Registered nurse CV examples and tips
A registered nurse needs to have plenty of both hard and soft skills. How can you create a nurse CV that really turns heads?
A registered nurse needs to have plenty of both hard and soft skills. How can you create a nurse CV that really turns heads?
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If you’re a registered nurse, you want to have an effective professional CV. To stand out from other candidates apply with a registered nurse CV that highlights your skills, experience and knowledge. Before you begin writing your customer service CV, follow this guide, which includes:
Your certifications are very important in a registered nurse CV but a hiring manager also wants to see that you’re knowledgeable about patient care. Whether you’re planning to apply as a nurse practitioner, nursing assistant or another nursing position, you should showcase that you know how to provide nursing care for a wide variety of patients. Employers are also looking for skills in nursing candidates that show how you will perform nursing duties and interact with patients, their families, doctors, nurses and other health care staff.
It’s important that you read the job description carefully to match your skills and see the requirements of the position. Keywords, the words that describe skills and requirements, play a big role in whether your CV is scanned as a qualified candidate by applicant tracking systems (ATS). ATS is often used by busy hiring managers to select only the most qualified candidates for the role, based on specific job role keywords.
Depending on your level of nursing experience, you will want to select the CV format that will best highlight your career history.
The most popular CV formats are as follows:
The chronological CV (also known as reverse chronological) is a popular format because it allows an experienced nurse to highlight work history and nursing-related skills. Simply list your most recent job first and go backwards to past nursing job roles. Your nursing skills combined with your work history while practicing in a hospital, clinic or medical office will show that you are qualified to perform specific job duties like assessing patients, administering medication, communicating, working collaboratively and adhering to safety standards.
A functional CV takes the focus off of work history and places it on a job candidate’s skill set, education and past training. A recent nursing programme graduate, nursing student or a registered nurse that is rejoining the workforce after an absence, can benefit from following a functional CV format. In addition to highlighting your relevant skills, it is advantageous to include volunteer work that demonstrates nursing skills like multitasking, empathy, compassion, physical endurance and critical thinking.
A combination CV format (also referred as a hybrid CV), takes the best features from the chronological CV and functional CV formats. A nursing candidate can equally provide work experience and nursing skills to impress a hiring manager or recruiter. It’s an ideal nursing CV format for nurses in the process of changing careers or have indirect but relevant skills and experiences to pursue a nursing career.
Whether you select a chronological, functional or combination CV format, you will want to present your information in as clear and easy-to-read fashion as possible. Using a professional font such as Arial or Verdana will ensure that your CV scans well in an applicant tracking system. Set up consistent line spacing in each CV section. Set your margins to one inch on all four sides and have a good balance between text and white space on the page so your information does not look crammed-in.
Our CVHelp CV Builder can take the guesswork out of formatting your CV. It’s an easy step-by-step CV construction, using professional templates and providing expert writing suggestions.
Whether you select a chronological, functional or combination CV format, you will want to include the following CV sections:
Your registered nurse CV begins with the header at the top of the page. Your most up-to-date contact information will be featured in the header so the prospective employer can easily locate your information on the CV to notify you for a job interview.
Contact information includes:
Following your header will be a professional summary or objective. Experienced nurses with a few nursing jobs will want to write a professional summary. A recent nursing graduate or someone changing careers to nursing will want to write a career objective.
A professional summary is two to three sentences long and offers the hiring manager a concise overview of your nursing work history and most proficient skills. This would include what types of nursing specialty you are experienced in.
A career objective is the same length and provides an overview centered around career goals. In nursing, you would say how your skills were used on a daily basis in patient care (communication, empathy and dependability) and include future career goals, such as using your leadership skills to manage a team of nurses.
Registered nurse professional summary example:
Energetic paediatric nurse with more than seven years of experience in the high-volume paediatric unit of St. Luke’s Hospital. Looking to deliver patient care at North Shore University Hospital in the paediatric surgical unit. Received a 98% average rating by the St. Luke’s health care team for critical care, excellent communication skills, dedication, attention to detail and multitasking.
Registered nurse career objective example:
Recent nursing graduate from Molloy College with four years of training in pediatric emergency care, looking to work in a hospital ICU department setting. Proven patient care experience with medical emergencies and a 5-star rating of excellent care from North Shore Hospital patients and families.
When hiring managers or recruiters look at your registered nursing CV, they’ll want to be sure that your CV skills match what a registered nurse should possess. Here are a few skills to consider featuring on your CV in a bullet point format to stand out:
5 top nursing soft skills:
5 top nursing hard skills:
An important fact to consider is that busy hiring managers use an ATS to scan for qualified registered nurse CVs. Be sure to include the skills required in the job description for the job you are applying to so you match the relevant keywords that an ATS is programmed to look for in a qualified applicant.
The work experience of your registered nurse CV shows the employer that you match the qualifications in the job description. Begin by listing your current or most recent nursing role and work backwards with your previous jobs.
Include the following:
Whether you list experience as a registered nurse, licensed nurse, nursing assistant or nurse practitioner, describe your work highlights using action verbs. Also, try to quantify your nursing achievements by highlighting accomplishments rather than simply list routine job tasks. Read the job description carefully to match the specific responsibilities of the job that you are applying for.
Here are a few examples of work experience to consider for your registered nurse CV:
As a registered nurse, you already know the importance of presenting your education and credentials to the potential employer. This includes nursing school, licenses and certifications. To work as a registered nurse (RN), you will typically be expected to complete either two or four years of an accredited nursing program. It’s important you clearly and accurately list your education and include the following information:
Here are a few examples of certifications on a registered nurse CV:
To rise above the competition and create the most impressive registered nursing CV possible, consider additional CV sections that highlight your volunteer activities, additional training, awards or other certifications. Be sure to mention the organisation name, location and time of involvement. This helps your professional CV demonstrate that you not only have the right work experience and skills but you have other special qualifications.
To complement your CV, a well-written cover letter can help you stand out among other job candidates. CVHelp features plenty of cover letter writing tips and nurse cover letter examples to help you create an effective professional cover letter.
Cover letter examples – Follow examples and tips for a quick start to writing a nursing cover letter.
Cover letter builder – No need to write from scratch! Use our builder to create a professional cover letter in minutes.
How to write a cover letter – Get expert cover letter writing tips and examples to write a letter that will impress hiring managers.
Registered nurse cover letter example – See firsthand how to create a cover letter specifically for the nursing industry.
Nurse practitioner cover letter example – Here’s a great reference to write a cover letter for a nurse practitioner job.
When preparing a registered nurse CV, a job candidate will want to include the most impressive work history as possible. This will include a powerful mix of relevant work experience, proficient soft and hard skills and measurable accomplishments. CV sections should include contact information, professional summary or career objective, work history, skills, education, licensing and certifications, and additional sections for awards and volunteer work. Refer to our CV template for a registered nurse as your guide to creating the best CV.
All registered nurses (RN) are nurses but not all nurses are registered. A RN is a graduate from an accredited nursing programme and met the state or national requirements to receive a nursing license. A licensed practical nurse (LPN) has a two year degree and passed the nursing licensure exam. An RN is licensed to perform more nursing duties than a LPN. A certified nursing assistant (CNA) is a good starting point for aspiring nurses.
A registered nurse CV should be kept to a single page. Busy hiring managers may not have the time to review a two-page CV. If you’ve worked multiple nursing positions, list the most relevant nursing work history to showcase that your experience matches the level, qualifications, education and required skills of the position that you are applying for.
It’s always a good idea to include a cover letter for any job application, even if the application doesn’t specifically state that it requires one. This puts you ahead of all the other job seekers. You can find a nurse practitioner cover letter example at CVHelp and use our Cover Letter Builder to create your own.
If you don’t have a lot of experience in the nursing field, emphasize other types of experience. For example, if you did an internship or you did volunteer work, you can include this as part of your experience. Just because the CV templates for nurses say “work experience,” that doesn’t mean you have to stick to paid experience where you held a specific job title.
CV keywords are the most important thing to pay attention to when you’re trying to apply to a variety of different jobs. With CV keywords, you’re essentially tailoring your CV to whatever a specific recruiter is looking for. It’s an effective way to make sure that your CV looks great for every job search. By looking at a registered nurse CV example, you will see how to change your CV to apply to different nursing positions.
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