Top 12 ICU Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a standout resume as an ICU nurse means spotlighting skills that prove you can think fast, act precisely, and keep patients safe when seconds feel sharp. Make those competencies impossible to miss and you tilt the odds in your favor—hiring managers notice, interviews follow.
ICU Nurse Skills
- ACLS Certified
- PALS Certified
- Ventilator Management
- Hemodynamic Monitoring
- Epic EHR/EMR
- Oracle Health Millennium (Cerner)
- Critical Thinking
- IV Insertion
- Telemetry Interpretation
- Wound Care
- CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
- BLS Certified
1. ACLS Certified
ACLS Certified means you’ve completed Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support training—focused, high-stakes care for cardiac arrest, stroke, and other life-threatening emergencies.
Why It's Important
ACLS equips ICU nurses to recognize, lead, and treat cardiovascular crises with confidence, aligning actions to evidence-based algorithms when every heartbeat counts.
How to Improve ACLS Certified Skills
Regular Practice: Drill algorithms, rehearse rhythms, and refresh meds/doses often. Muscle memory matters.
Simulation: Run mock codes with your team. Practice leadership, closed-loop communication, and post-event debriefs.
Continuing Education: Track updates to guidelines and integrate new evidence into daily practice.
Peer Learning: Join code reviews and morbidity/mortality rounds. Real cases sharpen judgment.
Stay Current: Skim critical care journals and quick summaries to keep patterns, pitfalls, and pearls fresh.
How to Display ACLS Certified Skills on Your Resume
2. PALS Certified
PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) signals training in advanced emergency care for infants and children—vital in PICUs, EDs, transport, and mixed-age units.
Why It's Important
Pediatric physiology isn’t just “small adult.” PALS prepares ICU nurses to assess swiftly, dose correctly, and lead resuscitation tailored to kids, improving outcomes when it’s most fragile.
How to Improve PALS Certified Skills
Refresh the Framework: Review pediatric assessment triangles, airway differences, and age-based norms.
Scenario Reps: Run simulations—respiratory failure, septic shock, dysrhythmias. Tighten teamwork and timing.
Refresher Courses: Recert early rather than late; integrate new protocol changes before they’re urgent.
Equipment Familiarity: Practice with pediatric-size airways, masks, IO kits, weight-based tools.
Team Communication: Use closed-loop language and clear role assignments; it prevents tangles under pressure.
How to Display PALS Certified Skills on Your Resume
3. Ventilator Management
ICU ventilator management means setting modes and parameters, tracking gas exchange and mechanics, and constantly balancing comfort, synchrony, and lung protection.
Why It's Important
Right settings, right time. Good ventilator management preserves fragile lungs, prevents complications, and nudges patients toward safe liberation.
How to Improve Ventilator Management Skills
Know the Knobs: Understand modes, triggers, cycling, and alarms. Tie settings to physiology, not habit.
Lung-Protective Strategies: Low tidal volumes, careful plateau pressures, prudent PEEP. Minimize ventilator-induced injury.
Synchrony First: Spot asynchrony early—double triggering, auto-PEEP, flow starvation—and fix it.
Weaning Discipline: Daily readiness checks, spontaneous breathing trials, sedation lightening, and extubation criteria.
Infection Prevention: VAP bundles, oral care, head-of-bed elevation, subglottic suctioning.
Teamwork: Partner tightly with RTs and intensivists; shared eyes catch more.
How to Display Ventilator Management Skills on Your Resume
4. Hemodynamic Monitoring
Continuous assessment of perfusion and cardiac function using tools like arterial lines, CVP, advanced cardiac output monitoring, and bedside echo to guide precise therapy.
Why It's Important
Numbers tell a story—trends, not snapshots. Hemodynamic data directs fluids, vasoactive meds, and oxygen delivery, catching instability before it snowballs.
How to Improve Hemodynamic Monitoring Skills
Master the Physiology: Preload, afterload, contractility, SVR, MAP—connect values to physiology and patient presentation.
Device Proficiency: Zero, level, calibrate. Troubleshoot damping and waveform artifacts quickly.
Interpret Trends: Single data points mislead; trend lines guide decisions.
Protocol Literacy: Know your unit’s shock, sepsis, and transfusion pathways cold.
Collaborate: Share interpretations with the team and adjust plans in real time.
How to Display Hemodynamic Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
5. Epic EHR/EMR
Epic is a comprehensive electronic record system for documentation, orders, results, flowsheets, and coordination across the care team.
Why It's Important
In the ICU, clean documentation and rapid data retrieval save time, reduce errors, and keep care aligned across shifts and disciplines.
How to Improve Epic EHR/EMR Skills
Personalize Your Workspace: Customize toolbars, patient lists, and dashboards so critical ICU data sits upfront.
Efficiency Tools: Build SmartPhrases/SmartTexts, SmartLists, and dot phrases for assessments, handoffs, and common orders.
Flowsheet Mastery: Use flowsheet rows and summary views to surface trends—lactate, pressor doses, vent settings—at a glance.
In Basket and Results: Create filters and reminders; don’t let essential results go stale.
Training Refresh: Take advanced tip sheets or short labs offered by your organization; new features appear quietly and can be gold.
Device Integration: Verify accurate device-to-chart data mapping and reconcile discrepancies quickly.
How to Display Epic EMR Skills on Your Resume
6. Oracle Health Millennium (Cerner)
Oracle Health Millennium (formerly Cerner Millennium) is an EHR platform that supports ICU workflows—orders, meds, documentation, monitoring data, and interprofessional communication.
Why It's Important
A consistent, real-time view of the patient reduces handoff friction, error risk, and delays in care when time is unforgiving.
How to Improve Oracle Health Millennium Skills
Tailor Views: Configure ICU-focused patient lists, vitals panels, and MAR views so priorities stay visible.
Use Clinical Decision Support: Enable and respond appropriately to alerts for sepsis, med interactions, and critical labs without alarm fatigue.
Documentation Templates: Leverage templates and voice dictation where available to speed charting while preserving clarity.
Mobile/Bedside Tools: If your facility supports it, use mobile apps or barcode workflows to tighten safety and efficiency.
Feedback Loop: Report friction points and suggest build tweaks; small configuration changes can save minutes every hour.
How to Display Cerner Millennium Skills on Your Resume
7. Critical Thinking
The ICU demands rapid pattern recognition, prioritization under uncertainty, and calm recalibration as data shifts.
Why It's Important
Sound judgment prevents drift. It turns noise into signal, guides targeted interventions, and protects patients from both under- and over-treatment.
How to Improve Critical Thinking Skills
Reflective Practice: After tough shifts, debrief yourself. What did you miss? What did you nail? Write it down.
Case Discussions: Present cases, invite critique, and learn from others’ mental models.
Simulation: Pressure-test decisions in mock scenarios—rare, risky, or time-compressed events.
Structured Questions: Use PICO or similar frameworks to organize problems and seek targeted evidence.
Stress Management: Breathe, reset, and reduce cognitive overload; clarity returns when cortisol drops.
How to Display Critical Thinking Skills on Your Resume
8. IV Insertion
Placing a catheter into a vein for meds, fluids, blood draws—foundational access that keeps ICU therapies flowing.
Why It's Important
Fast access saves time in emergencies, improves comfort by reducing repeated sticks, and keeps care moving without friction.
How to Improve IV Insertion Skills
Anatomy Grounding: Map veins you can’t see—basilic, cephalic, median cubital—and know how body habitus changes the hunt.
Right Gear: Match catheter size to therapy; prep extension sets, securement, and dressing before the first poke.
Technique: Angle, advance, flash, float. Stabilize well and secure like it needs to last.
Palpation Skills: Let fingers, not eyes, lead—especially in edematous or darkly pigmented skin.
Ultrasound-Guided PIV: For difficult access, ultrasound boosts first-pass success and patient trust.
Iterate: Review each attempt—what vein, what went wrong or right, and what you’ll try next.
How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume
9. Telemetry Interpretation
Continuous monitoring and interpretation of cardiac rhythms and vital trends to catch deterioration early and act fast.
Why It's Important
Arrhythmias don’t wait. Early recognition and decisive response avert spirals—syncope, shock, arrest.
How to Improve Telemetry Interpretation Skills
Back to Basics: Nail P-QRS-T, intervals, axis, and rate calculations; then build to complex rhythms.
Pattern Drills: Daily rhythm strips—sinus vs. SVT, afib/flutter, AV blocks, VT/VF, paced beats.
Correlate Clinically: Don’t read strips in isolation—pair rhythm changes with electrolytes, meds, perfusion, and symptoms.
Alarm Hygiene: Set meaningful parameters and tailor them; reduce nuisance alarms so the real ones cut through.
Formal Courses: Take advanced ECG/telemetry refreshers and competency checks regularly.
How to Display Telemetry Interpretation Skills on Your Resume
10. Wound Care
Assessment, staging, and treatment of acute and chronic wounds using sterile technique and evidence-based interventions to promote healing and prevent complications.
Why It's Important
Good wound care prevents infection, cuts length of stay, and preserves dignity and comfort—all while guarding against avoidable harm.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Updated Guidelines: Use current protocols for pressure injury prevention and treatment (NPIAP terminology and staging).
Sharp Assessment: Differentiate moisture-associated damage, pressure injuries, and ischemic wounds; measure precisely and photograph per policy.
Modern Therapies: Apply NPWT, offloading, and advanced dressings appropriately; match product to wound goals.
Infection Control: Aseptic technique, timely dressing changes, and early culture/escalation when clinically indicated.
Team Approach: Partner with wound-care specialists, dietitians, and PT/OT; nutrition and mobility are treatment, not extras.
Teach Back: Coach patients and families on prevention and care—small daily habits pay off.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
11. CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy)
CRRT—also called CKRT—is a continuous dialysis modality used for hemodynamically unstable patients to fine-tune solute clearance and fluid balance around the clock.
Why It's Important
Gentle, steady therapy stabilizes physiology, allowing precise control of fluids, electrolytes, and acid–base status without tipping patients into hypotension.
How to Improve CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills
Prescription Accuracy: Verify dose, modality, and fluid goals; align clearance with clinical targets.
Anticoagulation Savvy: Monitor anticoagulation closely; consider regional citrate when appropriate to extend filter life and reduce bleeding risk.
Access Vigilance: Inspect catheter sites often, maintain strict line care, and troubleshoot flow issues early.
Fluid Ledger: Track I/O relentlessly; adjust net balance with the team to hit daily goals.
Electrolytes and Acid–Base: Trend potassium, calcium (ionized with citrate), bicarbonate, and phosphorus; titrate replacement fluids accordingly.
Alarm Mastery: Know your machine’s alerts and standard fixes—prevent downtime and clotting.
Comfort and Safety: Assess pain and sedation, prevent line dislodgement, and protect skin under securements.
Document and Communicate: Chart settings, interruptions, bag changes, and responses; huddles keep care aligned.
How to Display CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
12. BLS Certified
BLS (Basic Life Support) certification covers high-quality CPR, AED use, and relief of choking for all ages—the foundation beneath every code.
Why It's Important
When collapse hits, fundamentals win. Crisp compressions and early defibrillation save lives before advanced measures even start.
How to Improve BLS Certified Skills
Frequent Refresh: Practice compressions and bag-mask ventilation regularly; don’t wait for recert (often every two years).
Team Drills: Rehearse roles, rotation timing, and airway management to keep hands-on time high.
Quality Metrics: Use feedback devices when available—rate, depth, recoil, and minimal pauses.
Fitness: Build stamina; effective CPR is physical work.
Real-World Exposure: Join code teams or rapid response when possible to keep skills alive.
After-Action Reviews: Seek feedback and fold it into your next performance.
How to Display BLS Certified Skills on Your Resume
