Top 12 Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a compelling resume is crucial for nurses aiming to stand out in a crowded healthcare market. Blend hard clinical know-how with sound judgment, communication finesse, and specialty strengths. That mix catches attention and moves careers forward.
Nurse Skills
- Patient Assessment
- Wound Care
- IV Insertion
- Electronic Health Records (EHR)
- CPR Certified
- Medication Administration
- Patient Education
- Vital Signs Monitoring
- Infection Control
- Phlebotomy
- HIPAA Compliance
- Telehealth Proficiency
1. Patient Assessment
Patient assessment means gathering and interpreting a patient’s health information—history, symptoms, vital signs, physical and focused exams, psychosocial cues—then turning that data into a clear plan of care.
Why It's Important
Accurate assessment steers everything that follows. It reveals risks, prioritizes needs, guides interventions, and tracks response, which keeps care safe and effective.
How to Improve Patient Assessment Skills
Sharpen what you see, what you hear, and what you record. A few practical moves:
Dial in your observation: Scan for subtle changes—skin tone shifts, breathing patterns, posture, affect. Nonverbal signals speak loudly.
Elevate communication: Ask open-ended questions, listen without rushing, validate concerns. Patients tell you the diagnosis if you let them talk.
Refresh your foundation: Take regular CE courses, practice head-to-toe and focused assessments, and keep a quick-reference for abnormal findings.
Use your tools well: Know your EHR templates, flowsheets, scoring systems, and decision support. Efficiency prevents missed details.
Think in patterns: Synthesize data instead of listing facts. Connect cause and effect, trend the numbers, anticipate the next issue.
Structure your handoffs: Use SBAR or a similar framework so what you’ve found translates cleanly to the team.
Small improvements compound, and assessments become sharper, faster, more reliable.
How to Display Patient Assessment Skills on Your Resume
2. Wound Care
Wound care covers assessment, cleansing, debridement within scope, dressing selection, offloading, infection prevention, and steady monitoring to push healing forward and protect surrounding skin.
Why It's Important
Done right, it prevents infection, speeds closure, cuts pain, and preserves function. It’s patient comfort and safety, stitched together.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Precision matters. So does consistency.
Assess and document: Measure length, width, depth; note tissue type, exudate, odor, edges, periwound skin. Trend weekly so progress—or lack of it—stands out.
Hygiene first: Hand hygiene, aseptic or clean technique as indicated, and meticulous field setup. Contamination sneaks in when workflows get sloppy.
Balance moisture: Keep the wound bed moist, control exudate, guard against maceration. Healing lives in that sweet spot.
Match dressing to need: Foams, hydrogels, alginates, hydrofibers, silver, collagen—choose based on drainage, depth, bioburden, and skin tolerance.
Manage pain: Time analgesics, be gentle with adhesive removal, consider nonadherent layers. Comfort drives adherence.
Nourish to heal: Screen for malnutrition; emphasize protein, vitamins A and C, zinc, and hydration.
Teach clearly: Show patients and caregivers dressing steps, infection signs, offloading, and when to call.
Keep learning: Follow evidence-based guidelines; pursue wound care certifications if this is your lane.
Good wound care is methodical, not flashy. Results show in the granulation.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
3. IV Insertion
IV insertion places a sterile catheter into a vein for fluids, meds, blood products, or contrast. Simple on paper. Variable in real arms.
Why It's Important
Reliable venous access enables rapid therapy, fewer delays, and safer care during acute events.
How to Improve IV Insertion Skills
Technique plus calm hands.
Scout first: Assess hydration, vein size, valves, prior access attempts. Warmth and gravity help; a tourniquet makes the roadmap pop.
Prepare completely: Right catheter size, gloves, antiseptic, securement, flushes, dressing. No scrambling mid-procedure.
Keep it sterile: Cleanse in expanding circles, let it dry, avoid re-touching the site. Asepsis beats speed.
Anchor well: Tension the skin to stop vein rolling. Bevel up, 10–30 degrees, advance smoothly at flash, then thread the catheter.
Secure and check: Release tourniquet, connect, flush, observe for swelling or pain, stabilize with securement device plus dressing.
Document: Gauge, site, number of attempts, patient tolerance, and any complications.
Level up: Practice on simulators, learn ultrasound-guided peripheral IVs, and know when to escalate to a different device.
Steady repetition builds muscle memory—and success rates.
How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume
4. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
EHRs are real-time digital charts. Nurses use them to document care, retrieve histories, review orders and labs, coordinate across disciplines, and track outcomes securely.
Why It's Important
Better information at the bedside means safer decisions, faster communication, and fewer errors. It streamlines workflow when it’s mastered.
How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills
Make the system work for you, not vice versa.
Seek targeted training: Take role-specific refreshers and advanced modules; learn shortcuts, macros, and smart phrases.
Build clean templates: Standardize recurring notes and care plans so documentation is thorough yet quick.
Document with intent: Chart clinically relevant details, avoid copy-forward bloat, and time-stamp critical events accurately.
Mind data integrity: Reconcile meds, verify allergies, close loops on orders, and correct errors promptly.
Protect privacy: Use strong passwords, log off, verify recipients before sharing, and follow least-necessary access.
Mastery reduces clicks and frees time for actual patient care.
How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume
5. CPR Certified
CPR certification (typically BLS for healthcare providers) confirms you can deliver high-quality compressions, ventilations, and AED use during cardiac arrest and related emergencies.
Why It's Important
Seconds matter. Competent CPR buys time, preserves brain function, and saves lives.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep the skill fresh, make it automatic.
Follow current guidelines: Revisit updates annually so your sequence, compression depth, and rate stay current.
Practice hands-on: Use feedback manikins for depth/recoil metrics; drill team roles and closed-loop communication.
Advance your training: Add ACLS and PALS if your population demands it; practice megacode scenarios.
Debrief and reflect: After events or simulations, review what went well and what stumbled—then fix it.
Teach to learn: Instructing peers cements your own technique and timing.
Stay fit: Compression-quality depends on stamina and form. Your body is part of the toolkit.
Confidence comes from repetition plus feedback, not from a wallet card.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
6. Medication Administration
Medication administration is the end-to-end process of verifying orders, preparing correct doses, giving meds via the right route and time, monitoring effects, and documenting precisely.
Why It's Important
Every dose has consequences. Safety here protects patients from harm and drives therapeutic outcomes.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Precision, not haste.
Know your meds: Indications, contraindications, interactions, dilution, rates, and monitoring parameters—keep a quick-access reference.
Stick to the rights: Patient, medication, dose, route, time, indication, documentation, response—expand the classic five into a habits stack.
Leverage technology: Barcode scanning, smart pumps, and clinical decision support reduce errors when used consistently.
Communicate and reconcile: Clarify ambiguous orders, complete med reconciliation at transitions, and educate patients on new therapies.
Learn from near-misses: Report, review, and improve processes without blame; patterns point to fixes.
Safe med passes are built on systems and vigilance working together.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
7. Patient Education
Patient education means equipping patients and families with understandable information and skills so they can manage conditions, make informed choices, and take part in care.
Why It's Important
Engaged patients adhere better, spot problems earlier, and recover more smoothly. Knowledge quiets fear and boosts outcomes.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Personal, plain, and practical wins.
Assess readiness and literacy: Gauge baseline knowledge, cultural context, preferred language, and learning style before you teach.
Set specific goals: Build SMART goals with the patient—concrete, short, and relevant.
Mix methods: Verbal instruction, teach-back, demonstrations, simple handouts, and visual aids. Redundant on purpose.
Keep it accessible: Use plain language, chunk information, avoid jargon, and provide take-home materials.
Close the loop: Reassess understanding later, reinforce key points, and adjust the plan if barriers pop up.
Education sticks when it fits the patient’s life, not just the diagnosis.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
8. Vital Signs Monitoring
Vital signs monitoring tracks temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure—and often oxygen saturation and pain—to catch change early and steer interventions.
Why It's Important
Trends tell stories. Early shifts predict deterioration; timely response prevents crises.
How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills
Accuracy first, then action.
Stay current: Refresh on measurement technique and device quirks; recalibrate equipment and verify alarms.
Follow protocols: Use unit standards for frequency and escalation; apply early warning scores (e.g., NEWS2, MEWS) to guide response.
Validate outliers: Recheck abnormal values, compare manually when needed, and assess the full clinical picture.
Communicate fast: Report critical changes with structured handoff; document timing and actions clearly.
Teach patients: Explain home BP cuff use, pulse oximeter limits, and when to seek help if monitoring at home.
Numbers matter, but context seals the decision.
How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
9. Infection Control
Infection control is the set of policies and daily behaviors that block transmission—protecting patients, staff, and families inside healthcare spaces.
Why It's Important
Prevention beats treatment. It limits outbreaks, protects the vulnerable, and maintains a safe environment.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Habits you can trust even on the busiest shift.
Hand hygiene, every time: Before and after patient contact, before aseptic tasks, after exposure risk, after touching surroundings.
Right PPE for the job: Gloves, masks or respirators, gowns, and eye protection—don and doff correctly; follow transmission-based precautions.
Clean the environment: Disinfect high-touch surfaces and shared equipment on schedule; label and store supplies properly.
Stay updated: Follow current facility policies and public health guidance for isolation, testing, and outbreak response.
Vaccinate: Keep recommended immunizations current to safeguard yourself and those you serve.
Safe injections: One needle, one syringe, one patient; use sharps containers and never recap.
Educate patients: Teach hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and wound or device care at home.
Consistency shuts the door on pathogens.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
10. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the art and science of collecting blood safely—choosing sites, using proper order of draw, preventing hemolysis, and caring for patients through the poke.
Why It's Important
Quality samples mean trustworthy labs. And calm, competent technique eases a stressful moment.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Clean technique meets patient rapport.
Keep learning: Review anatomy, order of draw, tube additives, and specimen handling to avoid recollects.
Practice deliberately: Simulation arms and supervised reps improve angle, depth, and stability.
Communicate: Explain steps, position for comfort, and use distraction or relaxation to reduce anxiety.
Refine technique: Warm extremities, palpate rather than sight-hunt, anchor veins, and avoid fishing.
Monitor quality: Track hemolysis rates, contamination, and redraws—then adjust technique.
Smooth sticks come from preparation plus empathy.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
11. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means safeguarding protected health information in every form—spoken, written, and electronic—while honoring patient rights.
Why It's Important
Privacy builds trust. It also keeps you and your organization clear of violations and penalties.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Think privacy by default.
Know the rules: Understand the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification standards and how they apply to daily tasks.
Limit access: Follow the minimum necessary principle; verify identity before sharing information.
Secure records: Lock screens, store paper charts safely, encrypt devices, and avoid unsecured messaging.
Protect conversations: Discuss PHI in private spaces; be mindful in hallways, elevators, and public areas.
Train and refresh: Complete regular updates; report suspected breaches immediately through proper channels.
Confidentiality isn’t a setting—it’s a habit.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
12. Telehealth Proficiency
Telehealth proficiency is delivering nursing care through secure video, phone, and remote monitoring—triage, assessment, education, and coordination—without losing the human connection.
Why It's Important
It expands access, reduces barriers, and keeps care moving for patients who can’t always come in. Convenience with clinical rigor.
How to Improve Telehealth Proficiency Skills
Technical fluency meets clear communication.
Master the platform: Test audio, video, screen share, and backup workflows; have a plan for dropouts.
Structure virtual assessments: Use checklists for symptom review, visual exams, home vitals, and red-flag screening.
Communicate cleanly: Speak plainly, confirm understanding with teach-back, and summarize next steps.
Protect privacy: Use HIPAA-compliant tools, verify identity, confirm the patient’s location, and document consent.
Know the rules: Stay current on licensure, consent, and reimbursement requirements in your state and facility.
Great virtual care feels simple to the patient because you did the complex work behind the scenes.
How to Display Telehealth Proficiency Skills on Your Resume
