Registered Nurse resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills, tools and credentials that come up in registered nurse job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 10
- Patient assessment (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Medication administration (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Care planning (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Patient education (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Telemetry (used in Megan's sample resume)
- IV therapy (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Wound care (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Infection control
- Charge nurse (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Med-surg
Tools & software · 2
- Epic (used in Megan's sample resume)
- Cerner
Licenses & certifications · 5
- Registered Nurse (RN)
- BSN (used in Megan's sample resume)
- RN license (used in Megan's sample resume)
- BLS (used in Megan's sample resume)
- ACLS (used in Megan's sample resume)
13 of 17 appear in Megan's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Charge nurse
Weak: Skills: Charge nurse
Strong: Serve as relief charge nurse 2 shifts a week, managing assignments and bed flow for 8 nurses
Telemetry
Weak: Skills: Telemetry
Strong: Monitored cardiac rhythms for 4 telemetry patients per shift and escalated changes through rapid response
Safety
Weak: Helped prevent falls
Strong: Led an hourly rounding project that cut unit patient falls by 35% in 12 months
Infection control
Weak: Followed infection control policies
Strong: Helped keep the unit's CAUTI rate at zero for 9 months with daily catheter-necessity checks
Strong bullets come from Megan's sample resume and our registered nurse bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a registered nurse post asks for Registered Nurse (RN) and you've used it, say Registered Nurse (RN), in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a registered nurse post says "BSN", write "BSN", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Patient assessment — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Charge nurse. A bullet like the one under Registered Nurse, Medical-Surgical in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
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/ Questions
RN keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a registered nurse resume have?
There's no magic number. Megan's sample resume uses 13 of the 17 terms on this page — the ones that fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a registered nurse post says "Registered Nurse (RN)", write "Registered Nurse (RN)" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Megan's sample, Telemetry is in the summary and Charge nurse shows up in a bullet under Registered Nurse, Medical-Surgical. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a registered nurse resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in registered nurse posts include Epic and Cerner. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list Registered Nurse (RN) and BSN on my resume?
Spell them the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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