Nursing Student Resume: Examples and What to Include

How to Create a Nursing Student Résumé

Now that you know what a nursing student résumé looks like, it’s time to learn how to actually create one. Here’s how to make your first nursing student résumé in just 12 steps:

Brainstorm the possibilities.
When you’re just starting out in your nursing career, it can be difficult to think of what to put on your résumé so that it fits on one page. (Just wait for later in your career when you’ll have the opposite problem!) Rather than trying to cram everything into a résumé format upfront, open up a blank document and brainstorm all relevant experiences you might want to include on your nursing student résumé. Of course, this should include all clinical rotations, but you might also have some relevant past jobs or volunteer experiences that are worth including.

Decide on your brand.
When you’re done brainstorming, take a look at all your notes and see if any themes emerge. Maybe you’re constantly taking on a lot of responsibility, which proves how trustworthy you are. Or perhaps you’re especially interested in a certain specialty, such as pediatrics, and have multiple clinical experiences to back that up. You’ll need this personal brand in order to write your objective in the next section. If you can’t think of anything, ask trusted colleagues to name three adjectives that describe you as a nurse. Then, tally up all the responses and look for common themes to emerge.

Craft a strong objective.
Now it’s time to craft your objective, a two- to three-sentence summary that describes who you are and where you want to go. Once you’ve gained more experience as a nurse, you can turn this section into a summary of your past jobs and other clinical experience. If you have any especially noteworthy clinical achievements, such as a very high number of rotational hours, definitely mention those here. But if you don’t, focus on your more qualitative traits, such as your good work ethic and your planned future career, such as becoming an ER nurse.

Use concrete, specific language.
Now it’s time to actually start putting all your brainstorming into a résumé format. As you write about each of your clinical rotations, use concrete, specific language that describes exactly what you learned. On a résumé, you want to be concise and yet vivid. So instead of just “helped patients” says that you “performed assessments and developed patient care plans.” If you find yourself getting stuck, highlight the weak words and come back to them later. Don’t go too overboard though. You don’t want your nursing student résumé to sound like it was written by a fancy thesaurus instead of a person.

Write it in third person.
As you craft the copy for your résumé, make sure to avoid “I” or otherwise writing in first person. Every résumé should be in third person. In fact, in many cases, you’ll be able to leave out the subject of the sentence altogether. Instead of saying, “I’m a nursing student with a passion for pediatrics,” you can just write “nursing student with a passion for pediatrics.” You don’t need to continually name yourself. Since a résumé is only for one individual, recruiters will know who you’re referring to.

Get a testimonial from a supervisor.
While not required, adding a testimonial is a nice touch to bolster your résumé and add some qualitative proof of your skills. Ask a supervisor you’ve recently worked with to write a couple of sentences about your best qualities as a nurse and how much help you’ve been to their unit or team. However, if you don’t have anyone you feel comfortable asking for a testimonial, don’t sweat it—and never make up a testimonial on your own or put words in someone’s mouth. No testimonial is better than a fake one.

Put your work history in the right order.
After your contact info, objective and optional testimonial, it’s time to add the bulk of your résumé: your work history. List it in descending chronological order, with the most recent position first and the oldest one towards the bottom. If you had two concurrent positions for some reason, put the most relevant and important one first. If you have relevant volunteer experience, that can go in a separate section at the bottom.

Include your licenses and certifications.
You should also have a section for your licenses and certifications. You’ll want to list the name of the licenses and certifications as well as the organizations you got them from (if applicable). Don’t forget to include the expiration dates for all of these as well as your specific license numbers. This shows potential employers that you’re ready to start work right away and it also saves them the hassle of hunting down your license number. Thoughtful little additions like this show recruiters that you’re a proactive thinker who pays attention to details, which is always a good thing.

Don’t include certain information.
What you don’t put on your résumé is just as important as what you do include. Don’t include your birth date or age so they can’t discriminate against you based on how young or old you are. Leave off salary information as well as other personal information such as marital status or religious affiliations. If you use a nickname, make sure to put your full name as well (for example: John “Jack” Smith) so HR has it on file. Don’t include images such as photos and clipart, which look unprofessional and can mess up the formatting anyway.

Choose a résumé format and cut it down to one page.
Now that you’ve got a rough draft of your résumé text, it’s time to turn it into an official document. The first step is to choose a template. Most word processing programs come preloaded with at least one template for a résumé, which you can further customize. There are also plenty of résumé templates available for download on the internet. Once you’ve selected a template, paste your text into the document and check the length. If it’s longer than a page, cut out everything unnecessary until you can make it fit. Very rarely will employers want a résumé longer than one page, and they definitely won’t expect that length from a nursing student who’s looking for their first real job.

Proofread your résumé.
Once you’ve gotten your résumé formatted and down to a page, take a break or even sleep on it so that you can come back to it with fresh eyes. Then, sit down with a red pen and hunt down every typo and error that you can find. If you have willing nursing colleagues, give your résumé to a few of them and ask them for feedback. If any of your non-nursing friends are skilled at writing, it’s also really helpful to have them do a proofreading pass on the final version, even though they won’t be able to advise you on the actual content.

Save, save, save!
This is so important that it gets its own step. After all this work you’re putting into your nursing student résumé, you don’t want to lose the document. As soon as you open a new document, go ahead and save it, and do that every few minutes as you continue to refine your résumé. Anytime you decide to create a new version—say, you want to add a new clinical rotation—create a new copy of your résumé and save it. That way, you’ll always have a record of the old version in case you ever want to go back and look at what you wrote previously.

Tailor your résumé to each position.
Many employers, including hospitals, are increasingly turning to Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), programs that scan résumés and cover letters looking for particular keywords in a particular order. If your résumé doesn’t include the right keywords, it might end up in the trash can without ever being reviewed by a human recruiter. To keep this from happening, every time you apply for a new job, you should use a new version of your résumé with keywords from the position.

Interviewing for jobs may make your heart pound loud enough that you don’t need a nurse stethoscope to hear it, but putting together the application itself doesn’t have to be anxiety-inducing as long as you plan ahead. Give yourself plenty of time, follow these 12 steps to create your nursing student résumé and, before you know it, you’ll be carrying a nursing bag instead of a portfolio full of résumés.