Sample Nurse Resume

A sample nursing resume can be constructed in a variety of ways.  There are three basic formats that a sample nursing resume can take.

Chronological nurse resume is a resume listing work experience from most recent to your first employment experience last.  Sometimes referred to as a reverse chronological resume.  This a great resume for someone with an unbroken work history and who has been working for a while.

Functional nurse resume  is one that focuses on skill areas and ability.  It lists areas such as Manager, Quality Assurance and Home Health Nurse and lists your major accomplishments and skills in those areas. You usually leave out dates of employment.  This is a great resume for someone with a variety of experiences or who is looking to change from one area to another.  it also is a good sample nurse resume to use if you are returning to the work force after a prolonged hiatus such as staying home until the kids are in school.

Combination nurse resume is one that combines the chronological and functional resumes together. It would list your major skill areas with employers worked for and the dates worked with most recent first.

The traditional resume is also known as a chronological resume. It lists your accomplishments and previous work experience in order.  usually the most recent experience is listed first and the list proceeds in reverse chronology.  For a chronological nursing resume the layout would be:

Name:  Be sure to include full contact information on your nursing resume.  The employer will need this to call you for a job interview and to let you know if you get the job. 

Objective:  Your goal is to get this job offered by the nursing employer.  A brief statement outlining your unique qualifications that maek you ideally suited for this employer.  This should always be targeted towards a specific employment experience.  So, if you are applying for an ICU job you wouldn't put how qualified you are for a psychiatric nurse job here.

Work Experience: List in chronological order, with the most recent first, all the jobs you have held since you graduated from nursing school.   As briefly as possible include Job title, dates employed, name of employer, one paragraph description of your principle responsibilities and top 3-4 accomplishments while working there.

Education: List of colleges attended with most recent first.  Include year attended,  major or degree concentration i.e. Bachelor of Science in Nursing or Associate of Arts & Sciences, and degree obtained.  Include certificates of special training such as ACLS, BLS, PALS or TNCC.  Also be sure to certifications in speciality nursing areas such as CCRN or Med-Surg Nursing.

Affiliations: List all of your professional memberships, state associations and leadership roles in them.  For example;  Washington State Nurses Association Local District Secretary 08/2005 to 08/2007

Skills: list special skills here.  I.e. BLS instructor or Informatics skills.  be sure to list skill level and years of experience.  for example BLS Instructor, Expert, 4 years. 

Languages: Depending on the region a knowledge of Spanish is a big plus.  Consider becoming at least proficient in medical Spanish terms.

Additional Information: Include a brief statement here about any other information relevant to the position you are seeking such as willingness to work week-ends or evening shifts.  Be sure to include data about leadership or specials roles held while working for other employers that may have been out of the usual scope.  Serving on an ethics committee or nurse practice committee may be worth mentioning here if you did not include it in the top 3-4 accomplishments in the work experience section. 

Hire a Professional
A decent word processing program plus a good printer gives everyone a chance to create a decent looking low cost resume that can be created with just a little work and a few hours to polish it. But, what if you aren't sure about how to write a killer resume? You can always hire a professional to do your resume. Check the yellow pages for a local person. This gives you a chance to interview with the person and give them all the details they need to write a killer resume for you.