New Grad Nursing Resume Templates and Examples for 2024

New Grad Nursing Resume Template Example

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You’ve finally graduated after countless hours of study and training, and it’s time to put those new nursing skills to good use. Your resume must show hiring managers you’ve taken all the necessary steps to succeed in the field of patient care and medical procedures. This guide will provide strategies to help write a new grad nursing resume that proves you have the knowledge and technical skills to deliver great patient care.

How To Write a New Grad Nursing Resume

To make a strong first impression with your resume, consider using a professional template. Your new grad nursing resume should include these sections:

Contact information

Provide your contact information at the top of your resume to ensure hiring managers can easily reach you to inquire further or schedule an interview. List your full name, phone number, email address, location, and a link to your online professional profile.

Profile

A resume profile, often referred to as an objective statement, is your formal introduction to hiring managers. In this short paragraph, you’ll list your most important accomplishments, skills, and experiences directly related to nursing. To engage readers, tailor this section to match the requirements mentioned in the job description.

Key skills

As a soon-to-be nurse, you’ve accumulated many technical skills. To highlight these hands-on abilities, create a key skills section that’s easy for hiring managers to scan. Remember, nursing isn’t just about medical know-how — it requires strong communication, too. Include hard and soft skills in your new grad nursing resume to show you can handle all aspects of the job.

Common hard and soft skills for nursing grads

Resume writer’s tip: Use specific action verbs

Nursing is an active profession. Using dynamic words like action verbs will help you communicate that you’re engaged at work, accomplishing tasks, and achieving results. To create effective bullet points in your professional experience section, use action verbs. Start each description with a verb like those listed below to transform your daily duties into powerful achievements:

Professional experience

This is where you’ll demonstrate the practical application of all the skills and knowledge you’ve gathered during your studies, clinicals, and externships. Think about patient care, medication administration, assisting with procedures, or any specific duties you had. Also, be sure to mention if you made any notable contributions or received recognition.

Resume writer’s tip: Quantify your experience

When describing your past experiences, use numbers to make your descriptions more tangible and relatable. They help support your claims and add credibility to your resume. Describe how many patients you saw, the number of IVs you placed, or how many procedures you assisted with. This will help hiring managers picture what you could bring to their nursing team.

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Whether you’re a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) or Registered Nurse (RN), employment for health care professionals is projected to increase over the next decade. Although there will be a steady stream of opportunities, the best jobs will require a new nursing grad resume custom fit for the role.

Identify specific skills, experiences, and qualities you have that the employer is looking for in a nursing professional, then incorporate them into your resume. For example, if a job ad emphasizes emergency care, prioritize your ER rotation or any other relevant experience. If it’s a pediatric position, be sure to describe any work you’ve done with children.

What if you don’t have experience?

Remember, as a new grad, employers don’t expect you to have a long list of professional experiences — they’re interested in quality over quantity. So, highlight any practical experiences where you’ve demonstrated your nursing skills and bedside manner.

Include your clinical rotations, part-time jobs, internships, or volunteer work in health care settings. List your soft skills in communication, time management, teamwork, and empathy. Think about class projects, volunteer work, or part-time jobs where you’ve used these abilities.

Education and certifications

You’ve likely just completed a specialized nursing program, so list your highest level of education relative to the field. Feel free to include if you’ve maintained a strong GPA (usually 3.5 or higher). Even as a new grad, you likely have some important certifications already, so include those, along with your state-required credentials.

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Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

A resume should be a forward-looking value proposition that showcases your most relevant accomplishments for a target role — not a rear view summary of your previous roles and responsibilities.