How to Write a New Grad Nurse Resume

5 Essentials for Creating the Ideal New Nurse Resume

#1 - Follow standard resume etiquette.

• Keep your resume to one page. You will see guidance that this isn’t of concern anymore, but we hold that it’s best to adhere to standard practice. Plus, your resume will likely be reviewed alongside your full nursing profile, so there will be plenty of information provided to the hiring manager.
• Use “clean” fonts only, such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Helvetica.
• Use only one font on your resume. If you need variation, use bold or italics.
• Do not include text smaller than 10 pt font or larger than 12 pt font (excluding headers).
• PROOFREAD. Your resume should be free of typographical errors and spelling mistakes.
• Save and upload/email your resume as a PDF so that your formatting doesn’t change when it’s opened on another computer.

#2 - Layout matters.

1. Basic Contact Information In this section, include your full name, email address (if you don’t have one, get a professional-sounding email - not partynurse94@something.com), and phone number in a way that stands out. Sometimes you’ll see full addresses included in this section - we highly recommend not including this for privacy reasons. Instead, just list your city and state. New nurses sometimes decide to link to their social media here, particularly with LinkedIn. If you choose to do so, make sure your social media is professional. One questionable post or photo could take you out of consideration.
2. Resume Objective Your resume objective should be a few sentences that give measurable goals. Articulate what you want from the nursing job you’re applying for, and what you believe you bring to the table that makes you the right person for the job.
3. Licenses and Certifications List out your with the full name of the license or certification followed by the parenthetical abbreviation (the reason for this will be detailed when we cover candidate screening software below), the full name of the issuing body, and the expiration date. For your nursing license, include the state and license number. Also make a note if your license has .
4. Education For your schooling, include all relevant education. This means you shouldn’t include things like your high school diploma, but should include your Bachelor of Science in Biochem. Make sure to make it clear whether you have an ADN or a BSN (and don’t use those acronyms without writing them out first!).
5. Experience Even the newest of new nurses has nursing experience! Very few nursing schools lack a component of clinical rotations, practicums, or other training that involves hands-on nursing care. Maybe you weren’t paid for it, but - THAT IS EXPERIENCE. Be sure to specify what kinds of experience, and build your action-word-packed bullet points (more on this below) to demonstrate how this experience 1) is indicative of the quality healthcare you’re capable of, and 2) is going to help you succeed as an RN. In the experience section, make sure to include details like type of work, start and end dates, weekly number of hours worked, name of the hospital or facility (plus city and state - "St. Joseph’s" doesn’t tell anyone anything), and name of your unit or department (Similarly, don’t provide a “5S” unit label! Stick to names that will be meaningful to your audience - “Med-Surg,” “Stepdown,” etc.).
6. Activities This section is definitely optional, but it’s a chance to demonstrate to the hiring manager that a nursing career isn’t just a job for you. Think of those leisure activities, enrichment projects, or volunteer hours that tie in to your passion for nursing. Maybe you subscribe to a nursing magazine? Go on medical missions trips? Have you joined the or another nursing association? Let the nurse manager see your commitment in this section. Depending on who you are and what you’ve done so far, you might want to add other sections. If you’ve won relevant awards, speak a second (or third, or more) language(s), have relevant publications, you might decide to add a section to highlight these skills or accomplishments. For all of these sections, consider listing items in reverse chronological order, as this will likely put your most intriguing information on top while keeping your narrative in a sensible order.

Advice from a Nurse Manager: "Your resume should be simple and concise, but say a lot about you and your work ethics -- and that you are the right fit for the job. Stating why you want to apply for the job is important. Patient/customers’ satisfaction is a main focus in healthcare facilities. Include any volunteer experience or customer service experience, and membership to any nursing organization. This will convey the message that you are involved in the community. Include any awards, accomplishments or recognition you have received; this will show you are striving for excellence. It is also important to include areas of clinical rotations/senior preceptorship -- if they are in the area of specialty to the job you want. For example, if you worked as a CNA in a related unit, it will let the manager know you have already experienced working in that particular specialty. Provide a skills summary, including computer skills, along with certifications pertinent to your nursing practice. For example, EKG; NIHSS; BLS; ACLS; IV certification etc." - Bonnette V., BSN, RN, PCCN-K

#3 - Choose your language carefully.

#4 - Tailor your resume to the specific employer and job posting.

1. You can include details about your previous hospital or healthcare facility employers to either build common ground with your new potential employer, or to impress them. What do we mean by this? To build common ground - Maybe your last job was in a critical access hospital in Kansas, but now you’re looking at a nursing job in New York City at a massive trauma center. You think there’s no commonality here, but with a little research, you realize both facilities use Meditech EMR systems. This is something you will build into your bullet points. To show off - If you have experience at a very small hospital (sell as: I can do anything, because I had to be versatile!) or at a very large hospital (sell as: it was fast-paced, and I kept up!), at a teaching hospital, trauma center, or Magnet facility, there's something you can pull into your experience to say, "Look at me, if I could this, I can do what you’ll need me to do."
2. Take note of the job requirements. Does the job posting say, “Looking for a new nurse with a desire to hit the ground running?” Guess who you are! That’s right, new-nurse-with-a-desire-to-hit-the-ground-running. This can also help you get through any applicant screening software (see below).

#5 - Set yourself up for success with applicant screening software.

1. It’s important to pull words and phrases directly from the job posting you’re applying for and include them in your resume. Example: Your actual title at your last nursing job was “Clinical Nurse II,” but the current position you’re applying for is looking for “Floor Nurse.” Consider using this title instead, so that the software recognizes your experience as relevant to the current opening.
2. Include non-acronym and acronym versions of text, where possible. Example: List “American Heart Association (AHA) Basic Life Support (BLS)” under your “Licenses and Certifications” section, so that whether the software is screening for “Basic Life Support” or “BLS,” it will positively ID your resume.