Stunning Nursing CV Examples To Use This Year

Like any role in healthcare, nursing is primarily about patient care and management. Hiring managers looking to fill nursing roles want candidates with strong core competencies and great stress management skills. If you want your nursing CV to stand out from the crowd, you will consider the job description carefully and highlight your most relevant skills and experiences to show them that you are a great nurse practitioner. If you are applying for a specialty job title you may also need to highlight advanced training and assessments to land your dream job. 

This basic structure will help you to create a professional CV for nursing job applications. Remember that more advanced or specialized roles may require you to add additional sections, such as advanced degrees and training, or professional awards. However, even an entry-level nursing CV should contain the following information:

Header

The CV header is the topmost section that contains your full name, phone number and contact information. You can include your email address and your professional social media links, like your LinkedIn profile.

CV summary or objective

Under the header, you should write either a CV summary or a CV objective statement. Whether you write an objective or summary depends on your years of experience. If you have a lot of work experience, a CV summary statement would be best, as a summary is a personal statement that sums up your key experiences and skills. However, if you are a recent graduate, a CV objective statement that emphasizes your skills and career goals is more appropriate.

Skills

A CV skills section should include 8 to 12 bullet points detailing the skills that are most relevant to the role that you are applying for. Examples of skills commonly listed in nursing CVs include:

• Creating care plans
• Triage
• Primary care
• ICU nursing
• Monitoring vital signs
• Adult nursing
• Teamwork
• Pediatric nursing
• Infection control
• Geriatric care
• Ward management
• Communication skills
• Leadership skills

Work experience

The work experience section of a CV is important, especially for those who are looking to apply for advanced roles. This section should include up to 10 years of work experience unless more is specifically requested, and be presented in reverse-chronological order. When you list your previous jobs you should include your job title, employment dates, and 3-5 bullet points with succinct sentences summing up key duties and achievements in the role.

Education

Your education section will be particularly important when it comes to applying for your first nursing role. You should list only your most recent and advanced qualifications. For example, you should list your nursing degree but not your secondary school qualifications.

If you want to write a really good CV you will need to go beyond the basics outlined above. It can be helpful to consider CV examples or even use CV templates when writing your CV. Considering relevant CV samples will help you get inspiration for ideas. These simple writing tips will also help you to craft an effective nurse CV:

Do:

• Use active language.

Action verbs like “created,” “managed,” and “developed” will show that you take charge of your work and progress. Hiring managers will find this more appealing than passive language, like “Was responsible for.” 

• Use specific metrics to highlight key skills.

Use specific metrics, like percentages, to catch a recruiter’s eye. For example, rather than saying you helped reduce patient processing times, say “Created a patient care system that contributed to a 10% decrease in patient records processing times.” 

• Keep it short. 

Your CV should be no more than two pages at most, but a single page is best where possible.

Don’t:

• Submit the same nurse CV for every job application.

Tweak your CV for each application to make a strong impression. Consider the job posting carefully and highlight the skills and achievements that are listed as necessary. Integrate these keywords into your CV to catch a hiring manager’s attention. 

• Use complex design elements.

Complicated infographic design elements can be useful for creative industries like graphic design, but a simple, professional CV is better for roles in healthcare. Complicated designs can throw off readers (as well as applicant tracking systems (ATS) employers use to read resumes).

• Forget to proofread.

Typos and grammatical mistakes are the quickest way to undermine a great CV. Take the time to proofread thoroughly before you submit your CV.