For licensed practical nurses (LPN) and licensed vocational nurses (LVN) aiming to advance their careers in the nursing field, a standout resume is essential. In this guide, we’ll explore practical advice and detailed steps to help you craft a resume that effectively showcases your nursing skills, professional experience, and certifications.
Whether you’re an experienced LPN seeking new opportunities or are a recent grad entering the workforce, this guide will equip you with the tools needed to highlight your qualifications, demonstrate your commitment to patient care, and capture the attention of hiring managers.
LPN Resume Example
What to Include on an LPN Resume
To make your LPN resume truly stand out, including the right information is crucial for showcasing your most relevant and impressive qualifications. A well-crafted resume not only effectively highlights your strengths but also significantly increases the chances that hiring managers or recruiters will take notice. Here’s a guide to the key elements every LPN resume should include.
Start with your up-to-date contact information—full name, phone number, email address, and current location. Additionally, use clear formatting and employ headings to separate each section of your resume. This not only makes it easier for hiring managers to scan your resume but also helps organize your qualifications into well-defined segments. Here’s what you should include on your LPN resume to make it shine:
- Professional Summary: Start with a brief overview of your nursing experience. Highlight your key skills, specializations, and any other qualities that make you an excellent candidate for an LPN role.
- Skills and qualifications: Detail your specific nursing skills, such as activities of daily living, case management, clinical workflows, and medication administration. Don’t forget to mention soft skills that are important for LPNs, like empathy and compassion.
- Work experience: Provide detailed descriptions of your previous nursing roles. Focus on your duties, accomplishments, and any LPN experience. If you haven’t worked as an LPN yet, include examples from your past roles that demonstrate why you’re well-suited for the position.
- Licenses and certifications: List all relevant nursing licenses and certifications, including state licenses and credentials like BLS, ACLS, and PALS. Be sure to include their expiration dates.
- Education: Include your degrees, the institutions where you earned them, and your graduation dates. Also, mention any specialized training or continuing education that’s relevant to nursing.
Additional LPN Resume Best Practices
To ensure your resume makes a strong impression, consider these formatting tips and best practices:
- Incorporate relevant keywords: Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter resumes based on specific keywords. Including these relevant terms helps your resume get noticed.
- Use clear formatting: Hiring managers sift through hundreds of resumes daily. Make yours stand out by using a clean, readable font and organizing it into clear sections.
- Utilize bullet points: Since hiring managers often skim resumes, bullet points effectively highlight your top qualifications, experience, and skills.
- Customize for each job: Tailor your resume to align with the specific requirements of each LPN role you apply for, showcasing the experience and skills that make you a great fit.
- Employ action verbs: Use dynamic action verbs to describe your achievements and responsibilities. This approach makes you seem more proactive and engaged.
- Include metrics and numbers: Adding quantifiable achievements demonstrates the concrete impact you’ve had in previous roles, giving hiring managers a clearer idea of the value you bring.
- Proofread carefully: Finally, thorough proofreading is essential to avoid spelling and grammatical errors. Mistakes can undermine even the best resume, so ensure yours is error-free.
LPN Resume FAQs
FAQ: What skills should I include on my LPN resume?
When creating your LPN resume, it’s important to highlight a mix of clinical, technical, and soft skills that demonstrate your proficiency and suitability for the role. Here are some examples of LPN skills for your resume:
Clinical skills:
- Patient care
- Wound care
- IV therapy
- Basic life support
- Patient assessment
- Medication administration
Technical skills:
- Electronic health records (EHR)
- Medical equipment
- Clinical procedures
Soft skills:
- Communication
- Empathy and compassion
- Teamwork
- Time management
- Problem-solving
FAQ: How long should my LPN resume be?
A good rule of thumb is to keep your resume between one and two pages, depending on your experience. While being concise is important, those with more experience might need additional space to cover everything.
For entry to mid-level LPNs, a one-page resume is usually ideal. More experienced LPNs might need up to two or even three pages. Aim to create a resume that clearly highlights your strengths and experience without overwhelming the reader.