Nursing Student Resume: Examples and Tips

As a nursing student or recent nursing school graduate, you have a lot of tasks to juggle around and sort out: from school coursework to licensing preparation, you have a lot on your plate. The earlier you tackle these tasks, the better. 

Whether you are still in nursing school or are about to graduate, you will eventually need to face the dreadful task of preparing for life after nursing school. The first task you will need to work with is to write a professional new graduate nurse resume. 

A graduate nurse resume presents a sketch of what you have achieved. Even if you are still in school or aren’t thinking of heading into a full-time nursing role yet, you still need to be fully prepared for clinical rotations or externships.

✅ Adopt an ATS-friendly resume format for nursing students.

When you apply for a nursing role, the recruiting team will most likely use an applicant tracking system to scan through the stacks of nursing student resumes. While this process can save time on their end, it is not as favorable for you due to the system automatically skipping resumes that are difficult to read. Be sure that your nursing grad resume passes the scanning so that it can reach the recruitment team.

✅ Refer to online nursing student resume templates or examples.

As a nursing student, you might be creating your first-ever nursing resume or you might be looking to update your resume. Glancing through other new graduate nurse resume examples can get your ideas up and running. 

✅ Tailor your nursing student resume for the role and use keywords in it.

The nursing position that you plan on applying for will all include clearly-written requirements to find the nursing students that best fit the role. Make sure you locate the key qualifications and requirements in the job description first and write your nursing grad resume with the keywords. 

✅ Add figures to your nursing student resume.

Amaze the recruiting team with examples of your achievement and work experience in your nursing student resume by including statistics such as the number of patients you treated or the patient satisfaction improvement rate.  

✅ Present your nursing-related certifications.

As a recent nursing graduate, you are not expected to know the ropes yet. Including certifications such as CPR or BLS within your nursing student resume can impress the recruiting team.

For a nursing school student, the objective statement of your nursing grad resume lets the recruiting team realize what you can accomplish and what you look forward to achieving.

💡 Tip 1: Bring out two to three of your top nursing-related characteristics. 

Since the objective statement is positioned at the top of your nursing student resume, leave a deep impression on the recruiter with a few impressive nursing-related skills and traits.

💡 Tip 2: Always ask yourself: “How well does your objective match the position?”

It is crucial that your resume objective as a nursing student also relates to the position. If not, the recruiting team will not be able to see that you fit the role.

Think about what traits and skills the position is asking for, and then you can strategically select skills and accomplishments you want to include in your nursing student resume. 

💡 Tip 3: Center the nursing student resume objective around your career trajectory. 

Even though the recruiting team will want to see your nursing student skills on your resume, they will also want to learn more about what you seek to work on if you join their team.

The resume summary for a nursing student provides a glimpse of what your abilities are and why the recruiting team should continue to review your application. Here are three tips on how you can construct an influential nursing student resume summary statement:  

💡 Tip 1: A structured summary can lead to a great impression. 

Guarantee that your nursing student resume summary is well-ordered by following this formula: your professional title + years of experience + few of your most remarkable skills.

💡 Tip 2: Your nursing education experience counts as well. 

Educational experience, such as nursing degrees obtained or certifications earned, can support you in drafting a more significant summary for your nursing student resume. 

💡 Tip 3: Proofreading can make a great difference for your nursing student resume summary. 

You will need to work on various tasks without any slip-ups as a nurse. Similarly, when you write your nursing student resume summary, you will want to make sure that it is free of any mistakes. 

The skills of a nursing student for a resume should include top-notch nursing skills. Start by deciding the way you want to present your skills. The four different arrangements of skills on your nursing student resume, including simple bullets, expanded bullets, incorporating skills in work experience, and categorized bullets.

✏️ The simple bullets allow you to easily showcase a list of skills for a nursing student resume. While it is clear for the recruiting team to see, it does lack details. 

✏️ The expanded bullets are also easy-to-read but provide the details on how you applied your nursing student resume skills. The disadvantage is that you will only have room for five skills due to the space taken up by the details.  

✏️ Incorporating skills in work experience is very effective for you if you have extensive work experience already. You can easily relate your nursing student resume skills to your work experience in an organized fashion. However, this is not the best way to organize your skillsets on your nursing student resume if you have little to no experience.  

✏️ The categorized bullets help you go further into detail for the broad skills of a nursing student for a resume. The downside to this format is that this is more suitable for you if you have broad skillsets.

Tips for choosing the best skills for your nursing student resume: 

💡 Tip 1: Your people skills can also make a great impact in the nursing field. 

As a nursing student, you will have many chances to act as a point of contact where you will need to rely on your interpersonal and communication skills to communicate with other nurses, doctors, and patients. Including these skills in your nursing student resume show that you have the important attributes. 

💡 Tip 2: The requirements in the job description reveal what will be essential for your nursing student resume.

Show that you are a direct match by adding the required skills to your nursing student resume. 

💡 Tip 3: Quality is more important than quality. 

When you create your skills section, you might be tempted to include a long list of skills for your nursing student resume due to your limited work experience. However, be sure to keep in mind that the skills you list should be suitable for the position.

Nursing Student Resume Skills Examples: 

Advice 1: Choose a proper format for your new nursing grad resume.

Similar to the way you present your skills on the nursing student resume, your resume format can make a great impact as well.

It is more recommended for you, as a fresh nursing grad, to use a functional resume format to show your skills.    

Advice 2: Write a career objective for your recent nursing graduate resume. 

When you are creating a nursing student resume and have no work experience or achievements to write in your resume, show the recruiting team your determination and clear career goals 

Advice 3: Highlight your education in your fresh graduate nurse resume. 

To enter the nursing industry, you need to obtain degrees and undergo training rigorous programs. The recruiting team will love to see the educational background and training suitable for a nursing job on the nursing student resume.

Advice 4: Include your nursing portfolio or nursing research article.

Throughout your education and training programs, you might have already accomplished a lot as a fresh graduate. Compile an online portfolio that includes job-related achievements you have obtained or details about nursing research you have conducted and put a link to your portfolio in your nursing grad resume. 

Advice 5: Write a sincere nursing student cover letter. 

While a cover letter is not always required, attaching a cover letter can help elevate your nursing student resume. A genuine nursing student cover letter written by a new graduate nurse shows the recruiting team your qualifications, potential, and passion.