Top 12 Healthcare Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, a sharp, skills-forward resume can tilt the odds in your favor. The list below zeroes in on 12 high-impact healthcare skills worth highlighting. Show them clearly. Prove them with context. Make hiring teams pause and look twice.
Healthcare Skills
- EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
- EHR (Electronic Health Records)
- HIPAA Compliance
- CPR Certified
- ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
- PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
- Cerner
- Epic
- Meditech
- Phlebotomy
- Telehealth
- PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System)
1. EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
EMR is the digital counterpart to a paper chart within a single practice. It holds medical histories, notes, medications, and treatment details tied to one organization, speeding up documentation and sharpening clinical decision-making in that specific setting.
Why It's Important
EMRs tighten up accuracy, cut down on redundant tasks, and keep care teams aligned. Cleaner data, clearer communication, faster action. That means fewer errors and better outcomes.
How to Improve EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills
Make the system work for you and your team, not the other way around:
Interoperability: Configure interfaces and standards-based messaging so data moves cleanly between systems inside your practice and to referral partners.
Data Security: Enforce least-privilege access, encryption, audit trails, and recurring security reviews. Test incident response like a fire drill.
Focused Training: Short, role-based sessions. Tip sheets. Real workflows, not theory. Measure adoption and refine.
Patient Portals: Offer secure access for results, scheduling, and messaging. Fewer phone tags, more engaged patients.
Analytics: Build simple dashboards for documentation completeness, turnaround times, and quality measures. Close gaps quickly.
Iterate: Gather feedback from clinicians and front-desk staff. Update templates and order sets with their input, often.
How to Display EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills on Your Resume
2. EHR (Electronic Health Records)
EHRs extend beyond one practice. They’re comprehensive, longitudinal records—diagnoses, meds, imaging, labs, allergies, care plans—accessible to authorized providers across settings to coordinate care without the chaos.
Why It's Important
EHRs reduce duplication, improve coordination, and surface the right information at the right time. Better data flow means fewer mistakes and better continuity.
How to Improve EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills
Push for simpler workflows, broader data exchange, and stronger patient engagement:
Usability: Trim clicks. Use smart defaults and evidence-based order sets. Build templates that mirror real visits.
Interoperability: Enable standards-based exchange so records travel with the patient. Align builds with current FHIR/HL7 profiles and USCDI data classes.
Security: Multifactor authentication, encryption, continuous monitoring. Review access logs regularly.
Patient Engagement: Enable portals, secure messaging, online scheduling, and clear visit summaries. Nudge adherence with reminders.
Analytics and Decision Support: Use dashboards, alerts, and risk scores judiciously—signal over noise. Track outcomes and adjust rules.
Ongoing Training: New hires, refreshers, super-user champions. Short learning loops beat once-a-year marathons.
How to Display EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills on Your Resume
3. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA Compliance means protecting PHI—confidentiality, integrity, availability—through policy, process, and technology. It’s legal. It’s ethical. It’s table stakes.
Why It's Important
Trust sits on privacy. Compliance limits risk, avoids penalties, and safeguards patients when they’re most vulnerable.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Make privacy practical and visible:
Risk Assessment: Identify where PHI lives, how it moves, and what could go wrong. Prioritize fixes.
Policies That Work: Clear, current, enforced. Onboarding, offboarding, access reviews—no gaps.
Training: Short, scenario-based sessions. Phishing drills. Reminders that stick.
Technical Safeguards: Encryption, role-based access, endpoint protection, backups, and tested recovery.
Incident Response: Define roles, timelines, and notifications. Practice the plan.
Vendor Oversight: Execute BAAs, verify controls, and review regularly.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
4. CPR Certified
CPR certification confirms readiness to deliver immediate life-saving support during cardiac arrest. In many clinical roles, Basic Life Support (BLS) is the standard credential—CPR plus AED and team-based response.
Why It's Important
Seconds matter. Proper compressions, timely defibrillation, and calm coordination change outcomes—sometimes dramatically.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep skills crisp and current:
Refresh Often: Follow current guidelines and renew on schedule (commonly every two years, sooner if required).
Deliberate Practice: Use manikins with real-time feedback on rate, depth, and recoil.
Mock Codes: Practice team roles, closed-loop communication, and rapid rhythm recognition.
Scenario Variety: Adult, pediatric, single-rescuer, multi-rescuer, airway challenges—mix it up.
Debrief: Quick reviews after drills to lock in lessons.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
5. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
ACLS builds on BLS with rhythm interpretation, pharmacology, and algorithms for cardiac arrest, stroke, and unstable arrhythmias—where high-quality CPR meets advanced interventions.
Why It's Important
Rapid recognition and confident action save lives. ACLS trains both the hands and the head.
How to Improve ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills
Sharpen speed and accuracy under pressure:
Guideline Mastery: Review current algorithms and dosing until they’re second nature.
Simulation: Run timed scenarios with evolving rhythms and complicating factors.
Team Dynamics: Practice leadership, role clarity, and closed-loop communication.
ECG Focus: Drill rhythm recognition and differential diagnosis quickly.
Refresher Courses: Don’t cram; space out learning with periodic refreshers.
How to Display ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
6. PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
PALS addresses emergency care for infants and children—airway management, shock, rhythm issues—and the nuances that separate pediatric care from adult protocols.
Why It's Important
Kids aren’t small adults. The physiology shifts, the presentations vary, and timing is everything.
How to Improve PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills
Practice for the unexpected:
Regular Refreshers: Keep dosing, equipment sizes, and age-specific algorithms top of mind.
Simulation: Pediatric scenarios with airway challenges, respiratory failure, and shock.
Team Communication: Clear leadership and concise instructions, especially during high-stress pediatric events.
Checklists and Aids: Use cognitive aids for weight-based dosing and equipment selection.
Self-Assessment: Quiz yourself on rhythms, respiratory patterns, and case-based decision-making.
How to Display PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
7. Cerner
Cerner—now part of Oracle Health—delivers enterprise EHR platforms (such as Millennium) and clinical solutions used by hospitals and health systems across the globe.
Why It's Important
Broad adoption, deep configurability, and tight clinical workflows make it a frequent requirement in job postings.
How to Improve Cerner Skills
Lean into configuration and real-world efficiency:
Integration: Ensure clean interfaces with labs, imaging, devices, and external exchanges using current interoperability standards.
Customization: Tailor orders, documentation, and power plans to the service line. Remove friction relentlessly.
User Experience: Map actual workflows, trim clicks, reorganize screens. Feedback from end users rules.
Reporting and Analytics: Build reports that drive action—quality metrics, throughput, and safety signals.
Training: Create super-users and short learning modules. Support at the elbow during go-lives and upgrades.
How to Display Cerner Skills on Your Resume
8. Epic
Epic is a widely used EHR suite spanning inpatient, ambulatory, revenue cycle, and analytics—known for breadth, deep integration, and a sprawling app ecosystem.
Why It's Important
Many large systems run Epic end to end. Knowing it opens doors and shortens onboarding.
How to Improve Epic Skills
Think workflow, not just screens:
Personalization: SmartTools, order sets, preference lists—configure to match clinical habits and reduce documentation burden.
Training: Role-based classes and tip sheets, plus quick refreshers after upgrades.
Interoperability: Enable shared records and data exchange to keep care continuous across organizations.
Analytics: Use reporting workbench and dashboards to track KPIs and close care gaps.
How to Display Epic Skills on Your Resume
9. Meditech
Meditech provides integrated EHR solutions for hospitals and clinics, supporting clinical documentation, orders, results, and administrative tasks.
Why It's Important
Its footprint—especially in community and regional hospitals—remains significant, so familiarity is a plus.
How to Improve Meditech Skills
Aim for consistency and clarity:
Training: Focused, scenario-based sessions tailored to each department.
Customization: Align dictionaries, order sets, and documentation tools with standard workflows.
Integration: Ensure smooth connections to labs, imaging, and external exchanges.
Analytics: Build practical performance reports and quality dashboards.
Maintenance: Keep up with patches, new features, and security updates.
How to Display Meditech Skills on Your Resume
10. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy involves drawing blood safely and efficiently for testing, transfusion, or therapeutic procedures—precision with a human touch.
Why It's Important
Accurate specimens drive accurate diagnoses. Smooth technique reduces patient anxiety and prevents redraws.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Blend technique, empathy, and consistency:
Education: Refresh anatomy, order-of-draw, and specimen handling protocols.
Communication: Explain, reassure, and check for prior issues (fainting, difficult veins, anticoagulants).
Quality and Safety: Follow infection control, label at bedside, verify patient identity without fail.
Tools: Use appropriate gauge, tourniquet timing, and collection systems to reduce hemolysis.
Feedback: Track redraw rates and specimen rejects; coach to improve.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
11. Telehealth
Telehealth delivers care through secure video, messaging, and remote monitoring—connecting patients and clinicians without a waiting room.
Why It's Important
Access expands. Travel shrinks. Follow-up improves. For behavioral health, chronic disease, and rural care, it’s a lifeline.
How to Improve Telehealth Skills
Design for clarity and comfort:
Accessibility: Simple interfaces, clear instructions, options for low bandwidth, and accommodations for disabilities.
Privacy and Security: Encrypted platforms, verified identities, private spaces, and standard operating procedures.
Virtual Etiquette: Camera framing, lighting, sound checks, and structured visit flow.
Workflow Integration: Scheduling, intake, e-consent, e-prescribing, and easy handoffs to in-person care when needed.
Coverage and Compliance: Keep up with payer rules, licensure requirements, and documentation standards as policies evolve.
How to Display Telehealth Skills on Your Resume
12. PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System)
PACS stores, retrieves, and shares medical images and reports digitally. No film, faster reads, and streamlined collaboration across radiology and beyond.
Why It's Important
Efficient imaging workflows accelerate diagnosis and treatment planning. When images move seamlessly, care moves faster.
How to Improve PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) Skills
Build for speed, safety, and reach:
Infrastructure: Right-size storage, compute, and network bandwidth. Plan for growth and redundancy.
Security: Encrypt at rest and in transit, enforce access controls, and audit regularly.
User Experience: Intuitive viewing, quick loading, consistent hanging protocols, and efficient comparison tools.
Advanced Tools: Enable AI-assisted triage, measurements, and structured reporting where appropriate.
Interoperability: Embrace DICOM, HL7, and FHIR where applicable; integrate with EHRs and VNAs for a unified image record.
Training and Support: Short tutorials, super-users, and responsive support keep productivity high.
Continuous Feedback: Radiologists and technologists know the pain points—fix what they flag.
How to Display PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) Skills on Your Resume
