The RCN Careers Service can offer you advice and ideas on transforming your nursing CV into a powerful marketing tool that showcases all your skills and experience.

If you're a member, make sure you're logged in so you can download our sample CVs and take advantage of our free CV checking service.

Your nursing CV

A CV is an essential tool that helps you present your professional story to potential employers. It brings together your qualifications, knowledge, experience, and skills in one place, giving employers a quick but meaningful overview of what you can offer.

Taking the time to create and maintain a strong CV ensures you are always prepared to apply for new opportunities, progress in your career, or respond to changes within the healthcare sector.

Are you applying for jobs?

If you're applying for jobs, always check the employer's instructions to see if they expect a CV or a supporting statement. These are two very different types of applications.

• NHS employers usually ask for a supporting statement rather than a CV.
• Independent health and social care sector employer (e.g. GP Practices, nursing homes, private hospitals, etc.) usually ask for a CV and possibly a covering letter too.

If you're a student nurse, you can also read CV writing for student and newly qualified nurses.

Always tailor your CV to the job you're applying for

One of the most common CV mistakes is using the same CV to apply for multiple different jobs. To maximise your chances of success, you should always review, adapt, personalise, and tailor your CV every time you apply for a new job.

Carefully read the job advert and any attached documentation, paying particular attention to any skills, experience, qualifications, training, or knowledge listed as essential or desirable criteria. The advert may also detail the type of patient groups, medical conditions, clinical settings, services, or challenges associated with the role. Use this information to tailor your CV and show the employer you are a good match. 

Where appropriate, use the same language or terminology as your target employer. This helps employers or recruiters quickly see how your skills and experience align with the role and can make your CV more effective when being screened by recruiters or applicant tracking systems (ATS).

It's also a good idea to think about your transferable skills.

Checklist

Length - Ideally no more than 2 sides of A4 

Tailored - Always tweak your CV to make it relevant to the specific job you’re applying for.

Context - Add useful context. Avoid phrases like 'a wide variety of skills,' or 'various medical conditions,' Instead specify which skills or which medical conditions.

Action words - Try to use ‘action’ words, to bring your CV to life. Attention-grabbing terms like 'identified', 'created,' or 'initiated,' really demonstrate to an employer that you are able to put your skills into practice. 

Review - Ensure your CV looks neat and professional. Use a spell check and ask someone to proofread it. 

Covering letter - Do you need to include a covering letter as well?

• All your strengths, qualities, nursing philosophies and/or passions/interests within nursing.
• A list of your previous jobs, with details of the duties, responsibilities, achievements, skills, knowledge and experience obtained within those roles
• A list of all of your qualifications
• A list of your professional training and activities, (i.e. study days, short courses, articles published, etc)

Relevant snapshot of your career

It may help to think of your CV as a 'relevant snapshot of your career.' Ask yourself what your target employer would find relevant, appealing, useful, or impressive.

Chronological or skills-orientated format

The most common type of CV is a chronological CV. This is where you present your experience/skills in chronological order, starting with your most recent role and working backwards through your previous jobs.

A skills-orientated CV presents your experience/skills under relevant headings. For example if you are a Practice Nurse, you might use headings such as Chronic Disease Management, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Dermatology and Wound Care, and Immunisations. Whereas if you are a Nursing Home Manager, you might choose headings such as Operational, Strategy, Quality and Compliance, People Management, and Service Improvement.

Send in PDF format

Unless the employer specifies otherwise, we recommend you convert your CV into PDF format when emailing it. This is to avoid any compatibility issues and preserve the original formatting of your CV.

Structuring your CV

The structure of your CV is incredibly important.

If you're not sure what format to use, follow the suggested Chronological CV layout below and see our example CVs for some inspiration.

Need feedback on your CV?

If you're an RCN member you can email your CV to career.service@rcn.org.uk to receive feedback via email within 10 working days. Please include:

• Your membership number and postcode (or date of birth and postcode)
• Whether you have any deadlines or time pressures (we will do our best to comply)
• A brief summary of your situation and career goals
• The job advert and/or Person Specification if you're applying for a specific vacancy.

Please note that CVs will be checked based on UK requirements.