
What to Put on a Resume: Good Things You Should Include
Find our what you need to put on your resume and what recruiters are looking for. Use these tips and examples to make a perfect resume.
Learn how to make the best nurse practitioner resume. One that will put your accomplishments and skills in the spotlight, and land you an interview!
Listen:
Before you get a chance to start helping your patients—
You need to make sure your nurse practitioner resume is in the pink.
The good news?
We’ll make your nurse practitioner resume worthy of Henry Silver’s nod of approval.
This guide will show you:
Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume examples here.
Need more specific advice? Switch over to the other resumes:
1
Looking for the best NP resume format?
Here’s your answer: the chronological resume format.
Why this one?
Easy: it concentrates on your professional experience, key achievements, and skills.
And—
If you use the reverse-chronological order, your most recent experience will show up first.
Plus, it’s the preferred resume format for most recruiters so they’ll have no problems finding what they’re looking for.
Just like in a well-organized medicine cabinet.
Have these tips in the back of your mind when making your nurse practitioner resume:
Export your nurse practitioner resume as a PDF file. PDFs keep the document formatting in shape on all computers and devices.
Okay.
Now, we’re all set to move on to the first section of your NP resume.
Not really sure what resume format would work best for you? Here’s our guide that’ll help you: Best Resume Format: Which to Choose?
2
Listen:
Nurse practitioners know exactly which sections of a patient’s medical record to look at to glean as much information as possible with a single glance.
Recruiters do the same.
The average recruiter will spend less than 10 seconds scanning NP resumes hoping that they’ll quickly learn something important about you.
Your nurse practitioner resume objective or summary will be one of the first things they’ll see.
Here’s the difference between the two:
right |
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A compassionate and committed Family Nurse Practitioner with a Master’s Degree in Nursing from Stony Brook University (GPA 3.8). Eager to join St. Joseph’s Hospital to provide patients with top-quality holistic care. Previously a charge nurse managing a team of 5 RNs and LPNs at a high-turnover PICU. |
wrong |
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A graduate from Stony Brook University eager to keep developing professionally in a fast-paced environment. |
The right example shows that the candidate knows exactly how to market themselves.
They start with listing strong personal traits, describe their educational background and achievements.
More than that—
The candidate refers to the employer by name, identifies their soft skills and hard skills, and says how they’d benefit the company.
The wrong example looks generic and could be used in any resume—
With equally bad results each time.
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Practical and resourceful Certified Nurse Practitioner with 10+ years of experience. Eager to join St. Lazarus Hospital to provide patients with professional and compassionate holistic care. In previous roles served as a mentor to 15+ RNs and NPs, won “Employee of the Year” award twice, and developed a highly efficient charting process. |
wrong |
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A Nurse Practitioner with over 10 years of experience. Wishing to join the staff and provide patients with professional and compassionate care. |
Just like previously—
The only thing the wrong example shows is:
The candidate doesn’t seem to be motivated enough to even write a decent resume summary.
Here’s out tried and tested formula to help you get your nurse practitioner resume summary right:
And:
Still fuzzy about writing your resume objective or summary? Our guides will take you through the entire writing process by the hand:
3
If your nurse practitioner resume would only have to consist of one section—
It would be the experience section.
So—
Make sure it puts you well ahead of the pack and delivers like dexamethasone.
Here’s how to get your nurse practitioner description right:
Here’s what your nurse practitioner job description for a resume could look like:
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Family Nurse Practitioner 2011–
Key achievements:
|
You’ll only get the job if the recruiter sees you’ve got everything they look for in a candidate.
This is why you should use the original job ad as a point of reference for your resume job description.
More than that—
Try to stay as close as possible to the original phrasing in case your nurse practitioner resume ends up scanned by the ATS (Applicant Tracking System).
And one final remark:
You may find it difficult to quantify each and every experience bullet in your job description.
Don’t worry.
Select up to 3 achievements you’re able to put a number next to and place them in a key achievements subsection.
Look at the example above to see what it looks like in practice.
And—
Take a look at the wrong example of a job description to see what you must avoid.
wrong |
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Family Nurse Practitioner
|
This kind of job description is not necessarily liked, let alone appreciated, by the recruiter.
Here’s the thing:
No section on your nurse practitioner resume must be left empty.
Just think about it:
Would you employ someone who has absolutely no idea what to do on the job?
The answer is obvious.
Now, in resume writing there’s only one rule:
Relevance.
If your experience as an NP is non-existent, populate your job description with other relevant experience, such as:
All these count.
If you’re not sure how to make a nurse practitioner resume as a new graduate, head straight to our guide: First Resume with No Work Experience
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.
4
This is no understatement—
Your nurse practitioner skills are critical to getting the job
The best part?
If you followed our guidelines, your experience section already has quite a number of relevant skills.
Take another look:
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Family Nurse Practitioner 2011–
Key achievements:
|
As you see—
The most important nurse practitioner skills are already on your resume.
Want to give them more visibility?
Double-check the job offer to see what skills the employer identifies by name.
See which ones you can offer.
Put them on your nurse practitioner resume in a dedicated key skills section.
Pro Tip: List up to 10 skills and choose the ones you’re proficient at not to fall victim to the presenter’s paradox.
You can use the lists below as inspiration:
Don't list random skills, a family nurse practitioner should focus on a different skill set than a neonatal nurse practitioner for example.
To display your nurse practitioner skills on a resume with maximum impact:
It is especially important in the context of a large skills gap in the healthcare sector.
Still in doubt about what skills to put on your resume? Read our guides: The Ultimate Skill Set for a Resume (99+ Examples of Skills for All Types of Jobs) and Guide to Nursing Skills: A Checklist For Your Career & Resume [+Tips]
5
Your education matters.
A lot.
Without proper education you wouldn’t be applying for an NP position.
So—
Make sure to list all relevant schools, and professional certifications.
Master of Science, Nursing
Decker School of Nursing, New York, NY
2009
Bachelor of Science, Nursing
Molloy College, New York, NY
2004
Making a new graduate nurse practitioner resume? Not sure what to put in the education section? We’ve got you covered: How to Write the Education Resume Section [Tips & Examples]
6
Listen:
Cover letters are still a thing and around 50% of recruiters would like to read yours.
Why is this the case?
A cover letter is hard evidence of your written communication skills, and it gives you an opportunity to introduce yourself.
Here’s how to make your cover letter for a nurse practitioner resume stand out:
Looks straightforward, doesn’t it?
The problems usually kick in once you sit down to writing it.
If your mind goes blank—
Keep calm.
And read our dedicated guide on how to write a perfect cover letter.
For even more detailed advice and examples, read one of these guides:
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.
Your nurse practitioner resume must be more than a happy account of all the things you’ve ever done in life.
Here’s a quick summary of how to write a job-winning nurse practitioner resume:
And—
Get ready for your interview!
Are you a new graduate writing your entry-level family nurse practitioner resume for the first time? Or perhaps you’re an experienced nurse practitioner eager to help the young guns out? We’d love to hear from you, leave your comment below!
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