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From promoting patient health and assessing conditions to prescribing treatments and interpreting lab results, the responsibilities of a nurse practitioner are never ending. If you can handle all of that, then you’ve already got the hard part covered! Now let’s get the easy stuff done: a resume that communicates all of your skills so that you can land the right nurse practitioner role.
Learning how to be a fantastic nurse practitioner takes a lot more work than learning how to write a resume that communicates your skills. With the right tools at your disposal, the resume part gets even easier.
Follow our step-by-step guide to create a nurse practitioner resume that gives you the best chance of landing the right job.
This guide will show you:
- Nurse practitioner resume examples for different levels of experience.
- What makes a great nurse practitioner resume example.
- Proven strategies for writing a job-winning resume in 2024.
- What to include in each section of your nurse practitioner resume.
- How to select the ideal resume format and design for the position.
If you want to make a resume in just minutes, try our AI Resume Builder. This tool provides tips, suggestions, preset formatting and style to help you create a custom resume quickly.
In the next section, we’ll review a couple of nurse practitioner resume samples for different stages in your nursing career.
Nurse practitioner
resume examples
What makes this a great nurse practitioner resume sample?
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Focuses on skills
This sample resume for a nurse practitioner represents an applicant who has less experience, so it’s built around showcasing his skills. A section for skills and a professional skills section allow the candidate to play to his strengths.
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Uses a career objective
This means that instead of emphasizing his accomplishments, the applicant uses the resume profile as an opportunity to discuss his goals for his professional development.
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Uses a neat resume template
The design that this applicant chose is clean and neat with enough stylization to stand out but not enough to distract from his qualifications.
What makes this a great nurse practitioner resume sample?
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Uses the chronological format
Because this candidate is very experienced, she elected to use the chronological format, which places her career achievements at centre stage.
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Shows you the numbers
Rather than just telling you what she can do, this candidate uses numerical data to show you the impact of her nursing career.
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Balances hard and soft skills
Alongside this applicant’s significant technical expertise, she has chosen to list soft skills like “communication” and “open-mindedness.”
More nurse practitioner resume examples
Looking for a different nursing resume example? Check out the list below for more.
Cardiovascular operating room nurse
Interventional radiology nurse
Browse other popular samples
Related Guides & Tips
Choose a format for your nurse practitioner resume
Resume formats are the layouts that your resume uses. There are three resume formats that most resumes use, each with their own benefits.
These are the three main resume formats that successful candidates use in 2024 to create strong resumes that showcase their strengths:
- Chronological: Places a greater emphasis on work history, making it better for senior-level roles.
- Functional: Emphasizes skills instead of work history, making it the best choice for applicants with little to no experience.
- Combination: Treats skills and experience equally, making it a balanced choice for midcareer applicants.
Once you’ve selected the best resume format for your career level, check out our resume-formatting guide for tips on font size, spacing, margins and more.
Now that we’ve covered formats, let’s pick a resume style!
Select an appropriate nurse practitioner resume template
Resume templates are the designs that you use to style your resume. A nurse practitioner resume template should be professional without overdoing visual aspects that might distract from your important information.
Resume templates come in a lot of different styles. For nurse practitioners, it’s a good idea to stick to the basics. A sleek modern template or a pared down simple template would be a great place to start.
Once you’ve chosen the best nurse practitioner resume template for you, the real resume writing can begin!
How to write a nurse practitioner resume in 5 simple steps
Writing a competitive nurse practitioner resume means following five simple steps. It’s that easy!
Step 1
Study the nurse practitioner job description
Most of what you need to know to get started on your resume is available in the job description. Keep an eye out for keywords that tell you exactly what skills and expertise your potential employer is looking for in their ideal candidate. Once identified, include the specifics of what they’re after in your resume to show off the qualities that they’re after and stand out from the crowd. Be honest, though — only do this if you actually have the skill or expertise they’re asking for.
What’s more, many organizations use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes for keywords. Including the keywords from the job ad on your resume helps you make it through the initial ATS screening process so that a recruiter gets your resume.
Step 2
Write a professional summary or resume objective
Open your resume with a resume profile to introduce yourself and your career.
A professional summary is a brief summary of your career and the contributions that you’ve made to previous roles. This is the best resume profile for experienced job seekers.
A resume objective is similar, but instead of focusing on accomplishments, you focus on your career goals and the ways you hope to develop professionally in the role. This is the way to go for less experienced job seekers.
Let’s examine some sample nurse practitioner resume profiles:
Nurse practitioner professional summary example:
Nurse practitioner professional summary example:
Highly skilled and compassionate nurse practitioner with 13 years of diverse clinical experience. Demonstrated proficiency in patient-centered care, from diagnosis to treatment plan development and ongoing management. Well-versed in addressing acute and chronic conditions, health promotion and disease prevention. Known for exceptional interpersonal skills, fostering strong relationships with patients and multidisciplinary medical teams. Committed to providing comprehensive and quality health care while staying abreast of the latest advancements in medical practice.
Nurse practitioner resume objective example:
Motivated and newly certified nurse practitioner seeking a challenging position in a health care setting to utilize strong clinical knowledge, patient care skills and enthusiasm for providing compassionate care. Eager to apply the skills learned during rigorous academic and clinical training to positively impact patient outcomes. Dedicated to lifelong learning, staying current with medical advancements and building rewarding professional relationships .
Step 3
Highlight your most relevant nurse practitioner skills
Now that you’ve introduced yourself, it’s time to get into your skills!
The skills section of your resume is one of the most important sections. Nurse practitioners need plenty of soft skills, like compassion and critical thinking, as well as hard skills, like medical knowledge.
The following is a helpful list of hard and soft nurse practitioner skills:
Hard and soft skills for a nurse practitioner resume
- Clinical knowledge
- Advanced life support
- Medical coding
- Disease management
- Diagnostics
- Electronic health records (EHR)
- Compassion
- Dedication
- Communication
- Flexibility
- Critical thinking
- Organization
Here is an example of a strong nurse practitioner skills section:
- Compassionate nurse practitioner with a passion for patient care
- Experienced in diagnostics and pharmaceutical administration
- Proficient in electronic health records (EHR)
Step 4
Write a strong nurse practitioner work experience section
The work history section of your resume is where you describe your career so far. Your work experience entries should include your responsibilities, accomplishments and core competencies so that your potential employer can see the impact you’ve had in previous roles.
Here’s a sample nurse practitioner resume experience entry:
Nurse Practitioner, Felicity Medical Center
New York, NY
June 2015 – Present
- Provide comprehensive care to a diverse patient population within a high-volume urban health care system, seeing 20+ patients daily.
- Diagnose and manage acute and chronic health conditions in both hospital and outpatient settings.
- Conduct comprehensive physical assessments, interpret lab and diagnostic results and devise patient-centered treatment plans.
- Prescribe and manage medications, considering potential drug interactions and patient lifestyle.
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary team members to ensure optimal patient care, resulting in improved patient satisfaction scores by 46%.
- Educate patients and their families on disease prevention and health promotion practices.
- Utilize electronic health record (EHR) systems for charting, coding and patient management.
- Participate in ongoing professional development activities one to three times a year, staying updated with the latest medical research and best practices.
Use active verbs to give your experience a sense of momentum. Your impact feels much more concrete when you write as though you took an active role in each responsibility.
Step 5
Showcase your education and training on your nurse practitioner resume
Becoming a nurse practitioner takes extensive schooling and training. Use the education section of your resume to share your credentials.
Your college degree belongs in this section, as does your nursing license. You may choose to include your licenses and certifications in their own section instead. This is wise for nurse practitioners who have multiple relevant certifications.
How to list your nurse practitioner education:
Education
Master of Science in Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner Track):
Yale School of Nursing, New Haven, CT — Graduated May 2020
Bachelor of Science in Nursing:
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA — Graduated May 2017
Certifications
- Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
- Registered Nurse (RN), State of Connecticut
- Certified in Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
While most careers use certifications as a “nice to have,” a nurse practitioner’s certifications are more of a “need to have.” Make sure you give them their own space.
Optional sections for your nurse practitioner resume
Awards and Certifications
Your awards, honors and certifications show your employer what you’re capable of. List anything relevant to your career under education or in its own special section.
How to list awards on your nurse practitioner resume:
Excellence in Patient Care Award – American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2020
- Earned in recognition for dedication to providing high-quality patient care at Washington General Hospital.
Projects
Projects might be less relevant to nurses than, say, a project manager or a computer programmer. But that doesn’t mean they can’t fit into a nurse practitioner resume. If you’ve done things like manage a community outreach program for healthy eating and exercise awareness, or trained an incoming class of junior nurses, these things count as projects.
How to list projects on your nurse practitioner resume:
Projects
- Organized a community outreach program to raise awareness for heart-healthy lifestyle habits.
- Participated in the training of dozens of student nurses over the course of five years.
Languages
Communicating with patients may be the most important job of any health care professional. Being able to communicate in multiple languages is a huge advantage when it comes to communication. If you speak multiple languages, include them in the languages section of your nurse practitioner resume.
How to list languages on your nurse practitioner resume:
- Fluent in English and Spanish.
- Proficient in Italian.
Interests and Hobbies
Hobbies give your future employer a glimpse into who you are as a person. They can also reveal some of the important skills that you’re accustomed to using in your free time. Try to limit the hobbies section to things that are relevant to your nursing career and you may be surprised by how many of your interests align with valuable nursing skills.
How to list interests and hobbies on your nurse practitioner resume:
- Regular volunteer for youth outreach programs
- Avid runner and participant in local 5k fitness runs.
- Interested in nutrition and cooking global recipes.
Add a cover letter
Once you’ve finished your resume, it’s time to start writing a cover letter. After all that work on your resume, a cover letter might seem like a bunch of extra effort, but it’s more important than you think and even easier than you expect. Your cover letter is your opportunity to communicate why all the skills on your resume make you the perfect fit for the job.
To get started writing your cover letter, take a look at some cover letter examples and our handy formatting guide to learn the basics.
If writing a cover letter still seems like a pain, check out our Cover Letter Builder. This tool uses auto-generated text suggestions based on your input to build you a cover letter in just minutes.
Key takeaways for your nurse practitioner resume
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Make your resume ATS-friendly
Use keywords from the job listing to help your resume hold up under the scrutiny of applicant tracking systems (ATS).
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Organize your sections effectively
Pick a resume format that allows you to put your best foot forward and maximize your chances of success.
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Select a suitable design
Make sure your resume template looks good without prioritizing form over function.
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Show off a range of skills
Include your key clinical skills, like diagnostics and patient care, alongside your softer skills. Compassion, time management and attention to detail can be just as important as training.
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Personalize your application
Don’t rely on overused resume filler. Write a resume that’s customized for you and for the position you’re after
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Highlight your impact
Use numerical data and active language to make the impact of your career more concrete.
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Go above and beyond
A perfect resume is not complete without a fantastic cover letter to complement it. Don’t waste the opportunity to introduce yourself and sell your skills.
Frequently asked questions from job seekers
Last Updated: January 16, 2024
How do I list references on my resume?
How can I prepare for a phone interview?
How do I list technical skills on my resume?
How important is font size on my resume?
What are computer skills and why are they important?
Hailey Brophy is an experienced writer with a diverse career in digital publication. She is passionate about using her unique skills and experiences to help job seekers find the information that they need to succeed.
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