Nurse Practitioner Resume Example & Writing Guide

What is a nurse practitioner’s job?

A nurse practitioner (NP) performs many of the same tasks as doctors, including conducting physical exams, diagnosing health conditions, treating diseases, and prescribing medications. They are trained and licensed to manage patients’ health conditions by treating illnesses and supporting disease prevention. 

Why use this nurse practitioner resume example?

Being a nurse practitioner requires a lot of patience and great people skills. The example resume opens with a strong headline that focuses on patient care. The next section is the key qualifications, which has a number of bullet-pointed items talking about their outstanding skills and accomplishments. This section does a great job of summarizing their best abilities and showcases them in an easy-to-read format.

Nursing requires a lot of education and training. That is why it’s a good idea to put your education section near the beginning of your nurse practitioner resume, as in this example. A hiring manager wants to know right away if a candidate has the needed knowledge and degrees. For your degrees, list the name of the degree, the name of the school, and the location (city and state). Similarly, nursing also involves certifications and licensing. This is another very important set of information to put up front on your resume. Include the name of the certification or license, the issuing organization, and the expiration date (if applicable).

The career experience section on the example resume is well done using a clean and simple format. Each entry includes the necessary information, including the company name, location, years worked, and job title. Then there’s a description of the job role. It is important to keep each description short, around three to five sentences, because you’ll need that extra space for your accomplishments. When deciding what to include, try to align your past job experiences with the role you are applying for. 

The most crucial section of each job description is the bullet points at the end. These should include your biggest responsibilities and best accomplishments. You need to impress your potential new employer, so use your best stuff for the bullets. Don’t have too many bullets, no more than five or six. This keeps your resume short and doesn’t overload the reader with too much information.

How to write a great nurse practitioner resume 

When you’re writing your nurse practitioner resume, you must include all the necessary things like your education, certifications, and licenses. When including achievements, talk about the things you did that were unique or exceptional. How did you best serve your patients? Obviously include anything that shows how you excelled at your job (recognition, awards, performance goals exceeded). Did you do something that was above-and-beyond the normal job responsibilities? Remember that your goal is to impress the hiring manager, or at least keep their attention. 

A great way to make your resume writing pop is by using strong action verbs for everything that you did. For example, instead of saying you managed something, use oversaw or directed that activity. Also, avoid using the same words over and over. Switch them up and use different words (synonyms) even if the task was very similar to something you included on another job. 

Which key skills are relevant for a nurse practitioner resume?

Nurse practitioners are highly skilled professionals that work in very stressful and challenging environments. They have lots of hard skills because they’re well-educated and highly trained. The list below has some examples of excellent hard and soft skills to have on a nurse practitioner’s resume:

• Preventative care

• Healthcare administration

• Telemedicine

• Communication

• Clinical Consultations

• Patient care and advocacy 

• Organization

• Treatment planning

• Time management