

You’ve found your calling, but nobody’s calling you with job interview invitations? Thanks to this guide, you won’t be able to put your phone down. Write your nurse resume with me.
Tell me, on a pain scale from 1 to 10, how painful is it to write a nurse resume?
Thought so, but let me tell you, it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve prescribed some painkilling advice to soothe your resume writing experience right away.
This guide will show you:
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Jump to these chapters:
Tracie Wood
Community Health Registered Nurse (9402750)
604-635-8519
traciewood@email.com
Summary
Compassionate community health nurse with an RN license and 2+ years of relevant experience. Excited about the opportunity to work at the University of Toronto and deliver exceptional care. At St Camille High School wrote over 40 individualized health care plans for students of various development stages.
Experience
School Community Health Nurse
St Camille High School, Toronto, ON
September 2019–Present
Key achievement: Wrote 40+ individualized health care plans for St Camille High School students.
Clinical Rotations
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
January 2017–April 2019
Education
Master of Science in Public Health
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
January 2020–Present
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
September 2015–June 2019
Skills
Certifications & Licenses
Languages
Interests
Now, here’s the job-winning nursing resume formula:
Provide holistic care by creating a layout that makes it easy for the hiring manager to read your resume.
Let’s go one by one:
That’d be it for the technicalities of your nurse resume. Now it’s time you showed off your nursing career.
Read more: Resume Layout
To impress the charge nurse, you’ve got to set aside the idea of writing about responsibilities on your resume.
Why?
A registered nurse knows what a registered nurse does.
So, instead, you need to show them how well you do it because only that can set you apart from your competition.
And the “how” behind that is:
Now see these instructions in action:
RIGHT |
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School Community Health Nurse St Camille High School, Toronto, ON September 2019–Present
Key achievement: Wrote 40+ individualized health care plans for St Camille High School students. |
WRONG |
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St Camille High School September 2019–Present
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Ouch.
The difference between these two is striking, right?
The first example clearly states your position, which only complements the achievements in the bulleted list. There are power words, quantifiers, and a key achievement singled out from the rest—it’s perfect.
And what about the other example?
Well, it says nothing about your position, and you can’t tell from the list of mere responsibilities what it is you’ve been hired for. Plus, it lacks the resume keywords a registered nurse needs to get noticed by the ATS.
You see, it’s not recruiters who first lay their hands on your application. It’s the Applicant Tracking Software—it scans your resume and assigns it based on your score. It means the hiring manager may not see your nurse resume at all!
Now let’s take a closer look at what experience you can refer to as an entry-level nurse:
RIGHT |
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Clinical Rotations University of Toronto, Toronto, ON January 2017–April 2019
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WRONG |
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Clinical Rotations University of Toronto January 2017–April 2019
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As a graduate nurse, it’s easy to focus on what you don’t have instead of what you have already accomplished. You don’t have to look far to find relevant experience; it doesn’t have to be quantifiable for every bullet you want to write.
Find ways to incorporate as many keywords as possible that showcase your skills and qualities. Avoid bland statements about assistance, but tell how much you’ve learned throughout your clinicals.
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.
The registered nurse position in Canada is impossible to take on without confirming your credentials. Plus, it takes blood and sweat to achieve a registered nurse license.
So to ensure your hiring manager has no doubts about your eligibility and give yourself enough credit, include your educational accomplishments. This is how:
Take the vital signs of the below example:
RIGHT |
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Master of Science in Public Health University of Toronto, Toronto, ON January 2020–Present
Bachelor of Science in Nursing University of Toronto, Toronto, ON September 2015–June 2019
|
That’s so fit!
Relevant courses are an excellent choice because they leave your resume with more relevant keywords for the ATS. Plus, for a student nurse, it’s a great way of saying what you’ve learnt to date.
What else can you add?
You passed NCLEX, but you know it’s not enough to impress employers. They require a particular set of skills that will enable you to perform various duties—charting, coding, and administering medications are only a specimen of the everyday tasks.
So how do you convince recruiters that you have what it takes to care for the patients holistically?
Let’s look at the most common nursing skills you should consider for your resume:
Knowing which skills come up most often in job advertisements helps you grasp what employers are looking for. But do you know how actually to match the employer’s expectations?
Follow the below actionable steps to create a specialized skills section:
Now that you know the most common nursing skills and how to create a skills section, let’s look at a sample of nursing skills on a registered nurse resume:
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Remember to weave your skills in the experience section to make the most of your application.
There’s no SOP for how to make an impression on the employer. But there are procedures you can follow to arrest your employer’s gaze on your registered nurse resume.
For example:
Develop your skills and show that to the hiring manager. Prove that you take extra care of your skillset and that nursing isn’t just an adverse effect of your life choices.
You've made the cut if you’re bilingual or speak another language on a native or proficient level. You’ll be an asset to the team of nurses when talking to worried family members or taking patient history.
Not every hobby or interest should make it to your resume. Nobody wants to know you’re an animal lover. However, it's okay if you love everything about fitness and health. You let your employers know that you positively stimulate your brain outside work with such passions.
This is self-explanatory as it proves your helper syndrome, which is much needed as a nurse.
There are several associations in the Canadian community of nurses you could join to grow professionally (and use it to your advantage in the recruitment process), e.g., CNPS, CASN, or the Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association.
Have a look at the below example to see what I mean by extras on a nursing resume:
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Certifications & Licenses
Languages
Interests
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So you know what you accomplished academically and professionally, what credentials you have, and what qualifications are necessary for the job. Now it’s time you used all that to create a painfully good personal statement that’ll make your hiring manager’s heart beat faster.
You can go either for a resume summary or objective. It depends on the level of experience you hold.
Use a resume summary if you’ve got years of relevant experience to summarize in two to three sentences. Do that at the top of your registered nurse resume.
It could include your certifications, licensure, and your most significant accomplishment. But it has to include a statement describing what you’re trying to accomplish in a new workplace.
Have a look at the below resume summary example to see theory in practice:
RIGHT |
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Compassionate community health nurse with an RN license and 2+ years of relevant experience. Excited about the opportunity to work at the University of Toronto and deliver exceptional care. At St Camille High School wrote over 40 individualized health care plans for students of various development stages. |
It has it all: the accomplishment, how many years of experience you have, and what you’ll bring to the position. Follow that example, and you’ll end up more than fine.
Now see how not to write a resume summary:
WRONG |
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Nurse with years of experience excited about the opportunity at the University of Toronto. Passionate about community health education. |
The resume objective is a statement dedicated to less qualified candidates who are only beginning their career or changing it. It’s shorter and speaks mainly of the candidate’s objective towards joining the organization or institution.
Mind, though!
It’s not about the candidate as much as it is about meeting the employer’s expectations of one.
See what I mean in the below example:
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Empathic and reliable RN graduate with 80 hours of clinical experience and 34 hours in Community as a nursing student. Seeking a stable opportunity to leverage knowledge and passion for community health nursing as a registered nurse at Vancouver Community Care. |
WRONG |
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Nursing school graduate looking for a registered nurse position at Vancouver Community Care. |
The candidate clearly demonstrates why they’re a good fit.
Firstly, because of the skills and qualities required to be a nurse (empathy, reliability, passion). And secondly, because they’ve already had some practical experience (80 hours, 15 hours) in nursing where they wish to grow (Vancouver Community Care).
To ensure you respond to your employer’s needs, tailor your personal statement to what’s inside the job description.
You don’t have to write a cover letter, no. But resume and cover letter go together as Florence and Nightingale—separately, they are random. And it’s the exact opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
To get deserved attention from recruiters, write a nursing cover letter following these simple rules:
Read more: Nursing Cover Letter Example
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.
Here’s how to write a nursing resume step by step:
Thanks for reading my guide! Now I’d love to hear from you:
Let me know. Let’s get the discussion started!
A fan of puzzles? Then tell me this, “What is a CV?” Oh, don’t beat yourself up. Nobody can give the correct answer before reading this article. So go ahead, and find your answer!
Overwhelming details. Overwhelming details everywhere. And you only googled, “CV format.” What if I told you, you’re about to feel an overwhelming relief in a second?
There’s no need to conduct experiments with different cover letter formats. Just follow our tried-and-tested research assistant cover letter guide and get ready for your new job.