Nurse recruiters screen for three things in order: an active license, the care setting you worked in, and patient load. If those aren't visible in the top third of your resume, the rest rarely gets read. This example puts licensure and unit type right where screeners look, and every section of this guide, from the summary variants to the keyword list, is built around making those three answers instant.
Hospital systems almost always run applications through an applicant tracking system first, so the format matters as much as the content. The example below uses a single-column layout that parses cleanly; see our ATS optimization guide for what those systems actually extract, and the panel at the bottom of this page for the literal text a parser pulls from this exact resume.
Section order for an experienced RN: header with credentials in the name line ("Maria Delgado, BSN, RN"), a three-sentence summary, work experience by unit, education, then a dedicated Licenses & Certifications section, then skills. That dedicated section is not optional formatting taste: parsers map it directly to the license fields recruiters filter on, while a license mentioned only inside a summary paragraph often drops out of the structured data entirely. New grads flip the middle: education, licensure, and clinical rotations climb above work experience, because a telemetry rotation at a teaching hospital says more about your readiness than a year of unrelated work.
Know who reads the page and what each reader wants. The recruiter or staffing coordinator goes first and pattern-matches: license state and compact status, specialty, years in the setting they're hiring for, and whether BLS and ACLS dates are current. The nurse manager reads second and looks for the texture of real practice: ratios, acuity, the committees and initiatives you touched, whether you precepted, and how you write about escalation. "Provided patient care on a busy unit" tells a manager nothing; "4-5 telemetry patients per shift on a 32-bed unit, first responder on 30+ rapid responses" tells them exactly which shifts they can give you.
Write each role as unit, load, then outcomes. Open every entry with the unit type and your assignment: "4-5 telemetry patients per shift on a 32-bed unit" gives a manager the denominator that makes everything after it credible. Then spend the remaining bullets on things that changed because you were there: falls numbers, chart-audit scores, preceptees retained, equipment rollouts you taught, committee work that produced a measurable result. The verbs matter as much as the numbers: administer, titrate, precept, coordinate, and escalate are the working vocabulary of the job, and they beat "handled" or "assisted with" everywhere they're true. Our action verbs guide has full lists organized by what you're claiming.
Build the skills section in three labeled groups. Clinical skills first (telemetry, IV therapy, wound care, high-alert medications), systems second (Epic, Cerner, Pyxis, plus any monitoring or pump fleets you know), soft skills last and only the ones evidenced by a bullet somewhere above. Named systems are the underrated group: hospitals filter hard for their own EHR, and a nurse who charts in Epic from day one is measurably cheaper to onboard than one who needs the class, so the specific name earns its space. Keep each group to a scannable line or two rather than a block; our skills section guide covers what to cut first when space runs out.
Place education and licensure where each reader looks. Experienced nurses keep education short (degree, school, year) below experience, but Licenses & Certifications must be its own titled section wherever it sits, because parsers and coordinators both go looking for it by name. Include your license state and compact status, the issuing body for every credential, and a current date on each. If you hold an ADN and are enrolled in an RN-to-BSN program, list the program with its expected completion date: many postings that "require" a BSN accept active enrollment, and that one line answers the question before it gets asked against you.
Format for hospital portals, not for print. One column, standard headings, a common font, PDF unless the portal demands otherwise, and no photo for US applications. Skip decorative templates entirely: colored sidebars and icon sets are where license numbers and certification dates go to die in parsing, and no manager has ever staffed a shift on resume aesthetics. Keep the file name plain (your name plus RN resume) and proofread the rendered PDF, not just the editor view, before you upload. The complete rules, including which layout features survive parsers, are in our resume format guide.
Avoid the failures that recur on RN resumes. Duty-list bullets ("provided compassionate patient care") that describe every nurse alive; certifications without dates or issuing bodies; the objective paragraph left over from nursing school on a five-year resume; unexplained gaps that one honest line (family care, relocation, time between travel contracts) would neutralize; and charge or preceptor experience buried mid-bullet where the leadership signal disappears. Each of these takes minutes to fix once you see it. Run your draft against our common mistakes guide before the next application; the fixes are mechanical.
Before the example, a word on the top third: the summary is the one paragraph you fully control, and for nurses it should answer specialty, setting, load, and one outcome in three sentences. The level-calibrated variants further down this page show that shape at new-grad, experienced, and charge weight; the objective examples cover the cases where your titles don't yet say what you are (new grad, LPN-to-RN bridge, return to the bedside). Whichever you use, rewrite it per posting family, because the summary that wins a telemetry req is not the one that wins a float-pool req, even for the same nurse. Our summary guide breaks down the sentence-by-sentence construction.
Tailor to the posting's vocabulary, because keyword filters are literal. If the req says "medical-surgical", write "medical-surgical (med-surg)" once rather than assuming the abbreviation matches; if it names an EHR, name yours; if it asks for "acute care", make sure those words appear where they are true. This is a ten-minute pass per application, not a rewrite: reorder your skills, adjust the summary's first sentence, and confirm the top bullets cover what the posting lists first. Our tailoring guide shows the method step by step.
Two realities of nurse hiring in 2026 are worth writing for. First, mobility: compact licensure, travel contracts, and per-diem work are ordinary parts of a career now, and the resume conventions for presenting them cleanly (grouping contracts under one agency heading, stating the compact license up front) are covered in the FAQ below. Second, volume screening: large systems fill high-turnover roles through automated pipelines, which is exactly why current certification dates, a parseable licenses section, and literal keyword matches decide whether a human ever reads your carefully written bullets.
Use this page actively rather than as a gallery. The resume below is complete and realistic, rendered by the same engine that produces our PDF export; the "Use this example" button opens it in the builder with every section pre-filled so you can swap in your own units, ratios, and outcomes. Then raid the bullet bank for structures that fit your shifts, check the keyword list against your target posting, and read the six questions at the bottom, which cover the situations (new grad, travel contracts, certification order) that generic resume advice skips.