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ICU nurses, also known as critical care nurses, work in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and care for patients suffering from life-threatening conditions like cardiac arrests, brain injuries, as well as for patients recovering from major surgeries.
The responsibilities that entail this position are intense and it requires you to be calm, detail orientation, and empathetic.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the demand for ICU nurses has also increased, with an expected 332,190 new job opportunities to come up by 2029.
So, if you have a degree in nursing, along with a few years of experience, now is the right time to work on a stellar ICU nurse resume and bag this position.
However, just like your patients, your ICU nurse resume will need a little care and attention to ensure that it impresses the recruiters enough to call you back for an interview.
Read on to learn how you can build an impressive ICU nurse resume and get clarity on related FAQs like the following:
- What is an ICU nurse resume?
- What are the duties and responsibilities of an ICU nurse?
- What should I put on my ICU nurse resume?
- How to write an ICU nurse resume summary?
- What are 3 important skills for a critical care nurse?
- How do you list ICU experience on a resume?
What is an ICU Nurse Resume?
An ICU nurse resume is a page-long document that summarizes your career trajectory, lists your key skills, and showcases your professional experience and education.
It also highlights your most notable achievements in terms of the job description.
When you apply for jobs, your ICU nurse resume is the first thing that recruiters see to decide if you would be a good fit.
Thus, it is crucial to ensure that your ICU nurse resume showcases all the right information in a crisp format.
Also read: How to make a nursing resume?
ICU Nurse Responsibilities
Before you write your ICU nurse resume, you must be familiar with the general duties and expectations that entail this position.
When you have a better understanding of what the expectations are, it becomes easier to showcase your potential to meet the same through your critical care nurse resume.
Listed below are some of the common duties of a critical care nurse:
- Monitoring and recording symptoms and changes in the patient's conditions and updating the same to senior doctors
- Interpreting and evaluating diagnostics tests to identify and assess the patient’s condition
- Documenting patients’ medical histories to help determine suitable treatment procedures
- Recording the patients’ treatment plans, revisions, interventions, and results to maintain patient data
- Administering intravenous fluids, medications, etc. as per the doctor’s direction
- Assisting doctors with general procedures like endoscopy, bronchoscopy, etc.
- Providing pre and post-operative care to patients and dressing wounds to speed up recovery
Also read: What is the job description of a licensed practical nurse?
What Should You Include in Your ICU Nurse Resume?
Given that recruiters only spend 6-7 seconds reading a resume, your ICU nurse resume must work its charm in this short time.
Not only does your ICU nurse resume need to showcase all your important career milestones and skills, but it also needs to be done in a crisp, concise, and impactful manner.
Follow the below-given guidelines to understand how and what exactly must your ICU nurse resume include:
Draft an Informative Header
The header of your ICU resume should always be your full name in 14-16 font size. Avoid writing “CV” or “Resume” as doing so will make your resume generic.
Following your name, mention the below-listed contact details as part of the header:
- A reachable phone number with an ISD code and a “+” sign
- A professional email address
- Your current location (city & state)
- A link to your LinkedIn profile or an online portfolio
- Your profile title (current designation)
Compose An Impressive Summary
Although you must write your ICU nurse resume summary only after writing the other sections, it comes right under the header of your resume.
Begin your ICU nurse resume summary with the years of experience you have and highlight your accomplishments and relevant skills in terms of the job description.
Ensure that your summary does not exceed 2-3 sentences and includes plenty of keywords, action verbs, and quantified achievements.
In case you are a fresher with no experience, write an objective instead of a summary and focus on telling the recruiters how you can leverage your knowledge and skills to benefit the hospital.
Make A List of Your Key Skills
Your key skills section too must be written only after you’ve finished writing your professional experience section so that you have a better understanding of what your skills are.
It is not advisable to simply list down skills on your ICU nurse resume without describing instances in your professional experience section wherein you’ve utilized them.
And, since most recruiters use the Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to select the most qualified resumes, your key skills section must include keywords from the job listing.
This means you need to analyze the job description provided in the listing to understand the recruiters’ requirements and accordingly, list relevant skills in your ICU nurse resume to show your capabilities.
Given below are some of the ICU nurse resume skills you can consider adding to your resume if they stand true to you:
| CCU | ER |
| Triple Lumen CVP | AV Fistulas |
| Wound Care | Life Support |
| Transfer Support | Medical Infusion |
| Equipment Maintainance | MediTech Documentation |
| Charting | Unit Preparation |
| Record Management | Surgical Assistance |
Write An Impressive Professional Experience Section
The professional experience section of your ICU nurse resume must be drafted with utmost care because it could very well determine your candidacy for the job.
Here are some tips to help you draft a compelling professional experience section for your critical care nurse resume:
- Follow the reverse chronological order to list your experiences - which means listing your most recent role at the top, followed by the older ones
- Avoid writing in bulky paragraphs and instead, opt for bullet points with one-liners
- Begin your bullet points with an action verb and quantify your work and achievements whenever possible
- Follow the STAR format to frame your one-liners, which is, to describe the situation, the task that was assigned to you, the action you took to complete the task, and the results you achieved
- Group similar points under a single heading and highlight keywords to enhance readability
Take a look at the following snapshot of a professional experience section that follows the above tips:
Make A List of Your Educational Qualifications
Similar to the professional experience section, list your educational qualifications in reverse chronological order in your ICU nurse resume.
You can provide the following details of your education:
- The university/college name
- Name of the degree that you pursued
- The location of your college/university (city & state)
- The commencement and end dates
- Your GPA (if it is higher than 3.5)
The following is a sample of an ideal education section of an ICU nurse's resume:
List Extra Certifications and Additional Information
If you have taken up extra certifications or training related to nursing, you must list them in your ICU nurse resume under a section titled Certifications.
Showcasing that you are certified will increase your chances of getting shortlisted.
Similar to your educational qualifications, you must mention the following details of your certification:
- The name of the certifying institution
- The name of the certificate course or training
- The location of the certifying institution
- Commencement and ending dates
Followed by the certification section, you can also add an additional information section to your ICU nurse resume.
In this section, you can list the languages that you speak, any volunteer work you’ve done, etc.
However, you must ensure that your ICU nurse resume must not exceed a page.
Also read: What are the 5 essential resume sections in 2022?
ICU Nurse Resume Sample
Key Points from the Blog
- An ICU nurse resume is a page-long document that summarizes your career trajectory, lists your key skills, and showcases your professional experience and education.
- ICU nurses care for patients suffering from life-threatening conditions like cardiac arrests, and brain injuries, as well as patients recovering from major surgeries.
- The header of your ICU resume should always be your full name in 14-16 font size.
- Your ICU nurse resume summary must begin with the years of experience you have and must highlight your accomplishments and relevant skills in terms of the job description.
- Analyze the job description to understand the recruiters’ requirements and accordingly, list relevant skills in your ICU nurse resume to show your capabilities.
- Avoid writing in bulky paragraphs and instead, opt for bullet points with one-liners when writing your professional experience in your ICU nurse resume
- Similar to the professional experience section, list your educational qualifications in reverse chronological order in your ICU nurse resume.
If you want to make an ATS-friendly ICU nurse resume within minutes, use Hiration’s AI-powered Resume Builder. If you have any queries, write to us at support@hiration.com.
