Top 12 Travel Nurse Skills to Put on Your Resume
Travel nursing moves fast, and hiring managers skim. Your resume has to carry clinical punch and human sense, signaling you can land in a new unit and get to work without a long runway. The skills below form a practical spine for that story—technical depth, sound judgment, and easy adaptability across shifting environments.
Travel Nurse Skills
- ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
- PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
- BLS (Basic Life Support)
- EPIC (Electronic Health Records)
- Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology)
- Telemetry
- IV Insertion
- Wound Care
- Triage
- Ventilator Management
- Meditech (Healthcare Software)
- Phlebotomy
1. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)
ACLS certification centers on treating cardiac arrest and cardiovascular emergencies—rhythm recognition, defibrillation, airway decisions, and time-sensitive medications. It’s a core competency for travel nurses stepping into high-acuity settings.
Why It's Important
When seconds disappear, ACLS turns chaos into a path: synchronized interventions, clear communication, and safer outcomes. New facility, new team, same algorithms—reliability matters.
How to Improve ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills
Keep your algorithms fresh and your hands ready. Review current science updates, drill megacodes with high-fidelity simulation, and practice closed-loop communication. Tighten rhythm recognition and dosing (epinephrine, amiodarone, shock sequences). Debrief real events, note lessons, repeat until it’s reflex. Maintain active certification—typically renewed every two years—and carry concise checklists or pocket prompts. Use a metronome for compressions and a timer for drug intervals to stay precise under pressure.
How to Display ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
2. PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
PALS equips you to stabilize infants and children in crisis—airway, breathing, circulation, shock, and post-resuscitation care, all tailored to size and age.
Why It's Important
Pediatric emergencies are rare but unforgiving. With PALS, you translate fear into structure: weight-based dosing, rapid airway moves, and confident team direction anywhere you land.
How to Improve PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills
Refresh current guidelines routinely. Run pediatric simulations, especially respiratory failure, shock, and arrest. Drill Broselow-based dosing and weight estimation, IO access, pediatric airway adjuncts, and rhythm interpretation. Practice debriefs after pediatric codes and keep certification current (commonly every two years). Build quick-reference cards for age-based vitals, normal ranges, and equipment sizes.
How to Display PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
3. BLS (Basic Life Support)
BLS covers the foundations: high-quality CPR, AED use, airway support, and relief of choking across all ages.
Why It's Important
Every code starts with BLS done well. Depth, rate, recoil, minimal pauses—get these right and outcomes rise, no matter the unit or hospital.
How to Improve BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills
Practice compressions with feedback manikins to lock in depth and rate. Rehearse rapid AED pad placement and two-rescuer bag-mask ventilation with a good seal. Drill adult, child, and infant choking relief. Pair up for frequent short refreshers and renew on schedule (typically every two years). Keep muscle memory sharp with brief, regular micro-drills on shift.
How to Display BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills on Your Resume
4. EPIC (Electronic Health Records)
Epic is a widely adopted EHR that centralizes documentation, orders, results, and communication—vital for continuity as you rotate through new facilities.
Why It's Important
Less time hunting, more time nursing. With Epic proficiency, you glide through charting, find what matters, and keep care consistent across locations.
How to Improve EPIC (Electronic Health Records) Skills
Personalize the system: build SmartPhrases, SmartLinks, and favorites that match your typical workflows. Learn report filters, In Basket triage, order sets, and handoff tools. Use mobile tools like Haiku, Canto, or Rover where available to access data on the move. Shadow a super user for an hour, capture tips, and prune your templates regularly so they stay snappy. Protect privacy—log off promptly, avoid sharing credentials, and keep screens clear of bystanders.
How to Display EPIC (Electronic Health Records) Skills on Your Resume
5. Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology)
Cerner (now part of Oracle Health) delivers EHR tools that span documentation, orders, results, and messaging. Travel nurses encounter it often, especially in large health systems.
Why It's Important
Knowing the platform means faster charting, fewer clicks, and fewer errors when you’re the new face on the floor.
How to Improve Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology) Skills
Request role-specific training on arrival and identify a super user in the unit. Set up favorites, Quick Orders, and documentation templates early. Learn PowerChart workflows, Dynamic Documentation, and the Message Center. Keep a short “cheat sheet” for local custom builds and common order sets. Ask for at-the-elbow support during your first shifts to sharpen navigation and speed.
How to Display Cerner (Healthcare Information Technology) Skills on Your Resume
6. Telemetry
Telemetry is continuous cardiac and physiologic monitoring with real-time alarms and trend review—watchful eyes for the subtle changes that matter.
Why It's Important
Early warning buys time. Catch arrhythmias, ischemia, or decompensation sooner, intervene faster, and head off crashes.
How to Improve Telemetry Skills
Prep the skin well and place leads accurately to cut artifact. Set alarm parameters thoughtfully to reduce alarm fatigue but never mute risk. Strengthen rhythm interpretation—AF with RVR, SVT, VT/VF, AV blocks, ST shifts—and know your unit’s escalation triggers. Collaborate with monitor techs, document events with times and strips, and confirm any change with clinical assessment. For ambulatory telemetry, check battery, signal, and patient education before sending anyone walking.
How to Display Telemetry Skills on Your Resume
7. IV Insertion
IV insertion means swift, safe vascular access for fluids, meds, and blood sampling—bread-and-butter work that smooths care in every unit.
Why It's Important
Access opens the door to treatment. In emergencies, speed and first-pass success change the trajectory.
How to Improve IV Insertion Skills
Match catheter to the task: 18G for rapid infusions, 20–22G for routine therapy, 24G for fragile veins. Warm the limb, position dependently, and apply an effective tourniquet. Palpate, don’t just look. Bevel up, shallow angle (about 10–30 degrees), advance the catheter smoothly, confirm blood return, flush for patency, and secure with a stabilization device. Use ultrasound guidance for difficult access, and escalate to midline or PICC when appropriate. Keep infection prevention tight—hand hygiene, chlorhexidine prep, dry time, and clean dressings.
How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume
8. Wound Care
Wound care blends assessment, infection control, moisture balance, and protection to speed healing and spare complications.
Why It's Important
Better wound care means fewer infections, shorter stays, and less pain. It also signals meticulous practice—something every manager notices.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Think in the TIME framework: Tissue, Infection/Inflammation, Moisture balance, Edge advancement. Know debridement options and when to defer. Choose dressings by exudate and goals—foams, alginates, hydrofibers, hydrocolloids, silicone contact layers. Use negative pressure wound therapy when indicated. Offload pressure points, especially heels and diabetic feet. Measure, stage pressure injuries accurately, and photograph per policy. Loop in a CWOCN for complex cases. Don’t forget the basics: nutrition, glycemic control, and pain management shape healing velocity.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
9. Triage
Triage is the rapid sorting of patients by urgency, directing finite resources toward the most time-sensitive needs first.
Why It's Important
Right patient, right priority, right now. In crowded settings, good triage prevents harm and keeps flow from grinding to a halt.
How to Improve Triage Skills
Use a structured tool such as the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). Run a crisp primary survey (airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure) and hunt for red flags fast. Verify vitals, pain, and mental status early, then reassess often. Document time stamps and decision points. Communicate succinctly with providers and charge nurses, and adjust priorities as new data arrives. Know disaster and surge protocols so you can flex under pressure.
How to Display Triage Skills on Your Resume
10. Ventilator Management
Ventilator management means setting, monitoring, and adjusting mechanical ventilation to support breathing while avoiding harm.
Why It's Important
Ventilated patients are fragile. Skilled management prevents complications, speeds weaning, and steadies the ICU rhythm.
How to Improve Ventilator Management Skills
Know your modes (AC/VC, AC/PC, SIMV, PSV) and what they do. Favor lung-protective strategies: low tidal volumes around 4–8 mL/kg ideal body weight, plateau pressure under 30 cm H2O, and sensible PEEP/FiO2 pairs. Watch waveforms for asynchrony, check alarms intentionally, and track ABGs alongside clinical signs. Prevent VAP with a bundle (elevate HOB, oral care, sedation goals, spontaneous awakening and breathing trials). Collaborate closely with respiratory therapists and physicians, and communicate goals with families in plain language.
How to Display Ventilator Management Skills on Your Resume
11. Meditech (Healthcare Software)
Meditech delivers integrated EHR solutions (with Expanse widely used) for documentation, orders, and care coordination across inpatient and ambulatory spaces.
Why It's Important
Consistency matters when you drop into new workflows. Meditech fluency means cleaner documentation and safer handoffs from day one.
How to Improve Meditech (Healthcare Software) Skills
Take brief, targeted training at onboarding and map unit-specific workflows immediately. Create favorites, quick text, and documentation templates that match the local build. Learn medication reconciliation, discharge workflows, and barcode medication administration steps to avoid delays. Keep a downtime plan in your pocket and verify where to find read-only backups should systems go dark.
How to Display Meditech (Healthcare Software) Skills on Your Resume
12. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is precise, calm blood collection across ages and vein types—clean sticks, correct tubes, and accurate labeling.
Why It's Important
Timely, high-quality samples drive diagnosis. Smooth draws reduce patient anxiety and repeat sticks that waste time.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Choose the vein thoughtfully and warm the area if needed. Use the right device (straight needle or butterfly) and minimize tourniquet time. Follow the recommended order of draw: blood cultures first, then light blue (citrate), serum (red/gold), green (heparin), lavender (EDTA), and gray (fluoride). Invert tubes as required, label at the bedside, and prevent hemolysis with gentle handling and correct needle gauge. For pediatrics or difficult access, consider microtainers or smaller gauges and offer clear, reassuring communication. Practice impeccable sharps safety and standard precautions every single time.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
