Staff Nurse Resume Sample & Writing Guide

Finding a job as a Staff Nurse entails more than showcasing your passion to serve sick patients and empathy for the health of humanity. Have a look at our Staff Nurse resume samples below for inspiration and advice to ensure you pass the stringent scrutiny of hiring managers in the medical and health sector, ultimately landing the job of your dreams

In our discussion below, you will find tips and guidelines to create a flawless resume customized especially for your profession free from the mambo jumbo of generic ‘’how to create a resume” you may have come across in the past.

Did you know that Staff Nurse roles are classified as recession-proof jobs? This means that even in an economic downturn, there will be ample career opportunities to apply for. However, every application you file has to a resume document, preferably one that captivates the attention of recruiters and prompts hiring managers to invite you for an interview.

This is where we come in: Crafting a note-worthy resume document will seem much less of a challenging feat after working through our Staff Nurse resume guideline below.

Staff Nurse Resume Samples

(Free sample downloads are at the bottom of this page)

Staff Nurse Resume Writing Guide

Resume Sections

1. Contact Information:
Place the following particulars at the top of your first page: First Name, Last Name, Phone Numbers, and Email Address and Location. If you have professional social media profiles such as Linkedin, feel free to add them as alternative contact channels for recruiters to reach you.

2. Career Summary:
The first opportunity to make an impact is with your career summary that highlights your technical proficiency and serves as proof to your academic credentials, as well years working tenure. Tip: Customize your career summary for each role you apply too and match the verbiage with essential requirements listed in the job advertisement. Both bulleted or paragraph format is acceptable, but stick to 3-5 points.

3. Qualifications Summary: 
Staff Nurses are usually required to have Associates or Bachelor Degrees. Include up to date details regarding your qualifications (dates completed, qualification name, institution, GPA score, and location).

4. Relevant Nursing Experience:
Employers would expect to see an outline with appropriate job duties regarding your experience in healthcare settings. Furthermore, you need to present specific technical skills learned in terms of clinical aptitude gained during your practical portion of the training school and also and also at the medical facilities you were employed at.

5. Skills Summary/Key Skills:
Presenting your technical and interpersonal skills aligned with those mentioned in the job advertisement will literally rocket you ahead of the other applicants. Keep it relevant and mimic the exact words and phrases listed in the job description. This strategy is a smart way to pack your resume with SEO keywords that will be picked up by the screening bots and ATS systems, allowing your application through to the next round (and a human reviewer).

6. Education/Licenses/Certifications/Relevant Coursework/Training:
Staff nurses require specific state licensing and certifications especially those who hold the title of a registered nurse. Licensing is prescribed by the state in question and may also require Staff Nurses to maintain their licensing/credential status. This is done by participating in 20 to 30 hours of continuing professional development with courses and training programs. Staff Nurses are also required to pass industry exams, prep programs and state-approved internships (applicable for newbies). Make sure you include all courses, programs, licensing, and accreditations obtained by completion date, level passed, institution, and member identification.

What to Highlight in a Staff Nurse Resume

Staff Nurses are in broad terms responsible for direct patient care, rehab, administering medications, and performing procedures such as taking vitals, blood pressure levels and inserting IVs. However, the role of a Staff Nurse involves so much more that it may be quite a challenge to paint a complete picture of working history, qualifications, and core competencies into a 2-page resume. In the paragraphs to follow, we have unpacked a few crucial points to highlight in your Staff Nurse resume to provide hiring managers with sufficient information during their shortlisting and decision-making process.

First up is your work environment. Staff nurses are employed in various settings such as hospitals, medical facilities, physicians' offices, clinics, nursing homes, hospices, rehab centers, corporate on-site clinics, schools, hospices, and community health centers. The military is also a significant employer of Staff Nurses.

As a second point, provide a short description regarding your Staff Nurse classification or specialty. You may be a generalist Staff Nurse or have exposure to one specialty or multiple specialties. Be specific here, which helps the recruiter to see where your area of focus lies immediately.

• Staff Nurse – Research: If you are working with patients participating in clinical trials or assessments, your core contributions would include recruiting and counseling of test subjects, overseeing ethical compliance of procedures, and perhaps even assisting in accumulating and generating result reports from the data gathered during the trial.

• Staff Nurse – Geriatric: In this specialty Staff Nurses provide medical care to patients of old age. Explain the scope of your role in terms of diagnostic testing, administering medications, developing care plans, and treatment protocols for your patients. Your direct involvement with physician examinations, monitoring medical equipment and machines during operations and procedures, would be of interest to hiring managers. From an admin perspective, mention the fact that you write progress reports and update medical records of your patients and the frequency in which you do them

• Staff Nurse – Hospice: An emotionally taxing role if ever there was one because Staff Nurses in hospice facilities care for terminally ill patients. Apart from being adept at increasing patient comfort levels and reducing pain levels, Staff Nurses are also required to liaise with loved ones and prepare them for the passing of the patient. If you have completed any counseling courses or received training on how to support terminally ill patients and their families emotionally, make sure to mention it here.

• Staff Nurse – Burn Unit: These are highly specialized professionals tasked with providing care to burn victims. Provide details about your involvement in assessing patients as the first responder, techniques used to clean and dress wounds, managing pain and educating families of home care techniques.

• Staff Nurse – Paediatric: Your passion for sick children should come across clearly in the way you describe your position as a Paediatric Staff Nurse. Further duties to mention are the age groups of kids that you have cared for previously and also your involvement in diagnosing and assessing conditions and performing procedures in the presences of the physician. Monitoring medical machinery and equipment during surgical procedures in the operating room are a number one priority if you work in theatres.

• Staff Nurse Obstetrics: This role is all about infants and moms, all day long. When explaining your job duties as a staff nurse, be sure to include your competencies with pre-labor monitoring techniques of mom and baby, immediate care protocols after birth, and also continuous evaluations of mom and baby’s condition in the days following. You can even mention the number of deliveries you were part of and list vital activities you are responsible for during antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum periods.

• Staff Nurse – Flight Transport: Nursing in-flight describes this Staff Nurse job in a nutshell. Hiring managers would be interested to know the procedures and protocols you are following when providing nursing care to critically injured or ill patients during air transportation, emergency evacuation, and the subsequent ground transfer processes from plane to facility or hospital to helicopter for that matter. Extra certifications, for example, ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support), BLS (Basic Life Support), or obtaining a CFRN (Certified Flight Registered Nurse) credential should be listed here.

Next on the resume agenda is the scope of your daily activities. If you are more of a generalist Staff Nurse, you can provide information about what a typical day (or night) looks like as a nursing professional. Be specific about times, schedules, and frequencies. For instance; meeting patients and assigning them to the appropriate wards, assisting with the completion of indemnity forms, doing hourly rounds to take vitals and assisting with physical and emotional prepping for pending operations. If you are more specialized, let's say a theatre staff nurse, prospective employers would want to know how you prep the operating theatre, your knowledge and familiarity with the different types of surgical instruments and also how adept you are at interpreting date from operating theatre equipment like blood pressure or heart rate monitors.

Finally, end of with a bit of technical jargon regarding the types of medications (schedule 1-7) you are allowed to administer, devices you can use such as analgesia pump, automated IV pump, or peak flow systems, for example.

 

Make sure to include the following details:

• The locations you registered in to practice as a Staff Nurse
• Your GPA score if above 3.5
• Any medical or healthcare-related volunteer work (community outreach, rural clinics, field hospitals, blood drives, mobile clinics)
• Practical placements while in nursing school (mention facility, dates and hours accumulated)
• List all clinical rotations and hours worked

Staff Nurse Career Summary

A professional career summary is imperative to a Staff Nurse resume because it draws attention to your core competencies, academic tenure and key interpersonal skills that will benefit the organization.  This career outline serves as the introduction to each application you make and may require customization per each role applied for to showcase your fit for the job at hand. The overall motive of a career summary is to present your candidacy by the value you can bring to the organization with excellent technical proficiency and interpersonal skills. If you use a paragraph format, stick with short sentences packed with keywords from the job advertisement. An alternative is to use bullet points like snippets in your summary, in a different font to the rest of your resume.

Your career synopsis may include 3-5 of the following aspects:

• Relevant experience in years and specialty
• Measurable improvements, technical value add, skills proficiencies
• Highest qualifications and credentials
• Personal attributes that make you a good fit for the job
• Professional achievements, awards, accolades

A career summary should be easy to read, meaning the recruiters may pick up on the keywords and concepts representing your experience and technical proficiency.

Example Summaries:

'Registered Staff Nurse with over nine years of critical care experience for cardiovascular and burn unit patients. Highly adept in practicing the fundamentals of pathophysiology and pharmacology of high-care and ICU facilities including pre and post-operative recovery procedures. Acted as stand-in Charge Nurse on numerous occasions demonstrating leadership and managerial aptitude. Holds an active membership with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).'

'Staff Nurse RN with a Master’s Degree in Pediatric Nursing and 12 years of experience gained in developing countries working at fields hospitals, rural clinics and community health centers. A real passion for children’s well-being supported by exemplary skills in clinical patient care, from diagnosis to operative, to rehabilitation planning. Spearheaded a community awareness program to educate people regarding Malaria prevention. Fluent in four African Languages as well as French and German.'

'Deadline-driven Staff Nurse with a proven record in rehabilitation and empowerment of critically injured and disabled veterans at Military Rehab facilities in Virginia. Expertise includes unconventional psychological assistance and recovery techniques coupled with a holistic approach to improving physical and mental wellbeing. Received the Award for Best Rehab Nurse, five years in a row, and participated as a keynote speaker at various family support group events. Certified as a Registered nurse and compliant with HIPPA legislation.'

Staff Nurse Job Descriptions, Responsibilities and Duty Examples

A Hospital Administrator, Principal or Health Center’s Shareholder’s Board may expect specific foundational proficiencies and technical duties on a Staff Nurse resume. Below we have provided a few examples of Staff Nurse job descriptions at various levels of seniority for you to customize and tweak to align fit your current and previous working experience.

A Staff Nurse (RN) Level I with 0 – 2 years experience may:

• Provide primary nursing care to patients like washing, taking blood pressure and feeding
• Assist patients with completing admission and discharging forms
• Accompany senior nurse on ward rounds
• Keep a record of medication administering frequencies
• Check IV’s and blood pressure at predetermine frequencies
• Prep patients for theatre procedures
• Perform basic administration and reporting tasks

A Staff Nurse (RN) Level II with 2 – 4 years experience may:

• Provide professional nursing care to patients including moderately complex procedures such as inserting catheters and stents
• Check recordkeeping of junior nurses regarding patient’s recovery and progress
• Perform basic diagnostic tests
• Prep patients for physician visits and layout instruments and equipment to be used
• Update patient’s medical records
• Discuss treatment plans with patient and family members
• Inform patient regarding medicine usage and expected side effects
• Perform complex administration and reporting tasks

A Staff Nurse (RN) Level III with 4 – 7 years experience may:

• Provide high-level nursing care to patients and monitor junior nurses during ward rounds
• Performs various diagnostic tests and administer medications
• Assist physician with procedures performed in the ward and participate in discussions for treatment plans
• Perform duties of theatre nurse such as laying out instruments, checking operating room equipment such as heart rate monitors and blood pressure machines
• Keep track of patient progress and post-op recovery and record vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation and urine output
• Discharge patients upon physicians' approval
• Counsel and support family members of critically ill patients
• Promote patients' independence by educating them and their family members regarding self-care, medicine intake, and potential side effects
• Perform high-level administration and reporting tasks

Highlight Your Accomplishments

Hiring Managers are drawn to resumes showcasing technical accolades and professional achievements. With that said, the achievement section is not a memoir of your entire life starting in middle school and winning the regional chess championship.

Achievements and accomplishments should only be included if they are relevant to your profession as a Staff Nurse and also attained during the last 3-5 years. Divide accomplishments into bite-sized bullet points that are quick to read.

No accomplishment statement is complete without numerical value. Numbers serve as your proof of technical proficiency. Think about answering some of the questions below and incorporate the answers into your accomplishment statements.

• How many patients did you take care of in your ward?
• How many hours did you accumulate per rotation cycle?
• How many patients can the hospital accommodate?
• How long do you take to put in an IV?

You should pick 3-5 accomplishments/achievements that you feel would distinguish you from the other applications. Include action verbs to amplify your statements.

Accomplishment Statement Examples:

• Acted as Charge Nurse evaluating staff requirements and patient care assignments for an 89-bed medical intensive care unit.
• Provided responsive, compassionate, patient-centered care daily to the cardiac ward with a caseload of up to 80 patients per shift cycle.
• Supervised ten junior nurses in the 100-bed veteran rehabilitation unit of a large military health facility.
• Spearheaded the automation of admissions and discharge procedures which reduce processing time from 45 minutes to 15 minutes.

Staff Nurse Education Section

The educational section of a nurse's resume should not merely contain qualifications, GPA, and SAT scores. Provide details regarding nursing relevant credentials and also hours accumulated during clinical rotations. If you are specializing in a specific field, be sure to include advanced courses or and certifications related to your specialty.

Use a simple format to list qualifications: Date Completed, Qualification Name, Institution Attended, Location. Add GPA Scores, Major Subjects or Hours Accumulated in bullet points

A Staff Nurse’s education section example:

2019 – Current, Master of Science Degree in Nursing, Joliet University, Chicago, IL

2017 – Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers, American Heart Association, Mecosta Medical Center, Traverse City, MI

2015 – Certification Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Certification, American Heart Association, St Mary’s Health Center, Jefferson, MO

2012 – 2014 Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing (RN), University of California, New Parkland, CA

2011 Progressive Care Certified Nurse Certification (PCCN), District of Columbia Nurses Association (DCNA), CA

2010 – Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), American Nurses Association Programme, St John’s Hospital, Seattle, WA
Clinical Rotations: Pediatrics 100 hours, Obstetrics 90 hours, Cardiothoracic 110 hours

What to Write in a Staff Nurse Resume Skills Section

Hiring managers go through hundreds of resumes during the year, and some may scroll straight to your skills section without even reading the rest of the resume. Ensure that you have a skills section of note to immediately attract attention, providing a snapshot of your most prominent technical proficiency and interpersonal traits related to the advertised job.

To adhere to resume length constraints (1-2 pages), use a Skills Matrix approach to present technical competencies and soft skills.

Interpersonal Traits

Technical Competencies

Qualifications/Certifications associated with Staff Nurses

Professional information for Staff Nurses

Sectors: Healthcare, Medical, Clinical
Career Type: Professional Care, Specialized Care, General Care, Post Op Recovery, Preventative Care, Health Education,
Person type:  Caregiver, Helper, First Responder,
Education levels: Bachelor’s degree and upwards
Salary indication:
Staff Nurse RN I  between $56,289 and $72,445 (Salary.com)
Staff Nurse RN II between $67,384 and $83,397. (Salary.com)
Staff Nurse RN III $77,000 and $100,364. (Salary.com)
Labor market: Estimated 12% from 2018 – 2028 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Organizations: Hospitals, Medical Facilities, Corporate, Step Down Facilities, Military, Hospices, Schools, Psychiatric Institutions, Rehab Facilities

Download Staff Nurse Resume Templates in PDF

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