Your Strengths: Essential Nursing Skills for Resume

You can bolster your resume's impact by strategically highlighting core nursing competencies and essential skills. Adding a “Nursing Skills” section to your resume is an effective visual where skills can be prominently featured.

Here, we break down must-have skills for nursing resumes that will impress a prospective employer. Included are both clinical and soft nursing skills that are in demand.

What is a nursing skills list? 

If you’re uncertain of exactly what skills you should include in your nursing resume, you’re not alone. Some nurses choose to leave a nursing skills section out of their resumes altogether. But this critical component should be included to ensure you build a strong resume,

Nursing skills are your impressive personal career attributes, expertise, and proficiencies. These achievements can be captured in a brief section or bulleted list that efficiently displays a quick glimpse of your many nursing talents.

Why include nursing skills in your resume?

Nursing resumes are typically one to two pages. Within this limited structure, highlighting your ability to perform and excel at the challenges of nursing can be difficult. 

Including a list of your clinical expertise and personal attributes summarizes why you’re the best candidate. With an impressive nursing skills list, you’re boosting your resume for maximum impact.

A skills-based career

Nursing is a skills-based career where we begin to build clinical expertise even in nursing school. We become adept at basic clinical tasks, such as taking vitals, passing medication, and giving a bed bath. Our nursing expertise is laden with many clinical tasks, sometimes called hard skills, that are often considered commonplace and expected of every nurse applicant.

To pack the most punch in your nursing skills list and stand out, highlight only unique, complex, or otherwise noteworthy, skilled clinical expertise for your skills list. A lengthy list of basic nursing tasks will water down a resume and keep you from getting noticed. 

Valuable clinical skills for nursing resumes

Each of us possesses a variety of technical nursing talents. Do you hold a certification that qualifies you as an expert in a particular procedure? Are you adept at physical assessments for a specialized population? List any specialty or niche skills that will catch an employer’s eye. 

10 clinical skills that may impress an employer are:

1. ACLS certification: This advanced level certification demonstrates that you have what it takes to act effectively in a life-threatening emergency.
2. Emergency and critical care expertise: Qualities accompanying this specialization exemplify nurses who can think fast and work under pressure.
3. Telemetry experience: Nurses adept in telemetry are attentive to detail and have garnered expertise in sophisticated equipment.
4. EMR proficient: List specific electronic health record systems you’re proficient in.
5. Computer skills: Mentioning computer competencies illustrates that you can stay on top of the ever-changing landscape of technology. If you use health apps in your workday, mention these to further qualify your tech savvy. 
6. Intravenous insertion: With many nursing fields no longer requiring IV skills, your expertise in this area will be welcomed. Be sure to include central line experience.
7. Ventilator care and mechanical ventilation experience: Expertise in ventilator care is a specialized niche that can impress an employer due to its complexity and singularity.
8. Wound care: Nurses knowledgeable in wound care and the specialized equipment and products necessary to treat complex wounds are in demand. 
9. Specialized certification or training: If you’ve been trained in the latest equipment or have completed classes to gain certification for a specific procedure or condition, tout this expertise in this section.
10. Pain management expertise: Nurses who can manage a patient's pain adequately demonstrate critical thinking skills and compassion for patients.

Remember the value of soft skills

Nurses sometimes forget that soft skills such as leadership and strong communication are just as valuable as their clinical expertise. 

While deciding what nursing skills to feature in your resume, be sure to include soft skills, which are the ability to interact effectively with staff, patients, and families. This aspect of your nurse persona is a critical attribute for a successful career.

Phrases and identifiers such as effective communicator, compassionate, and team player are standard terms used in a nursing skills list. Are you able to demonstrate sound clinical judgment? Thinking, speaking, and interpersonal skills can also be added to this vital section. 

The following 10 soft skills will add depth and personal perspective to your resume:

1. Teaching experience: Add what classes and programs you taught, such as CPR certification, community first aid, and physical assessment.
2. Supervisory experience: Include brief details of your experience in supervisory roles.
3. Conflict resolution: You can include courses you have taken on this topic or a short “for instance” scenario.
4. Foreign language proficiency: Bilingual nurses are sought after by most organizations. Be sure to include American Sign Language if applicable.
5. Critical thinking: Nurses who can work through the nursing process independently are a valued resource. Decision-making skills are honed over time, so seasoned nurses are increasingly valued.
6. Professionalism: Professionalism in nursing is still held in high regard. Nurses who incorporate professional values can be counted on to maintain patient confidentiality, uphold nursing and employer policies and standards, and operate safely. In essence, they are trusted employees.
7. Self-starter: Employers seek nurses who can initiate and take initiative on most tasks.
8. Innovative: Health care is constantly evolving, and innovative thinkers know how to keep up and stay ahead of rapidly changing technology and practices.
9. Quick learner: Certain nursing positions require a mind that easily adapts to new skills and concepts. This skill is especially essential for newly graduated nurses who may not have much field experience.
10.  Resilience: Nurses who can weather challenges and stick with an employer when the going gets tough are coveted. 

There are hundreds of marketable skills to incorporate into a nursing resume. By including your most desirable and impressive skills in your resume, you will stand out from other candidates.

 Whether you're actively seeking a new role or assessing your next steps, explore Nurse.com's job marketplace to help match your experience and skills to the best-fitting role.