Registered Nurse resume example

What to put in the summary

Lead with licence and state (RN, BSN), the unit and patient population, and any certifications such as BLS or ACLS. A short summary is enough; the details go in the bullets and the credentials line. Never include patient information.

Registered nurse with five years on a 28-bed medical-surgical unit, caring for adult patients with a 1:5 ratio. BSN, active state RN licence, BLS and ACLS certified. Comfortable as charge nurse and in precepting new graduates.

Sample bullets with numbers

Give unit type, bed count and ratio. Outcomes like falls, infections or satisfaction scores are strong if you can state them. Never use patient details.

• Provided care for up to five medical-surgical patients per shift on a 28-bed unit, with a documented falls rate below the hospital benchmark for two consecutive years.
• Served as charge nurse on about 6 shifts a month, coordinating admissions, discharges and staffing across the unit.
• Precepted 9 new graduate nurses, all of whom completed orientation on schedule.
• Led a unit project on bedside shift report; patient-reported communication scores rose from 78% to 88% in six months.
• Administered medications and IV therapy with zero reportable medication errors over three years.
• Floated to cardiac and telemetry units and managed monitored patients under supervision.

These numbers are invented to show the shape of a good bullet. Use your own, and leave a number out rather than guess.

Key skills to list

• Medical-surgical nursing
• IV therapy
• Medication administration
• Epic charting
• Patient education
• Wound care
• Telemetry basics
• Charge nurse duties
• Precepting
• BLS and ACLS

Name the records system (Epic, Cerner), the patient population and any certifications with their expiry dates.

Common mistakes

1. 1Burying the licence number and state. Put licence and certifications near the top.
2. 2Listing duties common to every nurse without a unit or ratio.
3. 3Including patient information, even without names.
4. 4Letting a certification lapse and still listing it as current.

A layout that suits this resume

Margin is a single column with a firm accent bar, formal enough for healthcare recruiters and straightforward for the applicant systems hospitals use. See the Ward template, or compare all 22 layouts.