"patients," "bls," and "cpr" aren't the only skills we found registered nurses list on their resumes. In fact, there's a whole list of registered nurse responsibilities that we found, including:
The most important skills for a registered nurse to have in this position are communication skills. In this excerpt that we gathered from a registered nurse resume, you'll understand why: "registered nurses must be able to communicate effectively with patients in order to understand their concerns and assess their health conditions" According to resumes we found, communication skills can be used by a registered nurse in order to "provided exceptional nursing care for geriatric residents including medication administration, treatments, documentation, and communication with residents and family" While it may not be the most important skill, we found that many registered nurse duties rely on compassion. This example from a registered nurse explains why: "registered nurses should be caring and empathetic when looking after patients." This resume example is just one of many ways registered nurses are able to utilize compassion: "worked with va to provide compassionate, and skilled care to their home health and hospice patients. " Another skill that is quite popular among registered nurses is detail oriented. This skill is very critical to fulfilling every day responsibilities as is shown in this example from a registered nurse resume: "registered nurses must be responsible and detail oriented because they must make sure that patients get the correct treatments and medicines at the right time." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "provided patient care through protocol-oriented treatment, intravenous line insertions, blood draws, assessments, and medication administration. " A thorough review of lots of resumes revealed to us that "emotional stability" is important to completing registered nurse responsibilities. This resume example shows just one way registered nurses use this skill: "registered nurses need emotional resilience and the ability to manage their emotions to cope with human suffering, emergencies, and other stresses." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical registered nurse tasks: "manage emergency situations such as accidental intubation and cardiac arrest to regain client stability. " As part of the registered nurse description, you might find that one of the skills that might be helpful to the job is "organizational skills." A registered nurse resume included this snippet: "nurses often work with multiple patients with various health needs" This skill could be useful in this scenario: "collaborate with multi-disciplinary team in assessing organizational readiness for multi-hospital emr implementation, in a phased roll-out. " Another skill commonly found on registered nurse resumes is "physical stamina." This description of the skill was found on several registered nurse resumes: "nurses should be comfortable performing physical tasks, such as moving patients" Here's an example from a resume of how this skill could fit into the day-to-day registered nurse responsibilities: "performed all functions related to daily activities in each area like physical assessment, medication administration and nutrition. " See the full list of registered nurse skills.
We've found that 43.5% of registered nurses have earned a bachelor's degree. Furthermore, 4.7% earned their master's degrees before becoming a registered nurse. While it's true that some registered nurses have a college degree, it's generally possible to become one with only a high school degree. In fact, one out of every five registered nurses did not spend the extra money to attend college.
The registered nurses who went onto college to earn a more in-depth education generally studied nursing and nursing science, while a small population of registered nurses studied psychology and business.
Once you're ready to become a registered nurse, you should explore the companies that typically hire registered nurses. According to registered nurse resumes that we searched through, registered nurses are hired the most by Trusted Health Plans, Aya Healthcare, and DaVita Kidney Care. Currently, Trusted Health Plans has 15,708 registered nurse job openings, while there are 14,084 at Aya Healthcare and 4,841 at DaVita Kidney Care.
Since salary is important to some registered nurses, it's good to note that they are figured to earn the highest salaries at NORCAL Ambulance, Soliant, and trustaff. If you were to take a closer look at NORCAL Ambulance, you'd find that the average registered nurse salary is $111,499. Then at Soliant, registered nurses receive an average salary of $108,127, while the salary at trustaff is $106,023.
View more details on registered nurse salaries across the United States.
Some other companies you might be interested in as a registered nurse include St Joseph's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Kaiser Permanente. These three companies were found to hire the most registered nurses from the top 100 U.S. educational institutions.