Top 12 LPN Skills to Put on Your Resume

In nursing, the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) role thrives on nimble, hands-on skill. The right mix shows up in patient outcomes, smooth teamwork, and fewer errors when the pace turns hectic. Featuring the top 12 LPN skills on your resume signals you can handle the swirl—safely, compassionately, and with sharp clinical judgment.

LPN Skills

1. Patient Care
2. Medication Administration
3. Wound Care
4. Vital Signs Monitoring
5. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
6. IV Therapy
7. Phlebotomy
8. CPR Certified
9. Infection Control
10. Patient Education
11. HIPAA Compliance
12. Nursing Documentation

1. Patient Care

Patient care for an LPN means delivering essential nursing services under the direction of an RN or provider: monitoring status, administering treatments, assisting with ADLs, coordinating with the care team, and keeping records current.

Why It's Important

It protects safety, preserves dignity, and speeds recovery. Good care lowers complications, boosts satisfaction, and keeps the entire team synchronized.

How to Improve Patient Care Skills

1. Communicate clearly: Use active listening and SBAR; confirm understanding with patients and teammates.

2. Keep learning: Pursue CEUs, refresh core protocols, and know your state scope of practice.

3. Lead with empathy: Practice presence, cultural humility, and trauma‑informed care to build trust.

4. Hardwire safety: Two patient identifiers, fall-risk tactics, med reconciliation, and near-miss reporting.

5. Make it patient-centered: Shared decision-making and tailored care plans, not one-size-fits-all.

6. Huddle and close the loop: Quick team huddles, read-backs, and clear role ownership.

7. Document as you go: Timely, objective entries prevent gaps and missteps.

How to Display Patient Care Skills on Your Resume

2. Medication Administration

LPNs prepare, administer, and document medications per provider orders, verify patient identity, watch for adverse reactions, and teach safe use when appropriate.

Why It's Important

Right med, right time, right way—this is where outcomes swing. Accurate administration cuts harm and stabilizes symptoms fast.

How to Improve Medication Administration Skills

1. Master the rights: Right patient, drug, dose, route, time—plus right documentation and right reason/response.

2. Double-check high-alerts: Insulin, anticoagulants, electrolytes, opioids—use independent verification.

3. Use BCMA/eMAR correctly: Scan every time, reconcile orders, avoid workarounds.

4. Cut the noise: Create “no interruption” zones during med pass to reduce slips.

5. Know your meds: Onset, peak, interactions, lab monitoring—anticipate what to watch.

6. Escalate early: Clarify ambiguous orders; report adverse effects immediately and document the response.

How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume

3. Wound Care

Assessment, cleansing, dressing selection, offloading, patient instruction, and vigilant follow-up—LPNs help wounds progress through the healing phases while preventing infection.

Why It's Important

Good wound care eases pain, prevents complications, and shortens recovery. Poor technique invites setbacks and readmissions.

How to Improve Wound Care Skills

1. Assess with a framework: Use an approach like T.I.M.E. (tissue, infection/inflammation, moisture, edge).

2. Infection control, no shortcuts: Aseptic technique, proper glove use, and clean vs. sterile choices based on wound type.

3. Moisture balance matters: Pick dressings that manage exudate without drying the bed.

4. Protect skin and comfort: Atraumatic dressing changes, pressure redistribution, and pain control.

5. Nutrition supports healing: Screen for protein-calorie needs and hydration; escalate if deficits appear.

6. Measure consistently: Length/width/depth, undermining, photos if policy allows; track trends.

7. Know when to escalate: Consult a WOC nurse for nonhealing or complex wounds.

How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume

4. Vital Signs Monitoring

Routine measurement and trending of temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and pain to catch changes early and guide treatment.

Why It's Important

Vitals tell the story before symptoms explode. Early recognition prevents deterioration and directs timely interventions.

How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills

1. Get the technique right: Proper cuff size, patient positioning, full minute counts when indicated.

2. Trend, don’t just record: Compare to baseline and use early warning scores (e.g., MEWS/NEWS2) where applicable.

3. Validate outliers: Recheck abnormal values, verify equipment function, and escalate if trends persist.

4. Keep tools reliable: Calibrated devices, batteries charged, cleaned between patients.

5. Use continuous tech when available: Pulse oximetry, telemetry, or wearables—know alarm parameters and responses.

6. Document in real time: Timely entries reduce confusion and support clinical decisions.

How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume

5. Electronic Health Records (EHR)

EHRs are digital charts with diagnoses, meds, allergies, labs, imaging, and plans—accessible across the care continuum to coordinate safe, informed care.

Why It's Important

Instant, accurate data shrinks delays and errors. LPNs who navigate EHRs well keep communication tight and care consistent.

How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills

1. Train to fluency: Learn templates, smart phrases, and shortcuts—without copy‑pasting boilerplate.

2. Reconcile relentlessly: Meds, allergies, and problem lists should be current at every transition.

3. Protect privacy: Minimum necessary access, strong passwords, two‑factor authentication, and secure messaging only.

4. Structure your data: Use flowsheets and discrete fields so information can be tracked and used for care decisions.

5. Share appropriately: Understand your facility’s policies on timely information release and avoid information blocking.

6. Close the loop: Route critical notes and results to the right recipients; confirm acknowledgment when needed.

How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume

6. IV Therapy

Delivering fluids, medications, and nutrients directly into a vein for rapid, precise treatment—within the LPN’s scope of practice as defined by state regulations and facility policy.

Why It's Important

When speed, bioavailability, and accuracy matter, IV therapy is the route. It keeps patients stable in emergencies and sustains care when oral options fail.

How to Improve IV Therapy Skills

1. Know your scope: State board rules and facility policies drive what you may initiate, monitor, or push.

2. Pick the right vein: Assess carefully; warm the area, use gravity or ultrasound if available, and stabilize well.

3. Asepsis is nonnegotiable: Hand hygiene, scrub the hub, securement, and timely dressing changes to prevent infection.

4. Verify compatibility: Check drug–fluid compatibility, flush protocols, and patency before and after.

5. Use the pump wisely: Program rates accurately, set appropriate alarms, and monitor site and patient response.

6. Spot complications early: Infiltration, phlebitis, extravasation, fluid overload—act fast and document.

7. Refresh skills: Simulation, supervised practice, and periodic competency checks keep technique sharp.

How to Display IV Therapy Skills on Your Resume

7. Phlebotomy

Drawing blood safely for tests, transfusions, or donations—while preserving sample integrity and patient comfort.

Why It's Important

Quality specimens power accurate diagnostics. A smooth draw also builds patient trust and reduces repeat sticks.

How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills

1. Perfect the basics: Proper site selection, correct order of draw, and gentle technique to avoid hemolysis.

2. Label at the bedside: Two identifiers, time/date, and initials; never prelabel.

3. Reduce anxiety: Explain plainly, use positioning, distraction, or topical anesthetics when available.

4. Protect the sample: Correct tube choice, proper inversion, timely transport at the right temperature.

5. Stay clean: Hand hygiene and PPE every time; dispose of sharps immediately and safely.

6. Practice deliberately: Simulation and supervised reps turn shaky into steady.

How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume

8. CPR Certified

CPR certification shows current competence in Basic Life Support—recognizing arrest, delivering compressions and breaths, and using an AED until advanced help arrives.

Why It's Important

Seconds matter. High-quality CPR keeps blood moving to the brain and heart, buying time and improving survival.

How to Improve CPR Skills

1. Refresh on schedule: Renew BLS regularly; practice skills more often than the card expires.

2. Prioritize quality: 100–120 compressions per minute, adequate depth and recoil, minimal pauses—measure and adjust.

3. Own the AED: Pad placement, prompt shock delivery, and resume compressions immediately.

4. Drill as a team: Mock codes, role clarity, and post‑event debriefs tighten performance.

5. Prepare for realities: Know where equipment is, check it, and stay comfortable with airway adjuncts and naloxone protocols.

How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume

9. Infection Control

Policies and daily practices that stop germs from moving—hand hygiene, PPE, safe injections, cleaning, isolation, and vaccination compliance.

Why It's Important

It protects patients, coworkers, and you. Fewer healthcare-associated infections mean safer units and better outcomes.

How to Improve Infection Control Skills

1. Hand hygiene first: Before and after every patient contact; foam or wash—no exceptions.

2. Wear PPE correctly: Don and doff in the right order; follow contact, droplet, or airborne precautions as posted.

3. Safe injections: Single-dose vials when possible, never reuse needles or syringes, needleless systems when available.

4. Clean the environment: Use approved disinfectants, respect contact times, and don’t forget high-touch surfaces.

5. Isolation done right: Signage, cohorting as needed, and dedicated equipment to curb spread.

6. Stay current: Annual competencies, vaccine updates, and N95 fit testing keep you ready.

7. Speak up: Report exposures promptly and participate in audits and improvements.

How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume

10. Patient Education

Translating conditions, treatments, and self‑care into plain, actionable steps so patients and families can manage safely at home.

Why It's Important

Better understanding leads to better adherence. That means fewer complications and more confidence after discharge.

How to Improve Patient Education Skills

1. Assess first: Literacy, language, culture, preferences—meet patients where they are.

2. Use plain language: Short sentences, common words, pictures or models; avoid jargon.

3. Teach-back: Ask patients to explain the plan in their own words; fix gaps immediately.

4. Chunk and check: Deliver information in small bites, pause for questions, then move on.

5. Set real goals: Clear, achievable steps (timing meds, wound care schedule, red flags to watch).

6. Document and reinforce: Provide written instructions at an appropriate reading level and record what was taught and understood.

How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume

11. HIPAA Compliance

Following rules that guard the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI), from how it’s accessed and shared to how it’s stored and discarded.

Why It's Important

Trust hinges on confidentiality. Compliance avoids breaches, fines, and—more importantly—harm to patients.

How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills

1. Minimum necessary: Access only what you need for your role, nothing more.

2. Secure the data: Lock screens, log out, use strong passwords, and send PHI only through approved secure systems.

3. Verify identity: Confirm recipients before releasing information, whether verbal or written.

4. Mind the surroundings: Keep voices low, avoid hallway discussions, and shield screens from view.

5. Dispose properly: Shred paper PHI, follow policy for device or media disposal.

6. Report fast: Escalate suspected breaches immediately so mitigation can start.

7. Stay off social media with PHI: No patient images or stories that could identify someone—ever.

How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume

12. Nursing Documentation

Accurate, timely recording of assessments, interventions, patient responses, and communications—clear enough that any clinician can follow the plan without guessing.

Why It's Important

If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. Solid notes support continuity, quality metrics, and legal protection.

How to Improve Nursing Documentation Skills

1. Chart objectively: Facts over feelings; quantify when possible.

2. Be timely: Document close to the event to preserve accuracy and sequence.

3. Use standard formats: SOAP, DAR, or flowsheets—consistent structure speeds comprehension.

4. Capture the whole cycle: Assessment, intervention, patient response, and provider notification with outcomes.

5. Avoid copy‑paste: Update details for the current encounter; label late entries clearly.

6. Include refusals and education: What was offered, what was declined, and what teaching occurred.

7. Sign correctly: Name, credentials, date, and time per policy.

How to Display Nursing Documentation Skills on Your Resume