5 Most Important Nursing Skills for Your Resume

As a nurse, your skills directly impact the quality of care you provide to patients. Whether you're just starting your career as an entry-level registered nurse (RN) or you’re looking to expand your expertise, it's crucial to highlight the right skills on your resume.

Employers look for both hard and soft skills, which are basic nursing skills that are essential for patient care, teamwork, and daily responsibilities. In this article, I'll discuss the five most important nursing skills to include on your resume to help you stand out to potential employers.

1. Patient Safety: The Core of Nursing Practice

Patient safety is one of the most important aspects of nursing. As a nurse, your primary role is to support and ensure the well-being of your patients, which includes preventing harm, reducing errors, and ensuring they receive the best care possible. Licensed practical nurses also play a crucial role in ensuring patient safety.

What is Patient Safety?

• Patient safety involves all measures taken to avoid harm to patients during treatment or care. This can include anything from preventing medication errors to making sure that hospital equipment is used properly.
• According to the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act, nurses are held to high standards when it comes to ensuring patient safety, as mistakes can have serious consequences for patients and healthcare facilities.

Read: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/n/6.pdf

How to Highlight Patient Safety on Your Resume:

• Include experience where you were directly responsible for medication management, ensuring proper dosage, timing, and monitoring for side effects.
• Highlight specific examples where you demonstrated attention to patient safety during your clinical practice or in your nursing school.
• Be sure to list patient safety skills learned during your nursing education or nursing skills course, including familiarity with physical assessments and safety protocols like BLS cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Key Subskills:

• Monitoring vital signs: Knowing how to check a patient's heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration is key to spotting potential issues.
• Fall prevention: Helping patients move safely, using techniques to prevent accidents, and ensuring patient safety during transfers.

2. Critical Thinking and Clinical Judgment: Making Informed Decisions

The ability to think critically and make clinical judgments is a core skill for nurses. Nurses need to assess patient conditions, analyze assessment findings, and make decisions about the care and treatment plans that are in the best interest of the patient.

Why Critical Thinking Matters

• Nurses often work in high-pressure environments where quick decision-making can be the difference between life and death. Nurses use critical thinking to assess patient’s conditions and adjust care plans as needed. This is particularly important in emergency care or when dealing with complex medical cases.
• As part of the nursing process, critical thinking allows nurses to analyze assessment findings, determine potential problems, and create solutions. It’s essential for entry-level nurses to be able to use clinical judgment effectively.

How to Showcase Critical Thinking on Your Resume:

• List experiences where you used critical thinking to solve problems in patient care, such as identifying complications from medication, adjusting treatment plans, or making recommendations to physicians.
• Show how you’ve applied clinical judgment during your nursing school clinical rotations or in real-life healthcare settings.

Example Skills to Include:

• Problem-solving: Ability to quickly analyze a situation and find solutions that benefit the patient’s care.
• Treatment adjustments: Adjusting care plans based on patient progress and feedback.

3. Communication: Bridging the Gap Between Patients and Healthcare Teams

Effective communication is essential in the nursing profession. Nurses are the primary point of contact for patients, families, and other healthcare providers. Whether you are educating patients, sharing updates with doctors, or working with healthcare staff, communication is key to ensuring quality care.

Why Communication Skills Matter

• Nurses must communicate clearly and effectively, whether it's explaining a treatment plan to a patient or discussing a patient's progress with doctors and nurses. Effective interpersonal skills allow you to work well with others in the healthcare environment.
• Nurses also need to be able to communicate effectively during stressful situations, particularly in emergency care settings where a constant flow of information is necessary.

How to Incorporate This Skill on Your Resume:

• Highlight examples where you had to communicate complex medical information to patients and their families in simple terms. This includes explaining medications, treatment options, or post-discharge care.
• Include instances where you worked with healthcare staff and physicians to coordinate patient care, emphasizing your ability to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.

Key Communication Skills to Include:

• Active listening: Understanding and responding to patient concerns.
• Patient education: Explaining treatment plans and medical procedures to patients.
• Team communication: Working with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to provide cohesive care.

4. Time Management and Adaptability: Juggling Multiple Priorities

Nurses often face a variety of tasks that require excellent time management, social skills, and the ability to adapt to rapidly changing situations. The nursing profession demands the ability to handle multiple responsibilities while maintaining a high level of care.

The Importance of Time Management

• Nurses need to juggle patient care, documentation, medication administration, and communication with team members—all while keeping an eye on patient outcomes. Time management is essential to ensure all tasks are completed efficiently and in a timely manner.
• Adaptability is just as important. Nurses must be able to shift focus quickly when patients’ conditions change, or new priorities arise. For example, an emergency care situation may arise at any time, requiring nurses to switch tasks and adapt quickly.

How to Present These Skills on Your Resume:

• Demonstrate how you have successfully managed multiple tasks during your clinical experiences, such as prioritizing patient care during shifts or quickly adapting to changes in patient conditions.
• Mention how you’ve developed the ability to meet deadlines, organize tasks, and provide efficient care, especially in high-stress environments.

Example Skills to Include:

• Task prioritization: Ability to assess patient needs and prioritize treatments based on urgency.
• Flexibility: Quickly adjusting to new patient conditions or changes in team structure.

5. Technology and Electronic Health Records (EHR): A Must-Have Skill

Technology is a huge part of modern nursing. The Wisconsin Technical College System emphasizes the importance of technology in its nursing curriculum. Nurses now rely on various technological tools to manage patient care, track medical histories, and communicate with other healthcare providers. Familiarity with electronic health records (EHR) is a must for students and anyone entering the field.

Why Technology Skills Matter

• Nurses use EHR systems to update patient information, track treatments, and communicate with other healthcare staff. As healthcare continues to move toward digital solutions, being proficient in EHR systems is a critical skill for entry-level nurses.
• Medication management is also closely tied to technology, as many hospitals and clinics use EHRs to track prescriptions, dosages, and patient responses.

How to Highlight Technology Skills on Your Resume:

• List any experience with electronic health records, including specific software programs you’ve worked with, such as Epic or Cerner.
• Mention any nursing skills courses or certifications you’ve completed that included training in healthcare technology.

Example Skills to Include:

• EHR proficiency: Knowledge of how to input patient data into electronic systems.
• Technology integration: Using tech tools to improve patient care and increase efficiency.

Bottom Line

Highlighting the right skills on your nursing resume is key to standing out in a competitive job market. Patient safety, critical thinking, communication, time management, and technology proficiency are all essential nursing skills that employers look for in candidates. These skills are aligned with the statewide nursing curriculum to ensure comprehensive nursing education. Whether you’re an entry-level registered nurse or a seasoned professional, these essential skills will help you excel in patient care, contribute to effective teamwork, and adapt to the fast-paced nature of healthcare environments. Make sure your resume reflects these skills, and continue developing them throughout your nursing practice to ensure long-term career success.

Get Help with Your Nursing Resume

Applying to nursing school can be challenging, but you don’t have to do it alone. A nursing admissions coach can help you showcase your skills and meet the requirements to improve your application.

Related Articles

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• Nursing Schools: Tips for Choosing the Right Nursing School for You
• BSN Programs: What You Need to Know About Bachelor of Science in Nursing Programs
• Nursing School Cost – How Much is Nursing School in 2025?

FAQs

What are the skills of a nurse?

• Nurses require a combination of hard and soft skills to succeed in their roles. Hard skills include technical abilities like medication management, patient safety, and emergency care. Soft skills are equally important and involve traits like communication, critical thinking, time management, and adaptability. These skills allow nurses to provide high-quality patient care, collaborate with healthcare teams, and manage the demands of a fast-paced environment.

What is your strongest skill as a nurse?

• Your strongest skill as a nurse will depend on your experience and training. However, the most valuable skills in nursing include communication, critical thinking, and the ability to provide safe, compassionate care. Nurses who excel at assessing patient conditions, making informed decisions, and effectively communicating with patients and healthcare teams are highly sought after.

Should you put skills on a nursing resume?

• Yes, including skills on your nursing resume is crucial. Highlighting your most relevant nursing skills—such as patient safety, critical thinking, and proficiency with electronic health records—will help demonstrate your qualifications to potential employers. It's important to tailor your skills to the specific job you're applying for, showcasing both hard and soft skills that align with the position.

How do you write nursing skills?

• When writing nursing skills on your resume, be clear and specific. Break them down into hard and soft skills. For example, under hard skills, you might list medication administration, physical assessment, and emergency care. Soft skills include teamwork, time management, and communication. Provide concrete examples of how you've used these skills in your nursing education or on the job, demonstrating your ability to apply them in real-world healthcare settings.