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Building Your Nursing Resume: Essential Tips and Examples

A strong nursing resume showcases your skills, experience, and achievements. But what helps you get noticed by recruiters and hiring managers? 

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Tips on building your nurse resume

Each nursing job you apply for is unique. Make sure your resume matches the particulars of each job. 

Do your homework on a facility by examining its website for information about its mission and vision. This will show your interest in not just a job, but also in becoming part of a facility's culture and goals. In its resume writing guide, Yale University's School of Nursing offers these best practices:

  • Limit your resume to 1-2 pages, depending on your experience level.
  • Avoid packing in too much text, which will make your resume appear cluttered.
  • Focus on your accomplishments in previous jobs and clinicals, rather than just listing the duties of each position.
  • Use plenty of active words to describe how you analyzed, communicated, improved, collaborated, managed, assisted, created, etc., in your previous roles.
  • Share other skills and accomplishments that enhance your clinical knowledge such as different languages you speak, public speaking experiences, affiliations with professional or student organizations, knowledge of various software systems, etc.
  • Don't forget to edit your resume, as well as asking a friend, colleague, mentor, or family member to look it over.