Whether you've just started nursing school or you're nearing graduation, it's important to have a nursing student resume and keep it updated.

While you are a student, there are plenty of opportunities for you to add skills to your experience and even test out different nursing opportunities to see what bests suits you and your wants and needs. Not to mention, different companies may be interested in viewing your resume, too.

Here are some opportunities you can get as a student:

• Clinical Opportunities
• Nursing Internships
• Volunteering Opportunities

In order to be able to get any of the aforementioned opportunities, it is important for you to have a resume, even if you have little to no experience as a nurse.

Nursing is a competitive and growing field. Therefore, even as a student, it's important to have an impressive resume.

This guide is here to help you get your resume ready for any opportunity that may present itself to you during your nursing education years.

Here are the 7 steps we are going to be covering:

1. Format and style your resume
2. Write an impressive resume summary and objective
3. List your skills
4. Include your education
5. Describe your work experience
6. List your organizations
7. List your spoken languages

1. Format and style your resume like a professional, even if you're a school student

The way you format and style your resume can say a lot about you. It shows hiring managers, that, even though you're a student, you're respectable and looking to advance yourself.

When creating your resume, don't forget to include these sections:

• Contact information (name, address, email)
• Resume objective
• Education
• Work experience
• Skills
• Organizations
• Volunteer Work
• Hobbies
• Interests

When it comes to the format of your resume, there are three ways you can do so:

1. Reverse-chronological, which emphasizes your work experience
2. Functional, which highlights your key skills
3. Hybrid, which combines the previous formats

As a nursing school student, you'll need to see what you have more of to determine which format you'd like to use for your resume.

Ideally, you'll use a hybrid format, which will place emphasis on your experience and your skills.

Take a look at our guide on how to format your resume if you want to learn more.

2. Write a well-written resume summary and objective

Like an elevator pitch, your resume summary and objective is a 1-2 sentence blurb that highlights what you want hiring managers and recruiters to get out of your resume and showcases what your overall goals are when applying to a specific position.

It's a quick and easy way to show those viewing your resume that you appreciate their time, which can help you stand out since not everyone writes one.

As a student, here are some elements to include in your resume summary or objective:

• State you're a nursing student
• Your experience
• Your achievements as a nursing student (which can be from clinical experiences)
• Your goals

Here's an example of what your student resume summary and objective can look like:

Nursing student with 1-year clinical experience seeking to strengthen patient care and understanding of the healthcare system by working at a hospital. Seeking to gain enough experience to go into the ER unit with confidence. Achieved 40% patient satisfaction rate at Jackson Memorial Hospital completing clinicals.

‍Tip: Sometimes, it's easier to write your resume summary and objective after you have already written your resume. That way, it's easier to pick and choose what characteristics to include.

Want to write the perfect resume summary? Our guide on writing resume summaries has tons of examples.

3. List your skills

As nursing students, there are skills we pick up in the classroom and in clinical practices that translate well to your resume.

Depending on the experience you have, it's important to list all the relevant key skills you have acquired on your resume.

Tip: If a hospital is looking to take on nursing students, key skills can help you be selected.

Here are some nursing skills to include in your resume:

• Medicine Administration
• Patient Education
• Patient Care
• Wound Dressing
• Record Keeping
• Budgeting

On top of these hard skills, be sure to include interpersonal skills like these:

• Compassion
• Communication
• Problem Solving
• Time Management
• Organization
• Leadership
• Listening
• Adaptability
• Multitasking

Tip: You can even include skills such as multilingual and CPR certified, too.

Having trouble identifying your skills? We have a guide with 100+ key skills you can include in your resume.

4. Add your education to your resume

You're a nursing student. Therefore, where you're a student should be included in your resume.

When adding an education section to your resume be sure to include:

• College or university
• Program
• School location
• Dates attended
• GPA (grade point average)

Tip: As a student, it's just important to have your education on your resume.

Here's what the education section of your resume can look like:

Barry University

Miami, FL

2019 — Present

Bachelor of Science in Nursing

GPA: 3.8/4.0

If you're unsure of how to put your GPA on your resume or if you should even include it, take a look at our guide on adding your GPA to your resume, which includes tips and examples.

5. Describe your work experience

As a nursing student, you're less likely to have tons of work experience because, instead of spending all your time at a job, you're getting an education. Nonetheless, there are experiences you can include in the work experience section of your resume, even if they're just clinicals.

Tip: Title your work experience section clinical experience if that is the only experience you have as a nursing student.  

Here are some items you can include in the work experience section of your resume:

• Clinical experiences
• Volunteering
• Internships

Regardless of your experience, here are some elements you must include when listing each individual working experience:

• The company you worked for
• Job title
• Dates worked
• Job location
• At least 4 job description bullet points

Here's an example of what your clinical experience can look like:

Precept Nurse, Jackson Memorial Hospital

Miami, FL • August 2019 — May 2020

• Responsible for care activities, goals, and safety achievements of 5 patients.
• Received frequent commendations from the preceptor for efficiency.
• Assessed, diagnosed, and planned care for multiple patients.
• Received consistent evaluations of 95% positive for patient education.
• Supervised patient mobilization to prevent skin breakdown and falls.
• My patients were in the top 98th percentile for lack of bedsores and falls.
• Triaged patients, including taking and recording vital signs and patient history.
• Spot checks of my results by preceptor returned 99.9% correct findings.
• Assisted patients with transfer, walking, exam preparation, specimen collection.
• Received 95% positive feedback from patients for my compassion.
• Maintained strict adherence to HIPAA at all times.
• Applied problem-solving skills to identify strengths and weaknesses of current solutions.
• Achieved a 25% increase in patient satisfaction with care.

Want more tips and tricks on how to write your work experience description? Check out our guide on describing your work experience.

6. List your organizations

As a nursing student, there are many organizations you can join to be further involved in your career. Not only are they fun and educational, but they look great on your resume, too.

Tip: If you're involved in any nursing organizations, and you're a part of the board or have a specific role, be sure to list that in the organizations section of your resume, too.

Here are some elements to include when describing what you're involved in:

• Organization name
• Location (if necessary)
• Years involved

Here are some organizations you can join as a nursing student:

• National Student Nurses' Association
• Health Occupations Students Association (HOSA)
• American Association of Nurse Practitioners

7. List your spoken languages

While including languages on your resume is not necessary, it can help your resume seem more attractive to hiring managers and recruiters.

Being bilingual or multilingual improves your verbal communication, and hiring managers and recruiters are always looking for good communicators.  

Here are some languages you can include on your resume if you know them:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• German
• Russian
• Chinese
• Japanese
• Romanian

Tip: Next to the languages you know on your resume, add if you're fluent, intermediate or a beginner in the language to show hiring managers just how well you know the specific language.

Key Takeaways

Just because you're a nursing student doesn't mean your resume can't be impressive and full of things that you can offer hiring managers and recruiters.

Here's a summary of everything we've discussed that you should include in your resume:

1. A good format
2. An impressive resume summary and objective
3. Key skills
4. Your education
5. Your work experience
6. Your involved organizations
7. Your spoken languages

With our guide, you'll be getting that opportunity you've had your eye on in no time. You're only just getting started. The sky is the limit. Good luck!