Top 12 Dialysis Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the specialized world of nephrology nursing, a sharp, well-rounded skill set helps you land and thrive in a dialysis role. The following skills highlight clinical depth, calm under pressure, and patient-first care—qualities hiring managers look for and patients can feel.
Dialysis Nurse Skills
- Hemodialysis
- Peritoneal Dialysis
- AV Fistula Care
- CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
- Patient Education
- Fluid Management
- Electrolyte Balancing
- Vascular Access Monitoring
- Dialysis Machine Operation
- Medication Administration
- Infection Control
- Emergency Response
1. Hemodialysis
Hemodialysis clears toxins and excess fluid when native kidneys can’t keep up. Blood flows through an extracorporeal circuit into a dialyzer, gets scrubbed, and returns to the patient. Dialysis nurses keep the whole process safe: access secure, machine parameters right, symptoms watched, complications intercepted.
Why It's Important
It replaces core kidney functions—waste and fluid removal, electrolyte balance—preventing dangerous buildup and keeping patients stable between treatments. Safe delivery isn’t optional; it’s life-sustaining.
How to Improve Hemodialysis Skills
Keep competencies fresh: update on adequacy targets (Kt/V, URR), alarm logic, and evolving practice standards.
Assess before, during, after: vitals, edema, weight trends, symptoms; intervene early for cramps, hypotension, headaches, or chest pain.
Protect the access: strict asepsis, careful cannulation, rapid response to signs of infection, stenosis, or clotting.
Dialysis dose and dry weight: verify prescriptions match current needs; re-evaluate target weight as conditions change.
Tech fluency: know your machine’s modes, disinfection cycles, sensors, and safety checks cold.
Team huddles: coordinate with nephrologists, dietitians, and social workers to solve problems from multiple angles.
Quality improvement: track data, reduce treatment interruptions, and standardize best practices.
Do the basics well, relentlessly. Everything improves from there.
How to Display Hemodialysis Skills on Your Resume
2. Peritoneal Dialysis
Peritoneal dialysis (PD) uses the peritoneal membrane as a natural filter. Dialysate flows into the abdomen, dwells, then drains—manually by day or via cycler overnight. Done at home, often quietly life-fitting.
Why It's Important
It offers independence, gentler fluid shifts, and better preservation of residual kidney function for many. Nurses make it work by training patients thoroughly and catching issues before they snowball.
How to Improve Peritoneal Dialysis Skills
Teach with precision: hands-on demos, checklists, teach-back. Build confidence, not just knowledge.
Aseptic habits: meticulous hand hygiene, connection technique, and exit-site care; reinforce consistently.
Peritonitis vigilance: fast evaluation of cloudy effluent, abdominal pain, fever; know sampling steps and start treatment promptly per facility protocol.
Exit-site protection: daily care, topical prophylaxis if ordered, and early reporting of redness or drainage.
Cycler troubleshooting: alarms, kinked lines, drain pain fixes; keep equipment checks routine.
Follow-up cadence: frequent touchpoints early on; remote check-ins help maintain adherence and technique.
How to Display Peritoneal Dialysis Skills on Your Resume
3. AV Fistula Care
AV fistula care means guarding the lifeline: keeping it patent, clean, and complication-free. Listen for a strong bruit, feel a continuous thrill, and watch for changes that whisper trouble—swelling, prolonged bleeding, skin breakdown.
Why It's Important
A healthy fistula delivers efficient dialysis and fewer hospital days. Lose the access and everything gets harder, fast.
How to Improve AV Fistula Care Skills
Look daily: inspect skin, needle sites, and surrounding tissue; escalate any redness, warmth, or tenderness.
Clean technique: robust skin prep, proper antiseptic contact time, and careful site rotation.
Cannulation, done right: favor rope-ladder or area techniques per policy; limit buttonhole use due to higher infection risk unless clearly indicated.
Protect the arm: no blood pressures, no venipuncture, no tight clothing on the access side.
Watch for stenosis or thrombosis: rising venous pressures, low Kt/V, recirculation signs—act early.
Strengthen flow: encourage simple exercises (e.g., soft-ball squeezes) if appropriate.
Teach patients: how to check thrill at home, when to call, and how to keep it clean.
How to Display AV Fistula Care Skills on Your Resume
4. CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
CRRT delivers continuous, gentler solute and fluid removal for hemodynamically fragile patients—most often in the ICU. It mimics kidney function more closely than intermittent HD and demands tight, hour-to-hour attention.
Why It's Important
Critically ill patients can’t tolerate big swings. CRRT lets the team manage electrolytes, uremia, and fluid overload with fine-grained control.
How to Improve CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills
Anticoagulation strategy: use regional citrate anticoagulation when appropriate; monitor ionized calcium and acid-base status to prevent complications.
Protect filter life: optimize blood flow, consider pre-dilution, minimize circuit downtime, and respond early to rising pressures.
Right dose, actually delivered: target an effluent rate around 20–25 mL/kg/hr and account for interruptions.
Fluid balance accuracy: strict I&O, verify net ultrafiltration targets, recalibrate with clinical changes.
Electrolyte surveillance: frequent labs; watch potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, bicarbonate, and calcium (especially with citrate).
Team coordination: align the CRRT plan with ventilation, vasopressors, nutrition, and medication dosing.
How to Display CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
5. Patient Education
Patient education means translating complex renal care into practical steps patients can manage at home—dialysis process, access care, diet and fluids, meds, warning signs, and lifestyle tweaks that stick.
Why It's Important
Well-informed patients spot problems sooner, follow plans more closely, and feel more in control. Outcomes improve; stress drops.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Start where they are: assess health literacy, language, and learning preferences.
Make it plain: short sentences, familiar words, concrete examples.
Show, don’t just tell: visuals, models, and hands-on practice work wonders.
Teach-back: ask patients to explain the “how” and “why” in their own words.
Right-sized goals: small, specific targets (salt cuts, fluid tracking, med timing) with quick follow-up.
Include caregivers: two sets of ears beat one, especially for home therapies.
Reinforce: written summaries and reminders; revisit often.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
6. Fluid Management
Fluid management balances removal with stability. Too little, and edema lingers; too much, and hypotension strikes. Nailing the target keeps patients upright and breathing easier.
Why It's Important
Fluid overload strains the heart and lungs; aggressive removal can drop blood pressure and injure organs. The sweet spot matters every session.
How to Improve Fluid Management Skills
Baseline well: accurate pre-/post-weights, trend interdialytic gains, and reassess target dry weight regularly.
Ultrafiltration rate discipline: keep UF rates conservative (often below 13 mL/kg/hr) when possible to reduce intradialytic hypotension.
Respond to symptoms: cramps, nausea, dizziness—pause, reassess, and adjust UF or dialysate sodium per protocol.
Leverage tools: when available, use bioimpedance or relative blood volume monitoring to inform decisions.
Coach between treatments: limit sodium, manage fluid intake, and set realistic daily caps.
Team plan: coordinate with the dietitian and nephrologist for individualized targets.
How to Display Fluid Management Skills on Your Resume
7. Electrolyte Balancing
Electrolyte balancing means steering potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, and bicarbonate toward stability—before, during, and after treatment.
Why It's Important
Muscle function, nerve signals, heart rhythm—all depend on electrolyte balance. Errors can trigger arrhythmias, weakness, bone disease, or worse.
How to Improve Electrolyte Balancing Skills
Dialysate customization: individualize potassium and calcium baths; verify bicarbonate settings match the clinical picture.
Lab cadence: regular pre-/post-dialysis labs; watch trends, not just single values.
Diet coaching: teach high-/low-potassium foods, phosphate additives, and salt pitfalls that drive thirst.
Med management: time binders properly, adjust vitamin D analogs and calcimimetics, and consider magnesium sources.
Cardiac safety: monitor for hyperkalemia signs; obtain ECGs when indicated.
How to Display Electrolyte Balancing Skills on Your Resume
8. Vascular Access Monitoring
Look, listen, feel—over and over. Access monitoring catches stenosis early, prevents infections, and preserves patency.
Why It's Important
Without a reliable access, dialysis stalls. With one, treatments run smoother and outcomes improve.
How to Improve Vascular Access Monitoring Skills
Routine checks: inspect for redness, swelling, drainage; document changes.
Auscultation and palpation: continuous thrill, low-pitched bruit—good; high-pitched or diminished—investigate.
Data clues: rising venous or arterial pressures, low blood flow, and recirculation hint at stenosis.
Use technology when available: point-of-care ultrasound or flow measurements can flag problems early.
Catheter care: maximal barrier precautions, hub disinfection, proper lock solutions, and meticulous dressing changes.
Patient partnership: teach daily thrill checks and red flags.
How to Display Vascular Access Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
9. Dialysis Machine Operation
Running the machine well means more than pressing start. It’s setup accuracy, safety checks, real-time adjustments, and rigorous disinfection.
Why It's Important
Reliable machine operation keeps treatments effective and patients safe—no shortcuts, no guesswork.
How to Improve Dialysis Machine Operation Skills
Preflight checks: verify prescriptions, conductivity, pH, temperature, and alarm tests before connecting the patient.
Water matters: understand RO system basics, monitor quality metrics, and document disinfection.
Follow the protocol: setup, priming, air detector and blood leak tests—do each step completely.
Prevent downtime: routine maintenance, correct concentrate mixing, and quick troubleshooting keep sessions on track.
Emergency readiness: know responses for air embolism, hemolysis, and blood leaks; supplies and crash cart close by.
Educate patients: explain what alarms mean and how their actions affect treatment flow.
How to Display Dialysis Machine Operation Skills on Your Resume
10. Medication Administration
Dialysis medications require precision: renal dosing, correct timing, and vigilant monitoring before, during, and after therapy.
Why It's Important
Meds fine-tune the balance—anemia therapy, mineral bone agents, anticoagulation, blood pressure control—each with safety guardrails you can’t ignore.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Master the “rights”: right patient, drug, dose, route, time, and documentation—every time.
Renal dosing savvy: confirm dose adjustments and dialyzability; time meds around treatment appropriately.
High-alert double checks: second verifier for anticoagulants, ESA/IV iron, and concentrated electrolytes.
Use technology: eMARs and bar-code scanning reduce errors when available.
Patient briefing: what the medication does, side effects to watch for, when to speak up.
Close the loop: reconcile meds regularly and report adverse events promptly for system learning.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
11. Infection Control
Dialysis units demand relentless infection control: strict hand hygiene, access asepsis, environmental cleaning, and smart patient flow.
Why It's Important
Patients are vulnerable, often immunocompromised. Preventing bloodstream infections and cross-transmission saves lives and limbs.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Hand hygiene culture: soap-and-water or alcohol gel at the right moments—no exceptions.
PPE that fits the task: gloves, gowns, masks, and eye protection aligned with exposure risk.
Access asepsis: chlorhexidine-based prep, proper dwell times, and no shortcuts at cannulation or catheter hubs.
Clean the environment: thorough turnover of stations and high-touch surfaces with approved disinfectants.
Vaccine and screening: track hepatitis B status, offer indicated vaccines, and apply isolation or cohorting when required.
Audit and feedback: observe practice, share data, and correct drift fast.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
12. Emergency Response
When something goes sideways—hypotension, chest pain, anaphylactoid reaction, air embolism, hemolysis—speed and sequence matter.
Why It's Important
Dialysis can turn on a dime. Rapid, organized actions prevent harm and stabilize the situation until higher-level care takes over.
How to Improve Emergency Response Skills
Certifications current: BLS and, when required, ACLS; refresh regularly.
Drill the scenarios: simulation for air embolism, severe hypotension, blood leak, seizure, and hyperkalemia keeps reflexes sharp.
Know the playbook: where to clamp, when to stop the pump and return blood, how to position the patient, and who to call—without hesitation.
Gear readiness: oxygen, suction, crash cart, and emergency meds checked and within reach.
Communicate crisply: closed-loop communication with the team; document the timeline and interventions.
Debrief and improve: after any event, review what worked and what didn’t; tighten the system.
How to Display Emergency Response Skills on Your Resume
