Top 12 Staff Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a strong resume matters for staff nurses who want to stand out and land the job. Blend clinical know-how, calm communication, and specialty experience. Show range. Show safety. Show that you lift outcomes and steady the room when it tilts.
Staff Nurse Skills
- Patient Assessment
- IV Insertion
- Wound Care
- Medication Administration
- CPR Certified
- Electronic Health Records (EHR)
- Patient Education
- Vital Signs Monitoring
- Infection Control
- Telemetry Monitoring
- Surgical Assistance
- Palliative Care
1. Patient Assessment
Patient assessment is the structured process of collecting and interpreting information about a person’s physical, psychological, and social status to guide a safe, individualized plan of care. You observe. You ask. You examine. You review data and connect the dots.
Why It's Important
It reveals risks early, steers interventions, sharpens prioritization, and protects patients from harm. Good assessment is the backbone of nursing judgment.
How to Improve Patient Assessment Skills
Sharpening assessment combines habits and mindset:
Continuous Learning: Keep current with evidence-based assessment frameworks from trusted professional bodies such as the American Nurses Association and the National Institutes of Health.
Effective Communication: Use open-ended questions, listen without rushing, and clarify. The Institute for Healthcare Communication provides helpful guidance.
Use Technology: Pull trends from EHR flowsheets, decision support, and dashboards to reduce blind spots.
Practice Empathy: Perspective-taking reveals details clinical checklists miss.
Peer Collaboration: Huddle, debrief, and shadow. Professional networks such as Sigma Theta Tau International can spark growth.
Assessment improves with deliberate practice, reflection, and real-time feedback.
How to Display Patient Assessment Skills on Your Resume
2. IV Insertion
IV insertion is gaining venous access with a catheter to deliver fluids, medications, nutrition, or obtain blood samples. Precision in site selection, technique, and stabilization matters.
Why It's Important
It enables rapid therapy in emergencies, dependable infusion for treatment plans, and smoother patient experiences when done cleanly and safely.
How to Improve IV Insertion Skills
Build skill methodically:
Know the Anatomy: Map vein pathways, valves, and common pitfalls. Match site to therapy and patient factors.
Match Equipment to Need: Choose gauge by vein size and flow requirements (e.g., 22–24G for small/fragile veins; 18–20G for brisk infusions or blood products).
Tourniquet and Visualization: Apply 4–6 inches above the site. Warmth, gravity, and vein-finders help.
Skin Prep: Antiseptic in concentric circles; let it dry fully to cut infection risk.
Insertion Technique: Bevel up, shallow angle (10–30°). Confirm flashback, thread the catheter, then withdraw the needle.
Secure and Dress: Stabilize, dress with sterile materials, and loop/tape tubing to prevent tugging.
Practice With Feedback: Simulation, supervised attempts, and immediate coaching accelerate learning.
Follow Guidelines: Align with infusion and infection-prevention standards.
For further learning: Infusion Nurses Society; CDC guidance on catheter-related infection prevention; British Journal of Nursing IV therapy articles.
How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume
3. Wound Care
Wound care means assessing tissue, managing moisture, controlling bioburden, protecting periwound skin, and choosing the right dressing at the right time. Education threads through every step.
Why It's Important
It prevents infection, speeds healing, reduces pain, and shrinks the chances of complications or readmissions.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Work smarter with evidence and teamwork:
Keep Learning: Follow guidance from the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN).
Apply Evidence: Integrate recognized wound management guidelines into daily practice.
Refine Assessment: Document size, depth, exudate, odor, tissue type, edge condition, and periwound skin consistently.
Teach Patients: Explain dressing care, signs of infection, offloading, and nutrition.
Collaborate: Use SBAR for clean handoffs and consult specialists early for complex wounds.
Small, consistent improvements compound into better outcomes.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
4. Medication Administration
Medication administration is delivering the correct drug, dose, route, and timing while monitoring effects and documenting thoroughly.
Why It's Important
It’s a direct line to safety. Accurate administration cuts errors, stabilizes symptoms, and drives recovery.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Strengthen safety nets:
Stay Informed: Review drug indications, interactions, high-alert meds, and renal/hepatic adjustments.
Follow the Rights: Right patient, right medication, right dose, right route, right time, and right documentation. Many teams also add right reason and right response.
Use Tech Wisely: Barcode scanning and eMARs reduce slipups—don’t override alerts without cause.
Ongoing Education: Annual competencies, case reviews, and targeted CE help close gaps.
Team Communication: Clarify orders, read back verbal/telephone orders, and escalate concerns promptly using a structured tool like SBAR.
Teach Patients: Explain purpose, timing, and side effects to boost adherence and surface adverse reactions early.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
5. CPR Certified
Being CPR certified means you’ve trained and demonstrated competency in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, including compressions, ventilations, and use of an AED. In many acute settings, BLS is required; ACLS or PALS may be expected depending on the unit.
Why It's Important
Cardiac and respiratory arrests don’t wait. Certification ensures you can act fast and correctly when seconds matter.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep skills vivid and current:
Review Updated Guidance: Follow current resuscitation recommendations from recognized councils.
Practice Regularly: Simulation with feedback manikins refines compression depth, rate, and recoil.
Take Refreshers: Don’t let muscle memory fade—renew on time and seek scenario-based practice.
Train With Peers: Team dynamics save lives. Rehearse roles and closed-loop communication.
Stress Readiness: Mental rehearsal and checklists help you stay steady under pressure.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
6. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
EHRs are the digital backbone of patient care—diagnoses, meds, allergies, labs, imaging, and plans in one place, updated in real time.
Why It's Important
They streamline documentation, sharpen medication safety, and strengthen team communication. Less hunting. More treating.
How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills
Make the system work for you and your patients:
Focused Training: Short, role-specific sessions beat one-size-fits-all modules.
Smart Customization: Use templates, favorites, and order sets aligned to your unit’s workflow.
Interoperability: Advocate for seamless information exchange across systems to reduce duplicate work and missed history.
Feedback Loop: Report friction points and suggest fixes. Iteration improves safety.
Mobile Access: Bedside documentation reduces recall errors and boosts timeliness.
How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume
7. Patient Education
Patient education means translating clinical plans into plain language and actionable steps patients can actually follow at home.
Why It's Important
Understanding fuels adherence. Adherence improves outcomes. Education also calms fear and clarifies expectations.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Make it simple, personal, and repeatable:
Assess Learning Needs: Gauge health literacy, preferred language, and cultural context. Tailor accordingly.
Use Teach-Back: Ask patients to explain the plan in their own words. Gaps surface quickly.
Right Materials: Visuals, plain-language handouts, and condition-specific sheets beat jargon-heavy printouts.
Incorporate Tech: When appropriate, recommend trusted apps or portals for reminders and tracking.
Reinforce and Follow Up: Revisit key points before discharge and after, in person or via telehealth.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
8. Vital Signs Monitoring
Vital signs monitoring tracks temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, and often SpO2 and pain. It’s an early warning system—quiet but powerful.
Why It's Important
Trends tell the story. Subtle changes can signal deterioration long before it’s obvious.
How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills
Precision and vigilance are the levers:
Skill Up: Refresh technique and device calibration knowledge regularly.
Follow Protocols: Use standardized frequency and escalation criteria informed by evidence-based guidance.
Leverage Technology: Continuous monitoring, smart alerts, and early warning scores reduce misses.
Communicate Fast: Report concerning trends using SBAR, and document actions taken.
Engage Patients: Explain the why—cooperation improves accuracy and trust.
How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
9. Infection Control
Infection control is the daily discipline of hand hygiene, PPE, isolation, cleaning, sterilization, and safe device use. It protects everyone.
Why It's Important
It breaks transmission chains, prevents outbreaks, and cuts healthcare-associated infections. Fewer complications. Safer units.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Make the safest action the default:
Hand Hygiene Every Time: Before and after contact, before aseptic tasks, after exposure risk, and after touching surroundings.
PPE Done Right: Choose correctly, don and doff in sequence, and never shortcut.
Stay Current: Follow CDC and WHO infection prevention updates and your facility’s policies.
Respiratory Etiquette: Masking, tissues, and cough hygiene—model it and coach it.
Clean and Sterilize: Adhere to high-level disinfection and sterilization standards for instruments and environments.
Waste Management: Segregate and dispose of sharps and biohazards safely.
Educate and Audit: Share tips at huddles, support peers, and participate in compliance checks.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
10. Telemetry Monitoring
Telemetry monitoring continuously tracks vital parameters—often heart rate and rhythm—via wireless systems, letting teams intervene the moment something drifts.
Why It's Important
Early detection of arrhythmias or deterioration saves minutes, and minutes save myocardium—and lives.
How to Improve Telemetry Monitoring Skills
Turn data into action:
Keep Learning: Refresh rhythm interpretation and alarm management. Professional organizations offer courses and modules.
Follow Protocols: Use clear criteria for initiation, discontinuation, electrode placement, and alarm parameters.
Communicate Clearly: Share actionable changes promptly using a structured method like SBAR.
Use the Tools: Optimize filters, skin prep, and lead selection to reduce artifact and false alarms.
Maintain Equipment: Regular checks, battery changes, and lead replacement keep signals clean.
How to Display Telemetry Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
11. Surgical Assistance
Surgical assistance spans room setup, counts, sterile technique, instrument handling, patient positioning, and vigilant monitoring before, during, and after procedures.
Why It's Important
It sustains sterility, protects patients from harm, and keeps the operation moving smoothly so the surgeon can focus on the work.
How to Improve Surgical Assistance Skills
Precision, pace, and teamwork win the day:
Continuous Education: Stay current with perioperative standards and device updates.
Strong Communication: Practice closed-loop communication and anticipate needs.
Technical Mastery: Drill on instrument names, passing techniques, counts, and sterilization processes. AORN guidelines are foundational.
Patient-Centered Care: Follow preop verification, positioning safety, and postop checks closely.
Team Debriefs: Use checklists and post-case reviews to fix small issues before they repeat.
How to Display Surgical Assistance Skills on Your Resume
12. Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on comfort, symptom control, and alignment of care with patient goals across serious illness. It is whole-person care—physical, emotional, and spiritual.
Why It's Important
Patients feel heard, pain is managed, decisions become clearer, and dignity stays front and center.
How to Improve Palliative Care Skills
Lead with presence and skill:
Structured Training: Programs such as ELNEC build core competencies for nurses.
Communication Practice: Workshops like VitalTalk strengthen tough conversations about goals and prognosis.
Deep Empathy: Slow down, reflect feelings, and check understanding often.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Work closely with social work, chaplaincy, pharmacy, and palliative specialists; resources from CAPC can guide team integration.
Ethics and Advocacy: Know policies on advance directives, code status, and symptom management; ANA ethics resources are helpful.
How to Display Palliative Care Skills on Your Resume
