Nurse Practitioner Resume Writing Guide [+ Examples & Templates]

Reminder:

Below are the thorough resume guidelines for a general nurse practitioner. You should customize your resume based on the requirements of the specific job you’re applying for. 

For instance, a family nurse practitioner (FNP) resume focuses on providing health care services for families, an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) resume specializes in providing acute care to patients who are sick or after surgery, while a pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) resume highlights your ability to serve patients from infancy to the grown-up.

1. Chronological resume format

It is the most used nurse practitioner resume format for senior applicants with extensive experience. 

It places your work experience section ahead of the skills and education sections, and lists your current or most recent job experience first. Remember to include the company name, role, job duties, accomplishments, location, start date, and end date while writing your work experience.


2. Functional resume format

If you are a new graduate or inexperienced applicant with limited work experience, this nurse practitioner resume format is the best choice for you! 

Functional resume format specializes in your skills and abilities instead of workexperience. It places the skills section on the top of the resume, right under theresume headline and summary. Remember to keep your skills align with the job requirements for the specific job.


3. Combinational resume format 

It’s a choice for applicants with extensive work experience and solid skills. This format is a mix of chronological and functional resume format. Combinational resume format demonstrates your skills section ahead of the work experience section, then lists down your work experience in reverse chronological order. 


4. Targeted resume format

A targeted resume is a highly suggested format for every applicant.

It requires you to research and customize the nurse practitioner resume for your dream job. You could insert photos and graphics that are required by recruiters and are relevant to the opening position.

Even though it takes extra time and effort to craft a targeted resume, a targeted resume undoubtedly boosts your chances of winning the job!

1️⃣ Microsoft Word

1. Select the nurse practitioner resume format.
   • Chronological format
   • Functional format
   • Combinational format 
   • Targeted format 
2. Write down all sections in your nurse practitioner resume.
   • Contact Information 
     1. Full name 
     2. Mobile number
     3. Email address
     4. Address (Optional)
     5. Link to fan page / blog (Optional)
   • Resume Headline
   • Resume Summary Statement
   • Work Experience 
     1. Name of companies
     2. Job positions
     3. Job duties
     4. Start date and end date of each employment period
     5. Accomplishments
   • Education Background 
     1. College degree and above (If you don’t have a college degree, you could write down the online courses or seminars you’ve taken instead.)
     2. Name of school
     3. Majors and minors
     4. Year of graduation
     5. GPA (Optional)
   • Skills
     1. Hard Skills
     2. Soft Skills
   • Additional Information (Optional)
     1. Certifications
     2. Awards
     3. References
     4. Projects
3. Pick a professional font.
   • Times New Roman
   • Helvetica
   • Cambria
   • Georgia
   • Calibri
   • Arial
4. Pick the font size.
   • Choose a font size between 10-16 points
   • Pick larger fonts for headings and titles.
5. Change the line spacing.
   • Use single or 1.15 line spacing.
6. Make your resume ATS-friendly. 
   • Use a simple bullet list or scattered bullet list in the work experience, skills, and education sections. 
   • Use bold text to highlight your major accomplishments and skills.
7. Check the line spacing.
   • Add an extra space before and after each section heading.
8. Proofread your nurse practitioner resume to prevent embarrassing errors.
   • Don’t insert photos in the resume unless the recruiter asks for them.
   • Check the logical flow in the resume.
   • Check the typos, grammatical mistakes, and wording errors in the resume.
9. Send the file in PDF format.
   • Transfer your nurse practitioner resume into a PDF file before sending it out to preserve the formatting.

2️⃣ Online Resume Builder

Online resume builders like Cake are more convenient resume builder tools compared to Microsoft Word. 

✅  Dos:

1. Tailor the resume and include only relevant information.
Don’t write a generic resume that can’t showcase your competitive advantages. Research and pick keywords from the job description, then insert them in your nurse practitioner resume.


2. Add quantifiable and measurable achievements.
Numbers speak louder than words. You could use numbers to specify and quantify your achievements such as the number of well-recovered patients or the increase of patient satisfaction to make them more convincing and measurable for recruiters. 


3. Optimize the nurse practitioner resume for ATS.
ATS is the abbreviation of the “Applicant Tracking System”. Nearly 98% of Fortune 500 companies use the ATS system to pick out the least-qualified resumes for opening jobs. It’s crucial to make your nurse practitioner resume more ATS-friendly to pass through the system. 

4.Choose the right resume format.
Different resume formats are suitable for different types of candidates. If you are writing an entry-level nurse practitioner resume, you could choose the functional format. In contrast, if you have solid work experience, the chronological and combinational formats are both good choices for you.

It’s important to understand your situations and the features of each format, then select and stick to the one that best suits you.


5. Use action verbs in the nurse practitioner resume.

Begin each achievement and job duty with an action verb like “mentored”, “managed”, and “supervised” to make your resume more competitive and powerful.

❌ Don’t repeat the action verbs and avoid buzzwords like “did”, “worked with”, and “finished” that can’t demonstrate your actions and contributions.

🚫  Don’ts:

1. Mix up a resume with a CV.
Note that a nurse practitioner CV is different from a resume. CV is a 2 to 3+ page long document demonstrating your thorough professional backgrounds like work experience, publications, projects, researches, and education background. In comparison, a nurse practitioner resume is a 1 to 2-page document summarizing your experience that is related to the specific job.

A resume is frequently used for job applicants in the US and Canada. American and Canadian applicants only write a CV when applying for an overseas job in Europe or looking for an academic-oriented position.

💡Tips:  You could find professional nurse practitioner resume and CV templates and samples on websites like Cake and LinkedIn for inspiration.

2. Adopt an old-style resume objective statement.
A resume objective statement is generally 2-3 lines long, and it’s placed at the beginning of the resume, right under the resume headline and resume summary to show your career goal.

📌 Note: You could include your strengths, the company, and the specific position you’re applying for in the resume objective to attract the recruiters. Don’t make your resume objective too long to read. 

3. Disclose confidential information about previous employers.
Don’t disclose any confidential information about your previous jobs in the nurse practitioner resume, CV, cover letter, or interview. 

Be professional.
Don’t sell out confidential information to damage your credibility. No recruiters want to hire an unreliable and untrustworthy applicant. 

4. Include unnecessary personal details that might lead to discrimination.
Your personal information like race, gender, nationality, religious belief, and sexual orientation has nothing to do with your competitive advantages. Don’t include them in your resume that might lead to unwanted discrimination. 

Moreover, it’s illegal in some countries for recruiters to ask applicants to put personal details in the nurse practitioner resume and CV to ensure a fair recruitment process.

5. Send the nurse practitioner resume as a Word doc.
Please send your nurse practitioner resume and CV in PDF files unless recruiters ask for Microsoft Word files. Transferring your documents to PDF files ensures the resume formatting stay consistent on different devices like mobiles, laptops, and computers.