Top 12 Licensed Practical Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a standout resume as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) means elevating the right blend of clinical know-how and human-centered skills. Employers want proof you can deliver safe, steady care, communicate under pressure, and work in sync with a team. Highlight the skills below with clear outcomes and real impact, and you’ll rise above the noise.
Licensed Practical Nurse Skills
- Patient Care
- Medication Administration
- Wound Care
- Vital Signs Monitoring
- Electronic Health Records (EHR)
- IV Therapy
- Phlebotomy
- CPR Certified
- Infection Control
- Patient Education
- HIPAA Compliance
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
1. Patient Care
Patient care spans hands-on clinical support and attentive, compassionate interaction. LPNs assess, implement, and document care under a nurse or provider’s direction, tending to physical needs while not losing sight of comfort, dignity, and trust.
Why It's Important
Good patient care shortens recoveries, prevents complications, reduces readmissions, and strengthens safety. It’s the heartbeat of nursing practice—and often the difference patients feel most.
How to Improve Patient Care Skills
Keep learning: Refresh core skills, review protocols, and stay current with your facility’s standards and evidence-based practices.
Sharpen communication: Listen first, then act. Use plain language, confirm understanding, and loop in the team early when status shifts.
Center the patient: Respect preferences, routines, cultural needs. Small adjustments can change outcomes.
Lead with empathy: Calm tone, steady presence. Patients heal better when they feel seen and safe.
Work smarter: Prioritize, cluster care, and anticipate needs to prevent delays and missed care.
Use technology well: Document clearly, review trends, and flag risks early using your EHR and monitoring tools.
Attentive, consistent care adds up—minute by minute, shift by shift.
How to Display Patient Care Skills on Your Resume
2. Medication Administration
Medication administration means delivering the right drug to the right patient in the right dose, route, and time—with accurate documentation and vigilant monitoring.
Why It's Important
Safe med passes prevent harm, speed recovery, and keep treatments on track. Errors ripple; precision protects.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Follow the rights—consistently: Patient, medication, dose, route, time, and documentation. Verify allergies and indications before you scan or administer.
Use safety tech: Barcode scanning and eMAR reduce errors. If tech flags something, stop and reassess.
Double-check high-alert meds: Independent verification for look-alikes, sound-alikes, insulin, anticoagulants, concentrated electrolytes.
Teach and assess: Explain purpose and side effects in plain terms; watch for adverse reactions and escalate fast.
Reconcile accurately: Keep home meds, new orders, and discontinuations clean and current.
Stay organized: Time-sensitive meds first, avoid interruptions, and document at the point of care.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
3. Wound Care
Wound care includes assessment, dressing selection, infection prevention, pressure relief, and steady evaluation of healing progress—aligned with scope and orders.
Why It's Important
Good wound care prevents infection, reduces pain, speeds closure, and stops small problems from spiraling into severe complications.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Assess with precision: Measure size, depth, exudate, odor, tissue type, and surrounding skin. Stage pressure injuries correctly.
Choose the right dressing: Match moisture balance and wound characteristics; revise when the picture changes.
Protect from infection: Meticulous hand hygiene, clean/aseptic technique, and timely dressing changes.
Support the whole patient: Adequate protein, hydration, glucose control, offloading/positioning, and pain management.
Document trends: Track progress and flag stalled wounds for advanced evaluation.
Collaborate: Coordinate with RNs, providers, dietitians, and wound specialists for comprehensive plans.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
4. Vital Signs Monitoring
Monitoring temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and pain—accurately and at the right cadence—gives an early warning when things tilt.
Why It's Important
Trends tell the story. Early changes allow early action, and early action saves outcomes.
How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills
Master technique: Correct cuff sizing and placement, patient positioning, manual confirmations when readings look off.
Be consistent: Measure at rest and under similar conditions; reduce white-coat and activity artifacts.
Think in trends: One number can mislead. Pattern shifts matter more—chart and report promptly.
Calm the moment: Anxiety skews vitals. A steady approach helps normalize readings.
Escalate fast: Trigger rapid response criteria without delay when thresholds are crossed.
Clean equipment: Disinfect between patients, check calibration, and replace faulty gear.
How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
5. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
EHRs centralize history, meds, allergies, results, and plans—so care is coordinated, legible, and visible in real time.
Why It's Important
Clear documentation drives clear decisions. Better data, better handoffs, fewer errors.
How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills
Train to your workflow: Learn smart phrases, templates, and shortcuts that speed accuracy without copy-paste clutter.
Document what you did—precisely: Timely notes, objective findings, and complete med records.
Standardize language: Use approved terms and problem lists so the team reads the same map.
Protect privacy: Strong passwords, secure messaging, role-based access, and screen locking every time.
Plan for downtime: Know paper workflows and how to reconcile once systems return.
How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume
6. IV Therapy
IV therapy involves initiating, monitoring, and discontinuing intravenous fluids and medications within LPN scope and under appropriate supervision per state regulations and facility policy.
Why It's Important
When patients need fast action—fluids, antibiotics, electrolytes—IV access delivers results quickly and reliably.
How to Improve IV Therapy Skills
Know your scope: State rules and facility policies define what you can initiate, adjust, and monitor.
Aseptic technique every time: Skin prep, no-touch insertion, securement, and site protection.
Choose wisely: Vein selection, catheter size, and pump settings matched to therapy and vessel quality.
Monitor like a hawk: Recognize infiltration, extravasation, phlebitis, and infection early; act immediately.
Maintain and label: Tubing change intervals, site rotation schedules, clear dating, and flush protocols.
Communicate changes: Escalate pain, swelling, or flow issues; document interventions and outcomes.
How to Display IV Therapy Skills on Your Resume
7. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the collection of blood specimens via venipuncture or capillary sampling for diagnostic testing and monitoring.
Why It's Important
Accurate, timely specimens drive accurate diagnoses. Clean draws reduce recollects, delays, and patient discomfort.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Identify correctly: Two identifiers, always. Verify orders and match labels at the bedside.
Select the site and tool: Vein choice, needle gauge, and angle suited to patient anatomy and test needs.
Follow order of draw: Prevent cross-contamination and hemolysis; invert tubes as required.
Reduce complications: Anchor vein, minimize re-sticks, release tourniquet promptly, apply pressure well.
Handle specimens right: Label immediately, note time, and send within required windows or storage conditions.
Keep it calm: Reassure patients, explain briefly, and watch for vasovagal signs.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
8. CPR Certified
CPR certification confirms current training to respond when breathing or circulation stops—delivering high-quality compressions, rescue breaths when indicated, and early defibrillation.
Why It's Important
Cardiac arrest doesn’t wait. Skilled, immediate CPR buys time and saves lives.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Renew on schedule: Maintain active certification (typically every two years) and refresh sooner if skills feel rusty.
Practice hands-on: Use manikins to refine depth, rate, recoil, and minimal pause techniques.
Drill with your team: Mock codes sharpen roles, communication, and equipment familiarity.
Stay current: Guidelines evolve; update your approach when standards change.
Know the equipment: AED operation, barrier devices, and local emergency protocols.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
9. Infection Control
Infection control is the disciplined use of hygiene, PPE, device care, and cleaning protocols to stop transmission and keep patients and staff safe.
Why It's Important
Fewer infections mean shorter stays, lower costs, and safer environments. It’s everyone’s job, every time.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Hand hygiene without fail: Before and after each patient, after glove removal, and after contact with the environment.
Use PPE correctly: Right gear for the right isolation type; don and doff in the correct order.
Safe injections and devices: Single-dose vials when possible, no syringe reuse, and aseptic line access.
Environmental diligence: High-touch surface disinfection, equipment cleaning, and proper linen/biowaste handling.
Immunize and report: Keep vaccines current; report exposures and breaches immediately.
Teach patients: Cough etiquette, handwashing, and at-home care instructions that actually stick.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
10. Patient Education
Patient education equips people to understand their condition, medications, and self-care so they can make informed decisions and manage confidently at home.
Why It's Important
Clear teaching improves adherence, lowers complications, and boosts satisfaction. Confused patients don’t heal well.
How to Improve Patient Education Skills
Start with what they know: Assess health literacy, learning style, and cultural needs.
Use plain language: Short sentences, concrete examples, no jargon.
Teach-back works: Ask patients to explain or demonstrate—then fill the gaps.
Show and tell: Visual aids, checklists, pill organizers, and simple diagrams help retention.
Provide take-home materials: Easy-to-read handouts and instructions aligned with your facility’s standards.
Follow up: Reinforce at the next visit or by phone; adjust the plan if it isn’t sticking.
How to Display Patient Education Skills on Your Resume
11. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means guarding protected health information—sharing only what’s necessary, with the right people, through secure channels, and documenting appropriately.
Why It's Important
Privacy is legal, ethical, and foundational to trust. Breaches harm patients and organizations.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Know PHI rules: Minimum necessary standard, patient rights, and when disclosures are allowed.
Communicate securely: Approved messaging systems only; never unsecure email or personal devices.
Verify identity: Confirm recipients before releasing information or discussing details.
Protect screens and paper: Lock workstations, store records securely, and shred properly.
Report quickly: Escalate suspected breaches, phishing attempts, and lost devices immediately.
Access appropriately: Role-based access, no curiosity viewing, no sharing passwords—ever.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
12. Basic Life Support (BLS)
BLS covers immediate, life-preserving actions: high-quality CPR, AED use, and relief of choking for adults, children, and infants.
Why It's Important
In those first minutes, skillful BLS is the bridge. It preserves brain and heart until advanced care arrives.
How to Improve Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills
Keep certification current: Renew regularly and practice in between courses.
Perfect the basics: Correct rate and depth, full recoil, minimal interruptions, and effective ventilations.
Use the AED fast: Power on, pads on, follow prompts without delay.
Train as a team: Practice roles, closed-loop communication, and rapid equipment setup.
Debrief and improve: After drills or events, review what worked and tighten what didn’t.
How to Display Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills on Your Resume
