Top 12 Psychiatric Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume

Psychiatric nursing asks for a blend of clinical rigor and human warmth. Showcasing the right skills on your resume doesn’t just help you get noticed—it signals you can meet patients where they are, think clearly under strain, and collaborate across teams without losing your compassionate edge.

Psychiatric Nurse Skills

1. Empathy
2. De-escalation
3. Psychopharmacology
4. EHR (Electronic Health Records)
5. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
6. Crisis Intervention
7. Patient Advocacy
8. Mindfulness Techniques
9. Motivational Interviewing
10. HIPAA Compliance
11. Telehealth Proficiency
12. DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

1. Empathy

Empathy, in psychiatric nursing, means tuning in to a patient’s experience and emotions while holding steady boundaries. It’s feeling with, not drowning in.

Why It's Important

Trust grows from empathy. Patients open up more, follow care plans better, and feel safer. Therapeutic alliances get stronger, and outcomes often improve.

How to Improve Empathy Skills

1. Active listening: Track words, tone, and what goes unsaid. Pause before responding.

2. Reflect and reframe: Summarize feelings you hear; check accuracy without judgment.

3. Mindful presence: Short grounding breaths before tough conversations keep you attuned.

4. Seek feedback: Invite input from peers and patients; adjust your approach.

5. Cultural humility: Stay curious about identity, values, and context. Avoid assumptions.

6. Protect boundaries: Compassion with clarity prevents over-identification and burnout.

How to Display Empathy Skills on Your Resume

2. De-escalation

De-escalation blends calm communication, safe space, and trauma-informed choices to reduce agitation and prevent harm. Words, posture, and tone do heavy lifting here.

Why It's Important

It reduces restraints and injuries, preserves dignity, and keeps care therapeutic. Safer units, fewer crises, better trust.

How to Improve De-escalation Skills

1. Regulate yourself first: Slow voice, neutral stance, open hands. Patients feel your steadiness.

2. Offer choices: Small options (seating, drink of water, step outside) restore control.

3. Use non-threatening body language: Maintain space, angle your body, avoid blocking exits.

4. Set clear, simple limits: One direction at a time; explain the “why.”

5. Apply structured tools: Use brief violence-risk screens (e.g., BVC) and team huddles.

6. Engage sensory and comfort strategies: Quiet rooms, weighted items, soothing stimuli when appropriate.

7. Debrief after incidents: What helped, what didn’t, and how to adjust next time.

How to Display De-escalation Skills on Your Resume

3. Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology covers how psychiatric medications work, when to use them, what to monitor, and how to teach patients about risks and benefits. Safety first, always.

Why It's Important

Accurate administration and vigilant monitoring improve symptom control and reduce adverse events. Patients get tailored care, not guesswork.

How to Improve Psychopharmacology Skills

1. Master core drug classes: Antidepressants, antipsychotics (including LAIs), mood stabilizers, anxiolytics, stimulants, sleep agents.

2. Know high-risk issues: QTc prolongation, serotonin syndrome, NMS, metabolic syndrome, EPS/TD, clozapine ANC monitoring, MAOI interactions.

3. Track labs and vitals: Metabolic panels, prolactin when indicated, EKGs, levels for lithium/valproate, weight and waist changes.

4. Manage interactions: Watch cytochrome P450 effects, smoking status, alcohol/illicit use, and OTC/herbal add-ons.

5. Teach clearly: Indications, onset expectations, side effects, adherence strategies, shared decision-making.

6. Stay current: Review guidelines, black box updates, and emerging pharmacogenomic considerations.

How to Display Psychopharmacology Skills on Your Resume

4. EHR (Electronic Health Records)

EHRs store psychiatric histories, assessments, plans, meds, and progress notes. Real-time, team-accessible, and audit-trailed.

Why It's Important

Accurate, timely documentation drives safer care, cleaner handoffs, and continuity across services. Less friction, better outcomes.

How to Improve EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills

1. Chart with intention: Clear, concise, patient-centered notes; separate facts, observations, and clinical judgment.

2. Use smart tools: Templates, smart phrases, problem lists, and clinical decision support—without turning notes into clones.

3. Interoperability savvy: Reconcile meds and histories across systems; update allergies and diagnoses promptly.

4. Privacy and security: Minimum-necessary access, multi-factor authentication, strong passwords, timely logouts, “break-the-glass” only with justification.

5. Patient engagement: Encourage portal use and shared notes; correct errors through formal amendment workflows.

6. Audit and improve: Review your entries, close gaps, and use feedback to refine documentation habits.

How to Display EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills on Your Resume

5. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

CBT helps patients spot unhelpful thoughts and behaviors, test them, and build healthier patterns. Practical, structured, evidence-based.

Why It's Important

It supports measurable gains in depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more. Nurses reinforce skills between sessions and translate insights into daily routines.

How to Improve CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Skills

1. Strengthen formulation: Link triggers, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical cues.

2. Use core tools: Thought records, behavioral activation, exposure hierarchies, behavior experiments, coping cards.

3. Assign and review homework: Small, achievable steps; celebrate wins and troubleshoot barriers.

4. Measure outcomes: Track PHQ-9, GAD-7, or similar scales to guide care.

5. Seek supervision: Maintain fidelity while adapting to culture, literacy, and context.

How to Display CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Skills on Your Resume

6. Crisis Intervention

Brief, focused support to stabilize acute distress, assess risk, and create a safe next step. Fast, calm, precise.

Why It's Important

Early, skilled intervention lowers harm, prevents avoidable hospitalization, and builds a bridge to ongoing care.

How to Improve Crisis Intervention Skills

1. Use structured assessments: Suicide and violence risk screenings (e.g., C-SSRS), substance use checks, and safety planning.

2. Prioritize least restrictive options: Verbal de-escalation, environmental changes, and support persons before considering restraints.

3. Have clear protocols: Rapid team roles, emergency notifications, and escalation pathways.

4. Know legal criteria: Involuntary holds, consent, and documentation that meets policy and state law.

5. Coordinate handoffs: Warm transfers to outpatient, crisis lines, or community resources with follow-up arranged.

6. Debrief and recover: Staff and patient debriefs to learn, heal, and prevent repeat crises.

How to Display Crisis Intervention Skills on Your Resume

7. Patient Advocacy

Advocacy means protecting rights, elevating patient voice, and ensuring care aligns with values, not just diagnoses.

Why It's Important

Respectful, rights-based care improves engagement and outcomes. People feel seen, informed, and included.

How to Improve Patient Advocacy Skills

1. Promote informed choice: Explain options, risks, benefits, and alternatives in plain language.

2. Support psychiatric advance directives: Encourage documentation of preferences for future care.

3. Address barriers: Arrange interpreters, accessibility accommodations, and transportation or coverage support when possible.

4. Collaborate widely: Include family or supports (with permission) and engage multidisciplinary teams.

5. Escalate concerns: Speak up about safety, equity, or ethical conflicts through proper channels.

6. Document advocacy: Record preferences, refusals, and shared decisions clearly.

How to Display Patient Advocacy Skills on Your Resume

8. Mindfulness Techniques

Mindfulness trains attention to the present moment—thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations—without wrestling with them. Nurses use it to steady themselves and coach patients.

Why It's Important

It cuts through reactivity, builds emotional regulation, and sharpens focus. Burnout eases; empathy grows.

How to Improve Mindfulness Techniques Skills

1. Practice daily: Short breathwork, micro-pauses between tasks, brief body scans.

2. Teach simple tools: 4–6 paced breathing, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, sensory anchors.

3. Adapt carefully: Modify for psychosis or severe dissociation—eyes open, shorter practices, stronger grounding.

4. Blend into care: Use mindful check-ins before tough topics or procedures.

5. Reflect: Journal moments you were present versus distracted; refine habits.

How to Display Mindfulness Techniques Skills on Your Resume

9. Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative style that draws out a patient’s own reasons for change. Less telling, more evoking.

Why It's Important

It boosts engagement and adherence, especially when ambivalence blocks movement. Patients become the authors of their goals.

How to Improve Motivational Interviewing Skills

1. Hold the MI spirit: Partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation over persuasion.

2. Use OARS: Open questions, affirmations, reflective listening, summaries.

3. Elicit change talk: Draw out Desire, Ability, Reasons, Need, Commitment; respond to sustain talk without arguing.

4. Work with ambivalence: Decisional balance, confidence rulers, next-step scaling.

5. Self-monitor: Avoid the “righting reflex.” Record practice sessions and seek feedback.

How to Display Motivational Interviewing Skills on Your Resume

10. HIPAA Compliance

HIPAA compliance safeguards the privacy, integrity, and availability of protected health information. Psychiatric records demand special care.

Why It's Important

Privacy builds trust. Proper handling of sensitive information protects patients and your organization.

How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills

1. Minimum necessary: Access and share only what’s needed for care.

2. Secure the basics: MFA, strong passwords, encrypted messaging, locked charts, clean desk, timed screen locks.

3. Verify identity: Confirm who you’re speaking to before disclosing PHI—every time.

4. Mind your setting: No hallway conversations; choose private spaces for sensitive topics.

5. Vendor diligence: Use approved platforms and maintain Business Associate Agreements when required.

6. Breach readiness: Know the reporting steps, timelines, and documentation requirements.

7. Stay updated: Monitor organizational policies and evolving federal and state privacy guidance, including protections for particularly sensitive categories of health information.

How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume

11. Telehealth Proficiency

Telehealth proficiency means delivering effective mental health care remotely—technically smooth, clinically sound, and privacy-conscious.

Why It's Important

It expands access, keeps continuity intact, and meets patients where they are. Quality care, minus the commute.

How to Improve Telehealth Proficiency Skills

1. Tech check: Test audio, video, lighting, and backups. Offer simple troubleshooting tips.

2. Privacy and consent: Confirm location, emergency contacts, and informed consent for telehealth at the start.

3. Crisis planning: Know local resources; have clear protocols if risk escalates during a session.

4. Communicate for camera: Slow pace, clear cues, strategic summaries; use screen sharing for psychoeducation.

5. Documentation and policy: Record modality, limitations, and safety steps; follow licensure and payer rules relevant to your practice.

How to Display Telehealth Proficiency Skills on Your Resume

12. DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

DBT blends acceptance and change strategies to build mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. It’s structured, skills-forward, and often transformative for complex presentations.

Why It's Important

For patients with chronic emotion dysregulation, self-harm, or suicidal ideation, DBT offers a roadmap and language for stability. Nurses reinforce skills at the bedside and in real life.

How to Improve DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Skills

1. Formal training: Learn the model deeply—targets, stages, modes of treatment, and fidelity.

2. Consultation support: Join or create a consultation team to sustain adherence and prevent drift.

3. Use the tools: Diary cards, chain analysis, solution generation, and skills coaching between sessions (with clear boundaries).

4. Repetition and generalization: Practice skills in-session and tie them to daily triggers and routines.

5. Self-care: Model mindfulness and emotion regulation to teach them well.

How to Display DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Skills on Your Resume