Top 12 Dialysis RN Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the highly specialized field of dialysis nursing, showcasing the right set of skills on your resume can lift your candidacy above the pile. The list below highlights 12 core strengths dialysis RNs should emphasize—practical, patient-centered, and grounded in current practice.
Dialysis RN Skills
- Hemodialysis
- Peritoneal Dialysis
- AV Fistula Care
- CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
- Patient Education
- Fluid Management
- Electrolyte Balancing
- Biomedical Equipment
- Vascular Access Monitoring
- Dialysis Reuse
- EPO Administration
- Kt/V Calculation
1. Hemodialysis
Hemodialysis removes toxins and extra fluid when kidneys can’t keep up. Blood flows through a dialyzer, gets cleaned, and returns to the patient. Your job? Guardrails and fine-tuning: monitor vitals and machine parameters, protect the access, prevent infection, and act fast when blood pressure dives or cramps hit.
Why It's Important
It stands in for vital kidney function—clearing solutes, balancing electrolytes, pulling fluid—so patients can feel better and stay safe between treatments. For the RN, it’s the backbone of therapy delivery and a daily exercise in vigilance.
How to Improve Hemodialysis Skills
Sharpen volume assessment: Align ultrafiltration with true dry weight. Track interdialytic weight gain, blood pressure trends, and symptoms. Use conservative UF rates—generally not exceeding about 13 mL/kg/hr—to protect hemodynamics.
Tight infection control: Meticulous hand hygiene, aseptic technique, and access-site antisepsis every single session. Catheters get maximal barrier precautions and scrupulous care.
Beat intradialytic instability: Cool dialysate when appropriate, slow UF, consider UF profiling, adjust sodium baths carefully, and pause to reassess before pushing limits.
Protect the access: Cannulate using rope-ladder or buttonhole technique per policy, avoid recirculation, and respond early to signs of stenosis or poor flow.
Never stop learning: Stay current with guideline updates, device changes, water quality standards, and alarm troubleshooting. Practice drills. Debrief near-misses.
How to Display Hemodialysis Skills on Your Resume
2. Peritoneal Dialysis
Peritoneal dialysis (PD) uses the peritoneum as a natural filter. Dialysate goes in, dwell, then out—wastes follow the fluid. It can be manual (CAPD) or automated overnight (APD). The nurse’s touch is everywhere: training, technique checks, exit-site care, and troubleshooting.
Why It's Important
PD offers autonomy and lifestyle flexibility, often with gentler fluid shifts and better preservation of residual kidney function. Education and support make or break success.
How to Improve Peritoneal Dialysis Skills
Teach with intention: Stepwise training, return demonstrations, teach-back. Simple language, visuals, and repeated refreshers.
Stop infections before they start: Impeccable asepsis for exchanges, daily exit-site care, and early action for redness, pain, or cloudy effluent. Aim for low peritonitis rates (e.g., ≤1 episode per 24 patient-months).
Tailor the prescription: Adjust dwell times, dextrose strengths, icodextrin use, and cycling to match ultrafiltration needs and lifestyle.
Nutrition and fluids: Collaborate with dietitians on protein goals, sodium control, and glycemic impact of dextrose.
Track outcomes: Monitor Kt/V, UF volumes, residual kidney function, weight trends, and technique adherence.
How to Display Peritoneal Dialysis Skills on Your Resume
3. AV Fistula Care
AV fistulas are the preferred access. Keep them patent, clean, and respected. Feel the thrill, hear the bruit, and watch for changes. Patient coaching matters—no tight cuffs, no blood draws, no sleeping on the arm.
Why It's Important
A healthy fistula means reliable treatments, fewer infections, and longer access life. Lose the access and everything gets harder.
How to Improve AV Fistula Care Skills
Maturation and maintenance: Assess the “rule of 6s” (flow, diameter, depth). Encourage handgrip exercises if ordered. Escalate concerns quickly for ultrasound or intervention.
Flawless cannulation: Use site rotation or buttonhole per policy, stabilize the needle, and secure lines to avoid tugging and hematomas.
Infection vigilance: Cleanse thoroughly, dress appropriately, and teach daily skin care. Any warmth, drainage, or pain gets attention the same day.
Monitor for stenosis: Rising venous pressures, recirculation, prolonged bleeding—act early to protect the circuit.
How to Display AV Fistula Care Skills on Your Resume
4. CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
CRRT delivers slow, continuous solute and fluid removal in the ICU—kinder to unstable patients than intermittent HD. Dialysis RNs trained on these platforms steer anticoagulation, effluent dosing, alarms, and minute-by-minute balance.
Why It's Important
It supports hemodynamic stability while precisely managing fluids, electrolytes, and acid-base status in the sickest patients.
How to Improve CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills
Right dose, real delivery: Target typical effluent doses around 20–25 mL/kg/hr and account for downtime so delivered dose matches the plan.
Anticoagulation mastery: Use regional citrate anticoagulation when appropriate. Track ionized calcium (systemic and post-filter), adjust citrate and calcium infusions, and watch for metabolic shifts.
Protect the filter: Minimize circuit interruptions, ensure secure connections, and swap filters promptly when pressures climb or clotting looms.
Pinpoint fluid balance: Verify all inputs and outputs, document cumulative balance, and reconcile against clinical exam and imaging.
Team sport: Align with intensivists, nephrologists, pharmacists, and dietitians. Harmonize anticoagulation, electrolytes, nutrition, and medications cleared by the circuit.
How to Display CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
5. Patient Education
Teach in plain language. Confirm understanding. Build habits that stick. From access care to diet to recognizing red-flag symptoms, patients and caregivers become partners when education lands well.
Why It's Important
Confident, informed patients adhere better, avoid preventable complications, and feel more in control of their lives.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Meet them where they are: Gauge health literacy and preferred learning style. Use visuals, demos, and simple handouts.
Teach-back, always: Ask patients to show or explain the steps back to you. Gaps surface fast; you fix them on the spot.
Personalize: Align instructions with culture, schedule, and goals. Set small, specific actions instead of vague advice.
Reinforce and follow up: Short refreshers during routine visits keep knowledge fresh. Encourage questions; celebrate wins.
Use tools that help: Checklists, pictograms, symptom logs, phone reminders—whatever makes the behavior easier to do consistently.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
6. Fluid Management
It’s a delicate balance: pull enough fluid to relieve symptoms and protect the heart, but not so fast that blood pressure collapses. The details decide comfort—and safety.
Why It's Important
Good fluid management reduces hospitalizations, cramps, headaches, and cardiac strain. Poor control fuels hypertension, edema, and miserable treatments.
How to Improve Fluid Management Skills
Nail the dry weight: Reassess frequently using symptoms, exam, trends, and objective tools when available. Adjust as the patient changes.
Respect UF limits: Keep ultrafiltration rates modest (often ≤13 mL/kg/hr). If UF must be high, slow down, extend time, or add an extra session.
Coach between sessions: Guide sodium restriction, thirst strategies, and realistic interdialytic weight gain targets.
Tune the prescription: Individualize dialysate sodium, temperature, and session length to improve tolerability.
Work the team: Coordinate with dietitians and prescribers. Diuretics, when residual function exists, can help tame gains.
How to Display Fluid Management Skills on Your Resume
7. Electrolyte Balancing
Dialysis moves more than water. Potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and bicarbonate all swing with treatment, diet, and meds. Keep the balance steady and the heart quiet.
Why It's Important
Missteps cause arrhythmias, weakness, bone problems, and confusion. Precision prevents emergencies.
How to Improve Electrolyte Balancing Skills
Watch the numbers: Trend potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and bicarbonate. Pair labs with symptoms and ECGs when needed.
Customize dialysate: Adjust potassium and calcium baths thoughtfully. Avoid abrupt sodium shifts. Correct acidosis with appropriate bicarbonate levels.
Diet and meds: Reinforce dietary targets and binder timing. Use potassium binders or adjustments to meds that raise K+ as appropriate.
Safety first: For severe hyperkalemia, follow rapid-response protocols and coordinate urgent dialysis or medical therapy without delay.
How to Display Electrolyte Balancing Skills on Your Resume
8. Biomedical Equipment
Dialysis machines, water treatment systems, monitors, and reprocessors—each piece must function flawlessly. The RN’s competence spans setup, checks, operation, documentation, and quick troubleshooting.
Why It's Important
Reliable equipment equals safe treatments. Miss one parameter, and patients pay the price.
How to Improve Biomedical Equipment Skills
Master the checks: Complete pre-use tests, alarm verifications, and disinfection logs. Verify conductivity, temperature, and alarm status before the first drop flows.
Water quality is sacred: Understand reverse osmosis basics, carbon tank function, and testing schedules for chlorine/chloramine, endotoxin, and total microbial counts per standards.
Know your machine: Dive into device-specific training. Practice alarm response until it’s reflex.
Track and report: Document issues, escalate recurring problems, and participate in preventive maintenance planning.
Patient comfort: Adjust blood flow, dialysate temperature, and chair positioning to reduce symptoms and improve tolerance.
How to Display Biomedical Equipment Skills on Your Resume
9. Vascular Access Monitoring
Whether fistula, graft, or catheter, the access is the lifeline. You examine, listen, and measure—then act before trouble snowballs.
Why It's Important
Good surveillance preserves patency, cuts infection risk, and keeps clearances on target.
How to Improve Vascular Access Monitoring Skills
Hands-on every time: Inspect, palpate, and auscultate. Document changes in thrill, bruit, swelling, or skin integrity.
Measure and compare: Watch dynamic/venous pressures, recirculation, and delivered blood flow. Rising numbers or reduced adequacy need investigation.
Hygiene rules: Clean dressings, dry sites, and strict no-needle, no-BP use on the access arm.
Teach early warning signs: Patients should report prolonged bleeding, new pain, reduced thrill, fever, or drainage immediately.
Escalate fast: Coordinate vascular ultrasound or interventional referral at the first hint of stenosis or thrombosis.
How to Display Vascular Access Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
10. Dialysis Reuse
Dialyzer reuse means cleaning and reusing a hemodialyzer for the same patient under strict protocols. Note: many programs have transitioned to single-use dialyzers due to infection control priorities and operational simplicity. If reuse remains in practice, safety is non-negotiable.
Why It's Important
Where permitted and performed, rigorous reuse can conserve resources; however, patient safety and quality benchmarks always come first. Many centers now favor single-use to reduce risk and complexity.
How to Improve Dialysis Reuse Skills
Follow policy to the letter: Standardized cleaning, disinfection, labeling, and testing before each treatment. No shortcuts.
Validate and document: Leak tests, fiber bundle volume checks, and disinfectant concentration verification every time.
Training and audits: Routine competency checks, process observations, and corrective actions when variances appear.
Patient transparency: Explain the process, address concerns, and honor preferences when alternatives exist.
How to Display Dialysis Reuse Skills on Your Resume
11. EPO Administration
Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs)—such as epoetin alfa, darbepoetin alfa, and methoxy PEG-epoetin beta—treat anemia in CKD by boosting red blood cell production. Iron status drives response; dosing is dynamic.
Why It's Important
Correcting anemia improves energy, cognition, exercise tolerance, and quality of life. It can reduce transfusion needs when managed thoughtfully.
How to Improve EPO Administration Skills
Assess first: Check hemoglobin, ferritin, and transferrin saturation. Replete iron—often IV in hemodialysis—before escalating ESA doses.
Aim for safe targets: Maintain hemoglobin generally around 10–11.5 g/dL unless individualized otherwise. Avoid pushing levels higher due to increased risk.
Monitor and adjust: Review hemoglobin trends every 2–4 weeks, watch blood pressure, and titrate doses modestly to avoid overshoot.
Educate patients: Reinforce adherence, expected timelines, and side effects. Align iron, ESA timing, and lab draws for clean data.
Coordinate care: Sync with prescribers and pharmacists so ESA, iron, and dialysis timing work in concert.
How to Display EPO Administration Skills on Your Resume
12. Kt/V Calculation
Kt/V estimates urea clearance. K is dialyzer clearance, t is treatment time, V approximates total body water. For thrice-weekly hemodialysis, spKt/V targets typically ≥1.4 per session (to reliably meet a minimum of 1.2). PD uses weekly Kt/V goals, commonly ≥1.7.
Why It's Important
It’s a quick read on adequacy. If clearance is low, symptoms climb and outcomes suffer.
How to Improve Kt/V Calculation Skills
Get the sampling right: Accurate pre- and post-dialysis BUNs with proper post-draw technique (e.g., slow-flow or stop-pump) reduce error.
Drive time and flow: Extend treatment time when feasible, optimize blood and dialysate flows, and minimize downtime to lift clearance.
Fix recirculation: Evaluate access function if Kt/V drops. Address stenosis, needle placement, or catheter position.
Use the right formula: Apply the Daugirdas method or device-integrated calculations consistently and document the same way each time.
How to Display Kt/V Calculation Skills on Your Resume
