How to create a head-turning nursing student resume?

[Click here to directly go to the complete nursing student resume sample]

“To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; that is to be a nurse” – Rawsi Williams

Being a nurse is a challenging task, but bagging the nursing job is even more challenging. To get the entry-level nurse job you have always wanted, you need a student nurse resume first.

Take a look at our sample nursing student resume to know what an ideal nurse student resume looks like.

Writing a resume isn’t easy, and this is why you’re here. So let’s not waste your time, and hop into the learning bus already!

In this blog, you will learn the tricks and trades of building the perfect resume for nursing student, and we are here to walk with you through each step.

Here is a quick summary of the Nursing Student Resume 2022 Guide:

• Group every 2-3 points together under a unique subheading and highlight the key achievements to increase the readability of your resume
• Use the reverse chronological order to increase the relevance of your resume for nursing student. Ensure that your latest job experience i.e. your most relevant experience, is the first thing the recruiter notices.
• Your resume objective or summary should not exceed 3-4 lines.
• Be very specific about the accuracy of the information you provide in your student nursing resume.
• Only write one-liner points in new nursing grad resume.

If you’re ready to take a step ahead and learn how to write a job-winning nursing student resume from scratch, let’s get started!

But firstly, congratulations!

You have picked a selfless profession that prioritizes others over you.

To be a nurse is to help other people. To be a nurse is to prioritize your patient’s problems over your own. And not everyone has an appetite for such selfless care and devotion.

But you do. You opted for a profession that emphasises patient care over your own.

And that’s why you are here, scrolling through this page, to look for a way to become a full-time care-taker of the ailing and the diseased.

If you are reading this, you’re probably a fresh nursing graduate looking for an entry-level nurse job. You have probably applied to a dozen places and waited day after day to get a call-back from the HR.

And yet, you were not shortlisted, and you don’t seem to know why.

But don’t you worry. We are here to help you land your dream nursing job.

We have perfected the art of fashioning resumes and through this blog, we will tell you everything that you need to know to write a job-winning resume from scratch.

By the end of this blog, you will become an expert at curating a resume for nursing student

Here's a list of what you will learn in this blog:

• What is a nursing student resume?
• How to effectively communicate your professional experience in your nursing student resume?
• How to create the header seciton of your nursing student resume?
• How to communicate your personal information in an effective way?
• How to convey nursing student skills for resume?
• How to display your educational information in your new graduate RN resume?

...All so you can write an ideal job-winning new nursing grad resume!

The task at hand is to get you to the interview round and we have made it our life’s mission to get you to that platform.

Getting an interview call is not easy, but with us on your side, it can be done.

If you’d rather write your beginner nursing student resume yourself, then this blog is your one-stop destination. It is the ideal and only guide you will ever need to make the ultimate student nurse resume come to life.

What is a Student Nursing Resume and why do you need it?

Your nursing student resume is a summary of your professional capabilities in a one-page document. It helps the recruiter understand what your skills are. In other words, it tells the recruiter if you will be a good fit for the job.

Your student nurse resume is the first interaction channel between you and your recruiter. It gives the recruiter a broad overview of your professional expertise before you even get the chance to meet the recruiter.

This is why your resume needs to stand out and convey your nursing skills most effectively.

If your resume stands out, it will get you in the good books of the recruiter. Once you are in the recruiter’s good books, you’re already half-way into attaining the entry-level nurse job that you have always wanted.

But being in the recruiter’s good books isn’t easy. You need to rank well in the ATS (Applicant tracking system) first. It’s only when you rank high in the ATS that you will be able to grab the recruiter’s attention.

This can be done when your student nurse resume is ATS-friendly.

To write an ATS-friendly job-winning resume, you need to write your nursing student resume with no experience in a way that resonates with the keywords mentioned by the recruiter in the job posting.

And voila! Your ideal student nurse resume is ready to go!

Nurse Salary

According to payscale.com, the average hourly pay of an Entry-Level Registered Nurse (RN) is $25.47.

According to the information given in Glassdoor, the average salary of a new grad RN (Registered Nurse) is $65,510/year.

According to salary.com, “the average Registered Nurse (RN) Level 1 salary in the United States is $62,370 as of June 27, 2019, but the range typically falls between $55,970 and $72,030”.

Factors like education, certifications, additional skills, and work experience play an important role in deciding the salary of a registered nurse.

The higher your work experience, the higher your salary.

Nursing Student Resume Sections

To write the perfect new nursing grad resume, arrange the sections in the order given below:

• Header
• Personal Information
• Profile Title
• Summary
• Key Skills
• Professional Experience
• Education
• Certifications
• Additional Information

Nursing Skills for Resume

An entry-level nurse job carries with it the following duties and responsibilities:

• Patient Education
• Patient Care & Discharge Planning
• Patient Transport
• Wound Dressing
• Medicine Administration
• Electronic Health Records (EHR)
• Recording Patient Vitals

How to write a Nursing Student Resume

Writing an impeccable student nurse resume is no child’s play. It needs detailed planning and execution of each aspect.

How to perfect the resume header, how to engineer the roles and responsibilities of your job in the correct format and order, how to arrange each resume section, and which points to highlight are indispensable aspects of resume making.

Master each step, and you will have perfected the art of writing your resume.

To simplify the process of resume-writing for your student nurse resume, follow the three stages we have mentioned below

• Master Nursing Student Resume
• First Draft Nursing Student Resume
• Final Nursing Student Resume

Master Nursing Student Resume

This is a very important stage in writing your new grad rn resume. Skip this, and you are destined for doom.

As a rule of thumb, the first step you should follow in this stage is to compile all the relevant information for your new grad rn resume in one single place. This step ensures that you have all the information you need.

Going forward, this simplifies the entire process as the need to look for information gets eliminated.

All you need to do is compile all the information in a single document. This ensures that you can refer to the information you need without having to look for it elsewhere.

For instance, if the nurse job you want is looking for the below-mentioned skills:

• Patient Education
• Patient Care & Discharge Planning
• Patient Transport
• Wound Dressing

Then your new grad rn resume must reflect these skills.

Your student nursing resume needs to objectively mention these skills in your resume. The best way to do this is to ensure that your master resume lists a detailed summary of these skills.

If you skip this step, you are approaching your resume the wrong way.

First Draft of your Nursing Student Resume

In the first draft stage of writing your new grad nurse resume, you need to fill the following sections:

• Header
• Personal Information
• Profile Title
• Education
• Certification
• Awards & Recognition
• Additional Information

The Final Draft of a Nursing Student Resume

In the final stage of your new graduate nurse resume, you need to focus on three things:

• Make the key skills section: To write this section objectively, scan your professional experience section for relevant skills. After you do this, write them down in your key skills section.
• Make the summary/objective section: As you are a nursing graduate with no real work experience, you should write a resume objective. The objective section should highlight the key skills that you have picked up as a nursing student and the skills that you have picked up in your internship.
• Bold and highlight: Emphasize any relevant phrases, words, and numbers throughout your internship experience, education, certifications, awards and recognition, and additional information section by highlighting them in bold.

Moreover, the templates are professionally designed for smooth user experience by our industry experts. It has ready-to-use content, which you can edit according to your work experience.

This means no hassle! No dilly-dally! Your new nursing grad resume is ready-to-use!

In case you want to write your resume on your own, read-on!

Nursing Student Resume: Professional Experience Section

The professional experience section is the most important and promising part of your new graduate nurse resume.

To impress the recruiter, you need to communicate your roles and responsibilities effectively. This is what the professional experience section of your new grad nurse resume should do for you.

The professional experience section of your resume is your best opportunity to connect with the recruiter and get on the winning side of his/her good books.

This section of your graduate nurse resume is your chance to shine. And hence, you need to perfect it.

To make this an easy process, follow the guidelines below:

• Use the STAR format
• Use points to talk about your roles & responsibilities
• Use bucketing & bolding

Also read: How to Compose the Work Experience of Your Resume?

STAR Format

The STAR Format is widely recognized as the no 1 format for structuring the professional experience section of resumes.

• S stands for Situation: Talk about the situation in which you were assigned a task
• T stands for Task: Discuss the task that was assigned to you
• A stands for Action: Communicate the action you took to accomplish the task
• R stands for Result: Discuss the result using figures

When you write your resume, you need to establish a concrete cause-effect relationship in every one-liner point of your resume.

Ensuring a cause-effect relationship helps you emphasize the quantifiable impact of your contribution to the company you have worked for.

Quantifying your contribution grabs the recruiter's attention and makes your resume more attractive. This makes you an interesting candidate in the eyes of the recruiter, which further enhances your chances of a shortlist.

Framing Points

The professional experience section is your one shot at effectively communicating your roles and responsibilities.

This can’t be done if you get into the details of your work experience section in a paragraph that refuses to end.

You need to strictly avoid using long paragraphs to talk about the work you have done.

It will get you nowhere.

At most, it will bore the recruiter.

This is why you need to learn the art of writing short and crisp points.

You need to present the details of your work in simple effective points.

Here is an example of how to fill the professional experience section of your new graduate nurse resume the winner’s way:

Example:

• Performed suturing, splinting, and wound treatment for 10+ patients daily
• Assisted the head nurse in all day-to-day nursing activities, leading to effective care of patients
• Rendered assistance to patients with the transfer, walking, and exam preparation

By framing points, you are making this section more readable.

So, we advise you to discuss your work experience in the form of points.

Bucketing & Bolding

To make your new grad rn resume stand out, you need to make it irresistibly tempting.

Bucketing and bolding is the best way to do this. It re-directs the recruiter’s attention to the aspects of your resume that you need them to notice.

Bucketing and bolding also improves the readability of your resume. It sees to it that the recruiter goes over your resume all the way through.

It may come as a rude shock to you but, in real life, most recruiters don’t go through your entire resume. They don’t bother to do it because they don’t need to.

If you can’t effectively write your resume, the commonly held assumption is that you won’t be effective in your professional capabilities either.

So now that you know the need for bucketing and bolding, come take a look at the graduate nurse resume examples we have listed below.

Nursing Student Resume Example 1:

• Performed suturing, splinting, and wound treatment for 10+ patients daily
• Assisted the head nurse in all day-to-day nursing activities leading to effective patient care
• Rendered assistance to patients with the transfer, walking, and exam preparation
• Provided informed medical advice to all expecting mothers on possible side-effects of surgical delivery
• Received 92% positive response from patients for my compassion and dedicated assistance of their needs

Nursing Student Resume example 2:

Patient Care & Wound Treatment

• Performed suturing, splinting, and wound treatment for 10+ patients daily
• Assisted the head nurse in day-to-day nursing activities leading to effective patient care
• Rendered assistance to patients with transfer, walking, and exam preparation

Patient Education & Satisfaction

• Provided informed medical advice to all expecting mothers on possible side-effects of surgical delivery
• Received 92% positive response from patients for my compassion and dedicated assistance of their needs

You will notice that new graduate nurse resume example 2 is more readable and organized. Using bucketing and bolding has significantly enhanced the readability of the new grad nursing resume.

Moreover, the recruiter can now absorb more information in lesser time.

Furthermore, by simply reading the buckets, the recruiter can easily identify what the applicant is skilled at without having to explicitly look for information.

Take a look at our sample student nurse resume professional experience section given below to learn what a professional experience section should look like using bucketing and bolding:

Nursing Student Resume Header

A header is the first thing that recruiters notice when they go through your resume. It tells the recruiter who you are and what your name is.

As a general rule, your name is always the de-facto resume header.

You need to write your name at the top of your resume. Writing your name at the top personalizes your resume and it protects your resume from getting mixed up with someone else’s.

The header of your resume i.e. your name should be written in the largest font size.

This is not negotiable. When it comes to the font size of your resume header, see to it that it is in the range of 16-20 font size.

Your resume header must have proper spacing. A simple spacing can make your resume that much tidier and easier to read, which in turn makes your nurse student resume that much more appealing.

Give a single space between your first name and your last name.

Hiration Pro-tip: If your name is Kit Charles Harington, the correct way to write it in your new grad rn resume header is: 'Kit C. Harington'.

As you can see in the example above, we have not written Kit’s full middle name in the resume header. This is done deliberately.

It is more than enough to write the first initial of your middle name, add a full-stop after that initial, followed by a single space and your last name.

Also read: How to Write the Perfect Resume Header?.

Nursing Student Resume: Personal Information

The personal information section of your new grad rn resume is a compendium of all your personal details in one neat section.

This is the section that is the easiest to compose.

And yet, most of us tend to go to great lengths to describe who we are, where we’re from, what our marital status is, what our religious orientation is, etc.

Details like these are unnecessary information that your should strictly avoid. They don’t contribute to your resume in any way. As such, it has no use for you, and should not be included in your resume.

You should exclusively mention the following details in the personal information section of your resume:

• Functional mobile number
• Professional email ID
• Location

Functional Mobile Number

Do you have multiple phone numbers?

If the answer is yes, which one is the right one for your resume?

Ideally, your resume should strictly mention only one phone number in your contact information. This phone number should be active and you should be available on it 24X7.

After all, you don’t want to miss out on a potential employment offer!

Moreover, you should also write your phone number in the correct format.

The correct format for writing your phone number is mentioned below:

• Use your country’s ISD code as a prefix before your phone number.
• Put a plus sign (+) before the ISD code.

Eg: +1 (654) 888 1111

E-mail Address

Now that you know how to correctly write your phone number in your new grad rn resume, let us now discuss how to write your email address correctly.

It is an unsaid rule that you should only mention that professional email ID in your resume which you actively use for official communication. No one tells you that, but it is important that you do.

And while you’re at it, you should make sure that your professional email ID also looks professional.

Childish names like hotstudd@xyz.com or hellhoundkelly@xyz.com is a strict no!
If you are using an email ID like the one we have mentioned above, it’s high time you discard it.

Your resume will be rejected the moment it reaches the recruiter’s desk because your email ID will present you as someone who is exceedingly unprofessional and childish.

You do not want to come off as unprofessional; after all, it is your career on the line here!

If you don’t know how to write a professional email ID, just write your full name followed by @xyz.com.

For eg, if your name is Kelly Clarkson, your professional email ID should look something like this: Kellyclarkson@xyz.com.

This is the best way to write a professional email ID.

It conveys to the recruiter that you are a serious professional and that you take your professionalism seriously. And that is the whole point of writing a professional resume in the first place!

Current Location of Residence

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The final thing that goes in this section is your location.

Your resume should accurately mention the city you are living in, not the name of your hometown. This saves both your time and the recruiter’s time as the recruiter won’t bother to get in touch with you if the job location is in a different city.

Mentioned below is the correct format for writing your location in the personal information section of your student nurse resume:

{Personal Mobile number} | {Professional E-mail Address} | {Current Location}

Please note that:

• The location of your current residence should feature on the right corner, next to the e-mail address.
• Don’t write down the complete address.
• Mention the city and state you are living in if you are looking for a job in your own country.
• If you are looking for a job in another country, simply mention the name of the city and country you are residing in.

Take a look at our nursing resume sample to know what an ideal personal information section should look like:

Nursing Student Resume: Profile Title

Your profile title is a reflection of the job position and industry that you are interested in. It also tells the recruiter the industry you have worked in and what to expect from you.

The title is a skill-demonstration that a job applicant makes to a potential recruiter. It tells the recruiter what your seniority and level of expertise is in your functional field.

For instance, in your new grad rn resume, you need to accurately mention ‘Nursing Graduate’ in the profile title. Your profile title should be the second-largest text in your resume with a font size of 14-16 points.

Nursing Student Resume: Education Section

The next step in writing an impeccable new grad rn resume is to write the education section.

Mentioned below are the top points that you should write in your education section:

• Name of the school/university you have attended
• Name of the courses you have pursued
• The location of your school/university
• The dates of enrollment and graduation from each course in mm/yy - mm/yy format

Also read: 2022 Guide on How to List Education on Your Resume

We have attached a sample of what the education section of the ideal new grad rn resume should look like for your reference:

Nursing Student Resume: Certifications

The next step in crafting the perfect new grad rn resume is to list down the certifications in your resume.

Your Certifications are a practical demonstration of your skills as a professional. It marks you with the seal of excellence.

While writing this section, mention your certification in the order listed below:

• Certification Course Name
• Name of the Affiliating Institution
• Location of the Institute
• Dates of enrollment and completion of the course in mm/yy format

Write the certifications section in the given format:

{Name of certification} | {Affiliating Institution} | {Location} | {Date} (in mm/yy)

Also read: 2022 Guide on listing certifications on a resume

Nursing Student Resume: Awards & Recognition

Your new grad RN resume is incomplete without an endorsement of your achievements.

This is where the awards and recognition section comes into play. It is this section that does the bragging for you and your accomplishments.

Recruiters have a soft corner for those people who have achieved some kind of distinction in their work. This section is your shot at striking gold with the recruiter.

However, while wandering off to the wonderland of self-promotion, make sure that you list down only those awards that are relevant to the job position that you are applying for.

Also read: Understand How to Mention Resume Accomplishments.

Nursing Student Resume: Additional Information

The additional information section of your new graduate nurse resume is where all the extra information goes.

Most people overlook this section of their resume and discard it as irrelevant.

Not you, because you won’t make this mistake.

For instance, you can always manipulate your hobbies in your favor.

As an aspiring nurse, what are the hobbies that can strengthen your job application?

Think of that and include it as a hobby under the additional information section of your new grad nurse resume.

Nursing Student Resume Key Sections

Let's discuss the most critical sections in a nursing student resume one-by-one:

Nursing Student Resume: Key Skills

Now here comes the skills section.

This is where you will write your nursing student skills for resume.

This is the section that can dramatically shoot up your chances of getting shortlisted.

You should ideally write your skills section after completing the rest of your resume.

This way you can quickly scan your resume for the core skills that you are highly proficient in and objectively single them out in your resume’s key skills section.

This will dramatically elevate your chances of getting hired, especially if these key skills are something that the recruiter is looking for!

And here is another helpful tip: highlight your key skills in bold.

This will enhance the appearance of your resume and direct the attention of the recruiter towards your skills section.

But your skills section will fail to produce the desired result if it fails to keep the recruiter’s attention. The goal is to not only catch the recruiter’s attention but to keep it

To sustain the recruiter’s attention, analyze the keywords that the recruiter has used in the job listing, and then replicate these skills in the skills section of your entry-level nurse resume.

After you do this, draw a link between these key skills and your roles and responsibilities.

And that’s the secret hack for writing the perfect skills section for your new grad nurse resume.

Also read: What Skills to Put on a Resume in 2022?

Take a look at our nursing student resume sample below to know what an ideal skills section should look like:

Nursing Student Resume Summary

Your nursing student resume summary is a rough outline of all your roles & responsibilities and past achievements in 2-3 lines.

This is not of interest to you as you don’t have any work experience yet.

As someone who is looking for a nursing job, an entry-level nurse job to be more specific, you should write a resume objective instead of a resume summary.

Read on to learn what a resume objective is and how to write it.

Also read: 2022 Guide to Writing a Resume Summary..

Nursing Student Resume Objective

This section is for those nursing graduates who are looking for entry-level nurse jobs.

You should make the objectives section if you are an entry-level professional with zero work experience or you have less than three years of work experience.

Your new grad nurse resume objective section communicates your goals to the recruiter and outlines any past internship that you may have done and any relevant skills that you may have picked up.

It is the section in which you have to convince the recruiter that you will be of great benefit to the organization.

Also read: When to Write Resume Objectives?

Check out the new grad nurse resume sample that we have mentioned below to know how the objectives section is objectively written:

Key Takeaways

• Always write both the month and year for enrollment and graduation in your education and certifications section.
• You should religiously mention past projects in your respective work experience section. This will add value to your resume.
• Do not use phrases in your key skills sections. Phrases like 'experienced in' or 'expertise in' are to be strictly avoided at all costs.
• The points in your work experience section should always begin with a power verb.
• Use power verb in the past tense for past profiles/projects and present continuous tense for present profiles and projects.
• Use bolding and bucketing in your work experience section to emphasize on the key highlights of your career.
• If you were recognized or awarded in any of your work profiles, make a 'Key Achievements' bucket at the end of that respective work profile and write your award or recognition under that bucket.
• Use a resume objective instead of a resume summary because you are a nursing graduate with no work experience yet.

So there you go, you have reached the end of our nursing student resume guide.

You have successfully learned the tricks and trades of engineering the perfect resume for nursing graduates.

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