Top 12 Surgical Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
A resume for a surgical nurse needs to capture a sharp blend of technical skill, calm under pressure, and unblinking attention to detail. Show the capabilities that keep patients safe, teams in sync, and operating rooms humming. Make your strengths unmistakable so employers can see you thriving where it matters most.
Surgical Nurse Skills
- ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
- PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
- BLS (Basic Life Support)
- EPIC (Electronic Health Records)
- Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology)
- Sterile Technique
- Da Vinci Robotics
- Laparoscopic Skills
- Wound Care
- IV Insertion
- Patient Monitoring
- Suturing Techniques
1. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
ACLS covers the recognition and treatment of life‑threatening cardiac and respiratory events—cardiac arrest, stroke, myocardial infarction—and the coordinated team responses that follow. For surgical nurses, it’s the playbook when seconds count.
Why It's Important
Intraoperative and post-op instability can escalate fast. ACLS equips surgical nurses to spot trouble early, act decisively, and guide resuscitation so patients get the right intervention at the right moment.
How to Improve ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills
Re-certify on schedule: Keep credentials current and refresh algorithms frequently with structured refreshers.
Run simulations: High-fidelity mock codes sharpen rhythm recognition, leadership, and timing.
Study current guidelines: Review updates from the American Heart Association and align workflows accordingly.
Drill team roles: Practice closed-loop communication and role clarity with your OR/PACU team.
Debrief and reflect: After events or drills, gather feedback, adjust, repeat.
Deliberate practice turns protocols into instinct—and outcomes improve.
How to Display ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
2. PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
PALS focuses on recognizing and managing pediatric respiratory failure, shock, and cardiac arrest. Surgical nurses caring for children need fluency in age-specific assessment and dosing.
Why It's Important
Kids decompensate differently than adults. PALS builds the judgment and timing to intervene early and tailor care to pediatric physiology.
How to Improve PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills
Stay current: Review guideline updates regularly and recalibrate routines to match.
Scenario training: Practice pediatric scenarios—airway, anaphylaxis, septic shock—to build rapid pattern recognition.
Re-certify proactively: Don’t wait until the deadline; refresh early and often.
Team practice: Run interprofessional pediatric mock codes to tighten communication and role clarity.
Track dosing: Use standardized pediatric references and double-check weight‑based calculations.
Consistency plus repetition makes high-stakes pediatric care feel steadier and safer.
How to Display PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
3. BLS (Basic Life Support)
BLS for surgical nurses means immediate recognition of arrest, high‑quality CPR, rapid defibrillation, and airway support until advanced care escalates.
Why It's Important
It’s the foundation of resuscitation. If compressions and defibrillation are solid, everything that follows has a better chance of working.
How to Improve BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills
Refresh techniques: Revisit compression depth, rate, recoil, and ventilation. Use feedback devices when available.
Practice often: Short, frequent sessions beat a single annual cram.
Stay informed: Read summaries of evidence shifts—compression‑first priorities, airway timing, AED updates.
Peer drills: Run micro‑drills with colleagues and rotate team leader roles.
Perfect the basics and real events feel less chaotic.
How to Display BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
4. EPIC (Electronic Health Records)
Epic is a widely used EHR platform. Surgical nurses rely on it for perioperative documentation, orders, medication safety, workflow handoffs, and tracking outcomes.
Why It's Important
Accurate, timely charting keeps teams aligned, reduces errors, and supports safer care from pre-op through PACU and beyond.
How to Improve EPIC (Electronic Health Records) Skills
Use training environments: Practice documentation, order sets, and messaging in a sandbox before changes go live.
Personalize tools: Build SmartPhrases and SmartLists, configure favorites, and streamline your navigator to match your flow.
Learn from super users: Tap in-house experts for shortcuts, templates, and best practices.
Close the loop: Report friction points to IT and suggest tweaks; small UI changes can save minutes per case.
Fluent use reduces clicks, prevents omissions, and frees attention for patients.
How to Display EPIC (Electronic Health Records) Skills on Your Resume
5. Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology)
Cerner—now part of Oracle Health—delivers EHR solutions that support perioperative workflows, documentation, medication safety, and data exchange across care settings.
Why It's Important
Clean data and clear workflows reduce delays, cut errors, and keep surgical care coordinated across teams and departments.
How to Improve Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology) Skills
Tune your view: Customize dashboards, favorites, and order sets so critical info is one click away.
Integrate devices: Ensure monitors and OR systems feed reliable vitals and events directly into the chart.
Use clinical decision support: Enable alerts and guidance that improve medication safety, allergy checks, and protocol adherence.
Train with purpose: Seek perioperative‑specific modules and tip sheets; practice with real case pathways.
Review data: Track turnaround times, documentation completeness, and adverse events to drive workflow improvements.
Good configuration plus good habits equals smoother days and safer care.
How to Display Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology) Skills on Your Resume
6. Sterile Technique
Sterile technique is the disciplined set of practices that shields the field, instruments, and patient from contamination during invasive procedures.
Why It's Important
It’s your frontline defense against surgical site infections—protecting patients, reputations, and outcomes.
How to Improve Sterile Technique Skills
Hand hygiene and gloving: Perform thorough hand antisepsis; don gloves without compromising sterility.
Correct attire: Use appropriate gowns, masks, and eye protection; keep non‑sterile items out of the zone.
Maintain the field: Know your boundaries. Never reach over sterile areas and replace contaminated items immediately.
Instrument handling: Verify sterilization indicators, open packs properly, and transfer with sterile technique every time.
Team surveillance: Speak up at the first hint of a breach. Follow The Joint Commission standards and AORN guidance.
Vigilance is the habit that keeps infections at bay.
How to Display Sterile Technique Skills on Your Resume
7. Da Vinci Robotics
The da Vinci surgical system enables robot‑assisted, minimally invasive procedures using articulated instruments and magnified 3D visualization, all controlled by the surgeon at a console.
Why It's Important
Smaller incisions, precise movements, steadier control. Patients often recover faster, with fewer complications. Nurses anchor that precision through setup, troubleshooting, and flow.
How to Improve Da Vinci Robotics Skills
Targeted training: Complete role‑specific modules for docking, instrument exchanges, and emergency undocking.
Refine workflows: Build checklists for room setup, instrument sequencing, and turnover to reduce idle time.
Safety first: Rehearse power loss, system faults, and conversion to open procedures until responses are automatic.
Communication: Use crisp, anticipatory language with the console surgeon and bedside team.
Stay current: Keep up with platform updates, new instruments, and evidence on outcomes.
Preparation makes complex cases feel orderly and controlled.
How to Display Da Vinci Robotics Skills on Your Resume
8. Laparoscopic Skills
Laparoscopy relies on small incisions, insufflation, and video guidance. Surgical nurses prep and manage the equipment, assist with trocar placement and instrument exchanges, and guard patient safety end to end.
Why It's Important
Minimally invasive approaches can shorten stays and curb infection risk. Skilled assistance keeps the surgeon focused and the case moving.
How to Improve Laparoscopic Skills
Simulate: Practice camera navigation, depth perception, and instrument handling with box trainers or VR simulators.
Continuing education: Take perioperative courses devoted to laparoscopic workflows and troubleshooting.
Video review: Study recorded procedures to anticipate steps and recognize pitfalls.
Mentorship: Shadow experts and collect practical tips that don’t show up in manuals.
Workshops and conferences: Get hands‑on time with new tools and techniques.
Team communication: Standardize calls for instrument changes, insufflation adjustments, and critical steps.
Repetition builds finesse; preparation prevents surprises.
How to Display Laparoscopic Skills Skills on Your Resume
9. Wound Care
Wound care spans cleaning, dressing selection, offloading, and vigilant surveillance for infection or dehiscence—tailored to the wound’s type and stage.
Why It's Important
Good wound care speeds healing, cuts complications, and gets patients moving sooner with less pain.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Follow evidence: Use up-to-date guidance from wound care and infection prevention organizations.
Match dressing to need: Align moisture balance, exudate control, and antimicrobial properties with the wound’s presentation.
Protect sterility: Maintain aseptic technique at every change, every time.
Teach patients: Explain care steps, red flags, nutrition, and hydration in plain language.
Document precisely: Track size, depth, tissue type, drainage, odor, and pain; escalate early if trends worsen.
Small, consistent habits have big effects on healing trajectories.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
10. IV Insertion
IV insertion establishes reliable venous access for fluids, medications, blood products, and contrast—central to perioperative stability and therapy.
Why It's Important
Timely access supports anesthesia, pain control, and rapid correction of hemodynamic shifts when things change quickly.
How to Improve IV Insertion Skills
Know the anatomy: Prioritize sites based on vessel size and fragility; reassess if first pass fails.
Choose the right catheter: Match gauge to therapy and vein—smaller for fragile veins, larger for rapid infusions.
Tourniquet technique: Place 4–6 inches above the site; balance vein distention with comfort.
Clean technique and angle: Prep the skin thoroughly; insert bevel up at 10–30 degrees, advance smoothly.
Comfort measures: Explain steps, consider topical anesthetics, and stabilize the limb.
Practice, then practice more: Use task trainers and request feedback from seasoned colleagues.
Confidence comes from reps, not luck.
How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume
11. Patient Monitoring
Monitoring tracks vital signs, hemodynamics, ventilation, pain, and mental status from pre-op to PACU, flagging issues before they spiral.
Why It's Important
Early detection changes outcomes. Subtle changes in trends often speak louder than one-off readings.
How to Improve Patient Monitoring Skills
Use the tech well: Verify alarm parameters, confirm clean signals, and correlate monitor data with the patient in the bed.
Sharpen assessments: Combine numbers with thorough head‑to‑toe checks and trend tracking.
Standardize communication: Use SBAR or similar frameworks to escalate concerns fast and clearly.
Pre-op risk review: Tailor monitoring plans to comorbidities and procedure risk.
Post-op vigilance: Focus on respiratory status, bleeding, pain control, and early mobility to prevent complications.
Think trends, not snapshots. Act early.
How to Display Patient Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
12. Suturing Techniques
Suturing techniques—simple interrupted, continuous, mattress, subcuticular—close incisions securely and with intent toward function and cosmesis. Surgical nurses support selection, setup, and efficient closure.
Why It's Important
Good closure protects the repair, reduces infection risk, and sets the stage for cleaner scars and faster recovery.
How to Improve Suturing Techniques Skills
Nail the basics: Practice knot security, spacing, and tension control on suture pads until it’s second nature.
Know your materials: Match absorbable vs. non‑absorbable, needle types, and sizes to tissue and task.
Reps and realism: Use simulation kits and progressively harder models to build fine motor control.
Seek coaching: Ask surgeons and senior nurses for hands-on feedback and micro‑corrections.
Keep learning: Review surgical texts and workshops for advanced patterns and pearls.
Precision grows from deliberate, repeated practice.
How to Display Suturing Techniques Skills on Your Resume
