Your registered nurse (RN) resume should highlight your ability to provide quality patient care, collaborate on multidisciplinary health teams, and uphold care standards.
This guide provides tips and examples to help you create a standout RN resume, whether you’re just starting your nursing career or have years of specialized experience.
This resume highlights early-career strengths through measurable results like reducing readmission rates and improving patient satisfaction. It balances clinical responsibilities with patient education. For tips on writing your first RN resume, see our guide to writing a resume with no experience.
This resume demonstrates leadership experience, advanced degrees, and a proven ability to improve patient outcomes through mentoring and policy development. To see how formatting can enhance your presentation, view our tips for choosing a resume format.
This resume shows strong critical care expertise and emphasizes timely interventions and communication with families. Clinical metrics support performance. Learn how to highlight impact-driven work in our resume writing best practices.
This resume reflects versatility across medical-surgical settings and shows measurable improvements in patient education and supervision. For help highlighting specialized experience, review our nursing resume structure guide.
This resume illustrates deep ICU experience, including emergency response, monitoring, and staff mentoring. It also features certification support. For ideas on building a resume that emphasizes clinical expertise, visit our formatting recommendations for nurses.
This resume balances pediatric technical care with family education, supported by quantifiable results in adherence and response times. Learn how to include similar metrics by reviewing our guide to structuring resume bullet points.
This resume effectively shows NICU experience through technical skills and reduced complications. It also includes initiatives like kangaroo care and education programs. For tips on organizing credentials and specializations, explore our education listing strategies.
This resume shows success in fast-paced trauma care through examples like reduced wait times and improved survival rates. Certifications and crisis skills are clearly defined. Learn more about building resumes for high-pressure roles in our formatting tips guide.
This resume reflects deep experience in cancer care, with quantifiable improvements in patient education and readmissions. It presents a well-rounded profile for inpatient or outpatient oncology. To refine your specialized resume, read our tips for nursing resume structure.
This resume highlights cardiac care skills like telemetry monitoring and post-op management, along with improved medication adherence. For tips on showcasing impact in clinical settings, visit our resume writing strategies.
This resume focuses on acute care experience with results tied to infection control and mobility protocols. Leadership and training experience strengthen its appeal. Learn how to optimize content and layout in our resume formatting guide.
This resume demonstrates advanced ICU capability with high-acuity patient management, rapid response leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration. For advice on presenting complex nursing roles, explore our nursing resume layout tips.
This resume combines strong OR knowledge with workflow efficiency improvements and team coordination. Sterile technique, patient safety, and metrics are well balanced. For help picking the right layout for surgical settings, see our guide to choosing a resume template.
This resume focuses on cardiac monitoring, arrhythmia response, and education, with metrics that show patient improvements. It also demonstrates collaboration with cardiologists. For help writing clear and results-oriented bullet points, read our resume writing tips.
This resume emphasizes both crisis management and counseling experience, with clear results in patient safety and therapy engagement. To craft a mental health-focused resume, visit our guide to writing objective statements.
This resume shows experience supporting both high-risk and routine births, with improvements in patient outcomes and training initiatives. For advice on organizing maternity and neonatal care experience, see our resume building resources.
This resume highlights expertise in both peritoneal and hemodialysis care, with measurable improvements in infection control and patient education. For help tailoring your nursing specialization, check out our formatting strategies.
This resume focuses on community health leadership, education programs, and vaccination efforts, all supported by strong metrics. To showcase outreach experience on your resume, read our resume writing recommendations.
This resume emphasizes compassion and symptom management, with proven improvements in comfort and caregiver confidence. For help structuring a resume focused on palliative care, explore our resume formatting tips.
This resume demonstrates the ability to provide care in secure environments while improving health outcomes. Results like higher compliance and reduced disease transmission add impact. For guidance on structuring resumes in security-sensitive roles, visit our formatting guide.
Select an easy-to-read template with distinct sections for your summary, key skills, professional experience, education, and certifications. An organized template will help employers see your relevant qualifications.
If you prefer a guided process, a resume creator can help you build a resume that’s polished and organized for hospital recruiters.
Your resume summary should give the three to five main reasons you’ll excel in your target RN position. Highlight your years of experience, patient care strengths, and any major achievements. For example, mention specific certifications or any recognition or awards you’ve won. This section sets the tone for your resume, so make it impactful and concise. (Note: Most job seekers find it easier to write this section last.)
“Compassionate RN with five years of experience in ICU and emergency care settings. Skilled at managing complex patient cases, leading nurse teams, and improving patient outcomes. Certified in ACLS, with a record of enhancing patient satisfaction and reducing hospital readmissions.”
You can use a free resume builder or AI resume generator to test different summary styles and find the one that best reflects your patient-care philosophy.
“Experienced nurse looking for a job in health care. Good at working with patients and administering care. Seeking a position in a reputable hospital.”
Your work history should emphasize not just your duties but the results you achieved. Use relevant numbers to quantify your impact in past RN roles. For instance, have you reduced readmission rates, improved patient satisfaction scores, or introduced successful care protocols? If so, how did you generate those results? Use bullet points to set off your most impressive career details.
Managed care for around 10 post-surgical patients per shift, reducing post-operative complications by 20% and increasing patient satisfaction by 15%
An online resume generator can help you phrase these bullet points clearly while keeping your format consistent across job applications.
Responsible for taking care of patients after surgery
Detail your nursing education, including your degree, institution, location, and optionally your graduation date. Also, include any relevant certifications and the organizations that issued them. Credentials such as CPN, CCRN, or ACLS show your strong knowledge base and commitment to professional development.
Include both your hard and soft skills. Hard skills include technical proficiencies like medication administration, patient assessment, and use of EMR systems. Soft skills include teamwork, leadership, and other abilities that reflect your approach to your work and the type of organization you can help build. A balanced mix of these skills will show you can perform the technical aspects of nursing while collaborating with patients, families, and health care teams.
| Hard and soft skills for nursing resumes: | |
|---|---|
| ACLS | Case management |
| Clinical operations | Efficiency improvement |
| EMR | HIPAA |
| Medication administration | Patient advocacy |
| Patient and family relations | Patient assessment and monitoring |
| Patient education | Patient-centered care |
| Task prioritization | Team leadership |
| Vital signs monitoring | Wound care |
Resume.org offers free, HR-approved resume templates to help you create a professional resume in minutes.
Build Your ResumeChoose a professional and straightforward resume template. For registered nurse roles, the focus should be on clarity and the ability to quickly communicate your clinical expertise, patient care experience, and certifications. Avoid overly elaborate designs that might distract from your qualifications. Instead, opt for a simple, clean design that emphasizes your healthcare background, key clinical skills, and the quality of care you provide.
A Registered Nurse CV stands out by clearly demonstrating your expertise and achievements in the field. Be sure to use measurable outcomes and include quantifiable results wherever possible. Show how your contributions directly impacted the company, whether it’s through cost savings, operational efficiency, or revenue growth. Keep the layout clean and easy to navigate, focusing on relevant experience.
The following verbs can help you emphasize your active role in patient care, teamwork, and health care management:
| Action Verbs | |
|---|---|
| Administered | Assessed |
| Clarified | Collaborated |
| Coordinated | Created |
| Documented | Earned |
| Educated | Evaluated |
| Implemented | Improved |
| Maintained | Managed |
| Monitored | Oversaw |
| Prevented | Provided |
| Reduced | Reported |
| Streamlined | Updated |
| Verified | Won |
One great way to customize your resume is by adding brief descriptions of the health facilities you’ve worked in, in [brackets] right next to or below the organization name. These descriptions let you show any similarities between your past employers and the one who posted the job. For example, maybe you’ve worked for hospitals of a similar size, region, or patient population. By adding these details, you can make your resume more relevant to the RN job opening at hand.
Most RNs should use the combination (or hybrid) format. True to its name, this format combines two important features of other resume formats: the chronological format’s experience section and the functional format’s profile section. (The resume examples on this page all use combination format.)
By fusing these two features, a combination resume offers the best of both worlds. The experience section lets you outline your recent work history – essential information for most employers. At the same time, the profile section lets you display your career highlights at the top, regardless if they’re from that work history or another part of your background. As a result, you can present yourself both clearly and strategically. With this format, you give nurse managers the best view of your experience and relevant strengths, so they can make an informed decision to call you for an interview.
Career Coach
Irina Pichura, founder of Resumeology, is a renowned career coach with over 10 years of recruiting experience at Fortune 500 companies like Goldman Sachs and ADP, as well as startups such as Investopedia. With a degree in Psychology from Fordham University in New York City, Irina offers a unique perspective on what it takes to stand out in a competitive job market.
Resume.org offers free, HR approved resume templates to help you create a professional resume in minutes. Choose from several template options and even pre-populate a resume from your profile.
