Top 12 School Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
School campuses buzz with motion and noise, and tucked inside that rush sits a steady hub of care: the nurse’s office. A strong resume for this role doesn’t just list credentials; it shows you can anticipate needs, calm chaos, and keep students learning safely. The right skills tell that story fast.
School Nurse Skills
- Pediatric Care
- Immunization
- First Aid
- CPR/BLS Certified
- Health Education
- Emergency Response
- Medication Administration
- Epinephrine Auto-Injector Use
- Asthma Management
- Diabetes Monitoring
- Electronic Health Records (EHR)
- Student Health Privacy (FERPA/HIPAA)
1. Pediatric Care
Pediatric care spans the health needs of children and adolescents—prevention, growth and development, acute issues, chronic conditions, and the day-to-day bumps that appear between math and recess. In schools, that means quick assessment, age-appropriate interventions, care coordination, and a keen eye for changes that might signal something more.
Why It's Important
Early detection keeps small problems from snowballing. Vaccines, screenings, and timely care support healthy development and keep students in class, learning and thriving.
How to Improve Pediatric Care Skills
Strengthen your practice by blending current knowledge with practical systems:
Keep learning: Review pediatric guidelines regularly; update protocols as standards evolve.
Lean into prevention: Screen, educate, and reinforce hygiene, sleep, nutrition, and activity habits.
See the whole child: Watch for mental health red flags; build referral pathways and follow-up routines.
Be emergency-ready: Drill responses, refresh competencies, and maintain supplies.
Work the network: Partner with families, community clinicians, and school teams for continuity of care.
How to Display Pediatric Care Skills on Your Resume
2. Immunization
Immunization primes the immune system to fight specific infections. In schools, it’s a cornerstone of public health—quietly preventing outbreaks that would ripple through classrooms and families.
Why It's Important
High vaccination coverage protects vulnerable students, reduces missed school days, and keeps the wider community safer.
How to Improve Immunization Skills
Educate clearly: Share plain-language information with families about benefits, schedules, and safety.
Make it easy: Coordinate school-based clinics or referrals to reduce transportation and time barriers.
Track and remind: Maintain accurate records and send timely notices for upcoming or overdue doses, aligned with state requirements.
Address concerns: Listen without judgment; tailor responses to specific questions and cultural contexts.
Align with policy: Follow state laws on exemptions and documentation; keep administrators in the loop.
How to Display Immunization Skills on Your Resume
3. First Aid
First aid is immediate, focused care for injuries and sudden illness. It buys time, prevents complications, and steadies the moment until further treatment is needed—or ends the problem right there.
Why It's Important
Fast, competent care keeps students safe, calm, and in class when possible. It also builds trust across the campus.
How to Improve First Aid Skills
Refresh often: Practice common school scenarios—falls, nosebleeds, sprains, head bumps, dental injuries, allergic reactions.
Stock smart: Standardize kits, label locations, and audit supplies on a set schedule.
Teach basics: Coach staff and students on simple, safe steps they can take while help arrives.
Plan and drill: Map roles, routes, and backup coverage; run tabletop and live drills.
Include the unseen: Add mental health first aid skills and, where permitted, training and protocols for opioid overdose response with naloxone.
How to Display First Aid Skills on Your Resume
4. CPR/BLS Certified
CPR/BLS certification confirms you can respond to cardiac and respiratory emergencies, use an AED, and perform age-appropriate compressions and ventilations for infants, children, and adults.
Why It's Important
Seconds matter. This training turns bystanders into responders and raises the odds of survival dramatically.
How to Improve CPR/BLS Certified Skills
Re-certify on schedule: Keep credentials current and practice between courses.
Prioritize pediatric content: Emphasize child and infant techniques, choking relief, and AED use in young populations.
Drill on campus: Walk through real layouts to speed response time and assign roles.
Expand depth: Add training such as pediatric life support if your setting calls for it.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
5. Health Education
Health education equips students with practical knowledge and habits—sleep, nutrition, activity, hygiene, mental health, digital wellness—so their choices steer toward well-being.
Why It's Important
Informed students self-advocate, make safer decisions, and carry those skills home, lifting the whole community.
How to Improve Health Education Skills
Make it interactive: Use demos, stories, scenarios, and peer-led activities that stick.
Use smart tech: Short videos, quick polls, and simple apps can boost engagement without clutter.
Bring in partners: Invite local clinicians or community groups for talks and screenings.
Tailor content: Adapt lessons to grade level, language needs, and cultural norms.
Reinforce broadly: Align messages with school policies—nutrition programs, PE, counseling, and family outreach.
How to Display Health Education Skills on Your Resume
6. Emergency Response
Emergency response covers immediate action for sudden crises—anaphylaxis, seizures, injuries, respiratory distress, cardiac arrest—plus the communication and coordination that make help arrive fast.
Why It's Important
Prepared teams save lives, limit complications, and steady a shaken community.
How to Improve Emergency Response Skills
Codify protocols: Write clear algorithms and quick-reference guides; update annually.
Train everyone: Offer role-based training for teachers, coaches, bus drivers, and office staff.
Maintain equipment: Place AEDs strategically, check batteries and pads, and stock Stop the Bleed kits where allowed.
Practice often: Conduct drills for medical scenarios and after-hours events; debrief to improve.
Coordinate externally: Align with EMS and local health partners on access points, handoff procedures, and reunification plans.
How to Display Emergency Response Skills on Your Resume
7. Medication Administration
Medication administration in schools means giving the right medication to the right student, by the right route, at the right dose and time—safely, legally, and with documented precision.
Why It's Important
Reliable systems prevent errors, keep chronic conditions controlled, and protect students’ ability to learn without disruption.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Follow the rights: Include right reason and right documentation alongside the core five rights.
Clarify orders: Maintain current provider orders, standing orders, and parent consents; resolve discrepancies promptly.
Secure storage: Lock meds, track temperatures if needed, and separate controlled substances.
Document meticulously: Use standardized forms or EHR entries with time stamps and outcomes.
Plan for errors: Create a just-culture reporting process and an immediate response protocol.
Support self-carry: Where allowed, implement policies for inhalers and epinephrine that emphasize training and accountability.
Know your statutes: Align delegation and supervision with your state nurse practice act and district policy.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
8. Epinephrine Auto-Injector Use
An epinephrine auto-injector delivers a fast, lifesaving dose for anaphylaxis. It’s simple by design, but timing and technique matter.
Why It's Important
Rapid administration can halt a cascade of symptoms and prevent life-threatening complications.
How to Improve Epinephrine Auto-Injector Use Skills
Train widely: Teach recognition of anaphylaxis and device use to staff and, when appropriate, students.
Practice with trainers: Build muscle memory using non-medicated trainers during routine drills.
Stock and stage: Where permitted, maintain stock epinephrine; place units in known, accessible locations.
Check dates: Track expirations and storage conditions; rotate inventory proactively.
Standardize aftercare: Call emergency services after administration and monitor closely until transfer.
How to Display Epinephrine Auto-Injector Use Skills on Your Resume
9. Asthma Management
School-based asthma management blends identification, individualized plans, medication access, trigger control, and confident response when symptoms spike.
Why It's Important
Good control means fewer attacks, less absenteeism, and students who can run, read, and breathe easier.
How to Improve Asthma Management Skills
Maintain action plans: Keep individualized plans current, visible, and shared with key staff.
Optimize technique: Teach and re-check inhaler and spacer use; use checklists or return-demonstrations.
Reduce triggers: Address indoor air quality, cleaning products, pets, dust, and exercise-induced symptoms.
Stage quick relief: Ensure rapid access to rescue meds; consider stock albuterol where allowed by law.
Train the team: Educate teachers, coaches, and front office staff to spot early signs and act swiftly.
How to Display Asthma Management Skills on Your Resume
10. Diabetes Monitoring
Diabetes monitoring tracks blood glucose trends and responses to food, activity, stress, and medication. In schools, this often means syncing with care plans and technology while protecting student independence and safety.
Why It's Important
Stable glucose supports learning, mood, and participation—and prevents emergencies.
How to Improve Diabetes Monitoring Skills
Use care plans: Implement the Diabetes Medical Management Plan and 504 accommodations as written.
Coordinate tech: Understand meters, pumps, and CGMs; set communication routines for alerts and downtime.
Plan for highs and lows: Stock fast-acting carbs and glucagon; map response steps for class, cafeteria, bus, and sports.
Communicate daily: Set predictable check-ins with students and families; document patterns and adjustments.
Loop in food services: Share carb counts and timing needs for safer mealtimes and field trips.
How to Display Diabetes Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
11. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
EHRs—and student health record modules within student information systems—hold the data that drives safe care: immunizations, medications, action plans, screenings, and visits.
Why It's Important
Accurate, accessible records speed decision-making, support compliance, and reveal trends that guide prevention.
How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills
Train deeply: Master templates, smart forms, and reporting features to save time and reduce errors.
Customize wisely: Build workflows for common school issues—injuries, anaphylaxis, asthma, diabetes, meds—to standardize documentation.
Protect data: Enforce role-based access, strong authentication, encryption, and routine audits; align with FERPA.
Plan for downtime: Keep backup procedures and printouts for critical information during outages.
Share appropriately: Set clear processes for exchanging information with outside providers and families, with proper consent.
How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume
12. Student Health Privacy (FERPA/HIPAA)
Most K–12 student health records are education records governed by FERPA, not HIPAA. Still, school nurses should understand both: FERPA rules for education settings, and HIPAA when working with external providers or school-based clinics that are HIPAA-covered entities.
Why It's Important
Protecting privacy builds trust, meets legal obligations, and prevents harmful disclosures of sensitive information.
How to Improve Student Health Privacy Skills
Know the frameworks: Learn when FERPA applies, when HIPAA applies, and how they intersect.
Use consent well: Obtain and document parent/guardian permissions; share only what’s necessary.
Control access: Limit who can view records; use role-based permissions and audit trails.
Secure communications: Avoid unsecured channels for protected information; lock screens and spaces.
Write it down: Maintain policies for retention, breach response, and records requests; train staff annually.
Audit and improve: Review practices periodically and close gaps quickly.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
