

You think on your feet, and your nursing skills are off the charts. Considering a career move? Learn how to write a nursing resume that will raise the hiring manager’s heart rate.
No matter how old someone is, they have been cared for by a nurse at some point.
Your job touches the lives of every single person, whether you assist in the operating room, help deliver babies, or provide inpatient treatment. And if you’re ready for a career move that requires a nursing resume to present you in the best light, we’re here to help.
This guide will show you:
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Sample resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.
Imogen Hyde
ICU Nurse
(07) 3483 9832
imogen.hyde@email.com
linkedin.com/in/imghd
Summary
A diligent, disciplined Registered Nurse with practical experience in various roles. Grew from a general nursing position at Caulsfield Hospital to a full-time scrub nurse, assisting on over 100 surgeries monthly at Green Hill. Trained in Intensive Care Nursing. Seeking to join the Intensive Care Unit at Delmont Private Hospital to apply my skills and knowledge.
Experience
Surgical Nurse
Green Hill Hospital, Ballarat
October 2017–present
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities:
Key Achievement:
General Nurse
Caulsfield Hospital, Melbourne
September 2011–September 2017
Key Qualifications & Responsibilities:
Key Achievement:
Education
Graduate Certificate in Health (Intensive Care Nursing)
Federation University, Victoria
2021
Bachelor of Nursing
Victoria University, St. Albans
2009–2012
Skills
Licences
AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency)
Here’s how you write a good nursing resume, step by step:
When you look at a patient’s medical chart, you want to get the idea ASAP. You expect the info to be laid out clearly, for you to be able to scan it when things move extra fast.
Good news is, the person that’s hiring is probably just as busy.
To get your nursing resume right, create a simple resume format:
Include these sections:
Once you’re done with the layout, you can start filling your nursing resume template with details.
Read more: How to Write a Good Resume in Australia
Nursing is truly versatile. A career trajectory of a fresh nursing graduate can go in various directions, beginning with an enrolled nurse, moving on to become a registered nurse or a nurse practitioner.
That means that a nursing student resume will differ quite a bit from that of an ICU nurse.
However, some rules prove to be universal:
The structure of your nursing resume job entry should include:
Here’s an example:
RIGHT |
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Surgical Nurse Green Hill Hospital, Ballarat October 2017–present Key Qualifications & Responsibilities:
Key Achievement:
|
WRONG |
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Surgical Nurse, Green Hill Hospital, 2017–now
|
Both examples are describing a similar experience, but the first one is a lot easier to “digest” visually. It’s also way more impactful due to a different choice of vocabulary, the numbers provided, and the impressive key achievement.
Now, a set of new grad nursing resume samples:
RIGHT |
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Experience
Nurse (Intern) Green Hill Hospital, Ballarat October 2021–January 2022 Key Qualifications & Responsibilities:
|
WRONG |
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Experience
Intern, Green Hill Hospital, 2021 Followed the instructions of RN’s and unit manager. Patient care, assessing medical charts, doing tests, setting up IVs, helping with clean-up. Reporting. |
Seems like the wrong example took a sickie and decided not to show up for work.
Even if you don’t have any striking numbers or metrics to reflect on your nursing student resume yet, you still can show relevant experience. Just provide details, so that the skills you’ve acquired are there for the world to see.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Care, compassion, courage, communication, commitment, and competence—these are the pillars of nursing work.
So is education. You cannot access this field without a degree, an apprenticeship, or necessary certifications, so here’s how you describe those on your nursing resume:
Compare these nursing resume samples:
RIGHT |
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Graduate Certificate in Health (Intensive Care Nursing) Federation University, Victoria 2021
Bachelor of Nursing Victoria University, St. Albans 2009–2012 |
RIGHT |
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Bachelor of Nursing Science University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland 2019–2022
|
Both cover education, but the first one leaves space for professional achievements, while the other one gets additional points to make up for what’s missing experience-wise.
According to stats from Health Workforce Australia, the demand for nurses is way larger than the supply. And this situation is not likely to change soon, which makes a lot of sense: the population is ageing, so nursing skills will stay in demand.
Here are some examples you could use for your nurse resume:
Nursing Resume: Hard Skills
Nursing Resume: Soft Skills
The trick is to choose the most relevant skills for your nurse resume. To do that, brainstorm your most impressive skills, then have a look at the job ad. See any matches? Those would be the right things to highlight.
RIGHT |
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This example shows a great mix of soft and hard skills. Make sure to tailor the skills to the position requirements, and the diagnosis for your nursing resume will be “fit as a fiddle’”.
Read more: Resume Skills With Examples
Let’s check the vital signs of your nursing resume. Does it look like the saturation’s a bit low?
Well, that’s where additional sections step in. They are a great place for personal achievements examples that deserve some extra attention from the recruiting side.
They could include licences, important memberships, certifications, training diplomas, volunteering, or even foreign languages:
RIGHT |
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Licences
AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency)
Languages
|
WRONG |
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Certifications
|
While potentially relevant, the wrong example may be feeling a little crook. Reason? It’s not clear what those certifications stand for (and what qualifications they signify). Do provide basic explanations of how those extra achievements make sense for the future job, don’t just list anything and everything on your nurse resume.
Frazzled? No worries, we’re almost there. It’s just the most important section of your nursing resume that’s left.
A resume summary (experienced), or objective (entry-level) contains the most important message for the employer. It should describe your biggest professional strengths, highlights of your career, and the ways those could bring value to your new place of work.
It’s a short paragraph that goes right below the header of your resume to give the reader an immediate glimpse into the best reasons to hire you.
To get your nursing resume summary right, use these tips (resume objective tips will follow):
[Adjective + Job Title & Years of Experience OR Degree + Achievements + Skills + What You Want to Do for the Employer]
Here’s how it might look:
RIGHT |
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A diligent, disciplined Registered Nurse with practical experience in various roles. Grew from a general nursing position at Caulsfield Hospital to a full-time scrub nurse, assisting on over 100 surgeries monthly at Green Hill. Trained in Intensive Care Nursing. Seeking to join the Intensive Care Unit at Delmont Private Hospital to apply my skills and knowledge. |
WRONG |
---|
I’m a registered nurse with experience, wanting to transition into ICU. My career started at Caulsfield Hospital where I worked as a general nurse, and also performed some surgical nurse duties. I recently finished some training in Intensive Care Nursing, and I’d like to apply my knowledge at Delmont Private Hospital. |
Where’s the catch? One of the examples focuses on results, while the other focuses on duties only. It’s subtle, but it makes all the difference.
Now, let’s talk about resume objective examples. A common challenge for nursing students, according to studies, is a lack of practical experience (as opposed to theoretical knowledge).
So, your nursing resume objective may focus on:
Here’s an example of nursing student resume objectives:
RIGHT |
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A passionate recent USC graduate with a degree in Nursing Science and a dedication to patient care. Combined my studies with several hospital internships (Greenhill, St. Mary’s), obtaining practical experience in patient management, Point of Care Testing, and early patient assessment and response. Willing to continue my training at Caulsfield Hospital, contributing to the work of the unit I’m assigned to, and assisting Registered Nurses on a daily basis. |
WRONG |
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A recent USC graduate with a 6.0 GPA. Good theoretical knowledge of CPR and First Aid practices. Did an internship at Greenhill Hospital, where I shadowed registered nurses. Would like to join Caulsfield Hospital as a junior nurse to explore my options and potential professional next steps. |
The person making a decision whether to hire you is most certainly looking for solutions, not extra problems. If you’re going all “me, myself, and I” on your nurse resume, instead of focusing on the value you can bring, you’re very unlikely to get that call.
Read more: Simple Resume Templates for Australia
Here’s a corker of an idea: why not maximize the impact of your job application if you’ve got a chance to do so?
Seems like an opportunity no one would want to miss. How would you do that?
Not sure about the best way to write a cover letter? Follow this nursing cover letter protocol:
Don’t forget to attach both files to your email, and you’re good to go!
Read more: How to Write a Nursing Cover Letter
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Let’s review the tips on how to write a nursing resume:
That’s it for now! We’d love to hear your feedback:
Do tell! And thanks for reading.
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