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Senior registered nurse skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Angela Mund,

Angela Mund

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical senior registered nurse skills. We ranked the top skills for senior registered nurses based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 14.4% of senior registered nurse resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a senior registered nurse needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 senior registered nurse skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how senior registered nurses use patients:

Administer intravenous medications, blood and blood products, oral medications, injections and monitor patients for effectiveness of medications administered.
Accomplished nursing interventions and assessments for critically-ill patients, including ventilator-dependent, cardiac, and renal patients.

2. Home Health

Here's how senior registered nurses use home health:

Coordinated with doctors, clinics, home health agencies and hospice to develop care plans for residents.
Coordinate services with physician, home health, and their power of attorney.

3. Acute Care

The branch of secondary healthcare which is responsible for giving short-term care to patients recovering from severe injuries or urgent medical problems is known as acute care. Acute care comprises multiple domains like; emergency care, urgent care, short-term stabilization, pre-hospital care, critical care, and trauma care.

Here's how senior registered nurses use acute care:

Provided acute care nursing services to adults on a fast-paced, medical/surgical/telemetry unit in a major, metropolitan, teaching hospital.
Post surgical Progressive/Acute care inpatient nurse.

4. Care Coordination

Here's how senior registered nurses use care coordination:

Manage a team of 8 direct reports in providing care coordination for Medicaid and SCHIP recipients.
Applied clinical knowledge to work with facilities and providers for care coordination.

5. Discharge Planning

Here's how senior registered nurses use discharge planning:

Coordinated multidisciplinary teams to provide safe discharge planning and follow-up teaching referrals.
Managed discharge planning activities upon admission to maintain maximum patient load.

6. BLS

Here's how senior registered nurses use bls:

Provide stabilization, Resuscitation and other life support measures in cases of arrests in line with ACLS, BLS.2.
Worked PRN for the Nursery and Level 2 NICU * Certified in BLS, CPR, NRP

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7. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how senior registered nurses use community resources:

Maintain awareness of community resources available to patients and assists with referrals if necessary.
Educated patients and families in community resources, assessing their understanding and ability to arrange follow-up services post-discharge.

8. Triage

Triage is a method of prioritizing a patient or a group depending on the severity, diagnosis, and condition of the disease needing immediate medical care. It is often to determine a condition and identifying the appropriate destination before assessing where the patient will be going. A triage nurse commonly performs it.

Here's how senior registered nurses use triage:

Code team member, triage, managed a team of 5 patients and 3 providers.
Worked as triage nurse taking and recording patient's medical history, vital signs.

9. Rehabilitation

Here's how senior registered nurses use rehabilitation:

Served as a Senior Nurse Clinician with twenty-four hour responsibility for operational management of a 30-bed Acute Rehabilitation Unit.
Level 2 Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse on the medically complex unit.

10. Medical Necessity

Here's how senior registered nurses use medical necessity:

Reviewed prospective, concurrent and retrospective medical records of denied services for medical necessity.
Assessed medical necessity of Sleep study procedures and applied company medical policies and guidelines.

11. Appeals

Here's how senior registered nurses use appeals:

Worked closely with the Appeals staff to assure accurate and timely clinical appeal decisions.
Reviewed requests for appeals of negative decisions.

12. Patient Safety

Here's how senior registered nurses use patient safety:

Utilized an interdisciplinary approach across the continuum of care with adherence to National Patient Safety Goals set forth by regulatory requirements.
Lead performance improvement activities related to improvement of patient safety and reduction of adverse events

13. Level II

Level II often marks a grade of experience one gains in the workplace. Depending on the field, a Level II certification may require a certain class or number of years of on-site work and training. For instance, in a medical or therapeutic field, a Level II designation is applied to individuals that achieve professionalism in their career, who demonstrate a higher level of clinical reasoning, and that help a certain number of clients.

Here's how senior registered nurses use level ii:

Level II duties including all therapies short of necessitating mechanical ventilator support.
Credentialed to a level II Nurse who is considered an experienced clinician that is competent to care for complex patients.

14. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how senior registered nurses use cpr:

Initiated/participated in codes including CPR, oxygen administration and starting IV's.
Delivered patient/family education in CPR, crisis intervention and physiological warning signs; assisted with discharge planning and community resource coordination

15. ICU

ICU means intensive care units. It also has a name known as the critical care unit or intensive therapy unit. The ICU handles patients experiencing acute diseases or severe injuries that need specialized treatment procedures by specific professionals.

Here's how senior registered nurses use icu:

Staff RN in Neonatal ICU level 3 Provided care to premature and full term infants requiring ICU support and intermediate care.
Assisted facility when needed in ICU, OB and Renal units.

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What skills help Senior Registered Nurses find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What type of skills will young senior registered nurses need?

Angela Mund

Vice President, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists

To meet the needs of our current volatile and complex healthcare landscape, all healthcare providers will need to understand the business of healthcare, in addition to providing expert patient care. Starting in 2025, all graduates from nurse anesthesia programs will be awarded a doctoral degree, a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP), or a doctorate in nurse anesthesia practice (DNAP). These degree programs include additional anesthesia experience as well as an understanding of effective leadership, healthcare economics and reimbursement, the use of big data for improving patient outcomes, and evidence-based practice.

What skills stand out on senior registered nurse resumes?

Angela Mund

Vice President, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists

To become a CRNA, the applicant must first be a registered nurse and graduate of a baccalaureate nursing program. A minimum of one year of clinical experience in an intensive care unit (ICU) is required. The application process is rigorous, and many nurse anesthesia programs are seeing higher than typical applicant numbers, perhaps due to the impact of COVID-19 on the ICU nurse workforce.

The most competitive applicants will have an overall GPA >3.5. Basic science courses are heavily weighted with respect to both course grade and type of course. A competitive resumé should include evidence of clinical expertise, leadership, volunteerism, and scholarly work. In addition, all registered nurse applicants should have shadowed a CRNA to learn about the profession prior to application. The interview process may include assessments of critical thinking, decision-making, and emotional intelligence.

What soft skills should all senior registered nurses possess?

Diane Salvador Ph.D.

Executive Director and Professor, Elmhurst University

The most important skill for new nursing graduates is critical thinking. You will be put into varying roles and assume different responsibilities. You must critically think and evaluate situations you find yourself in and make wise nursing decisions. Another important skill that we emphasize in education is communication - this is key to safe, quality care.

What hard/technical skills are most important for senior registered nurses?

Diane Salvador Ph.D.

Executive Director and Professor, Elmhurst University

New nurses should be prepared to demonstrate proficiency in basic nursing care and procedures. It is important to realize that each hospital has its own policy and procedure to follow, so taking advantage of your nurse preceptor and orientation program will ensure you are familiar with these basic procedures.

What senior registered nurse skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Michelle Hampton Ph.D.

Associate Professor, San Jose State University

I think there are always opportunities to work and gain experience once the nurse is licensed. They might need to be creative, flexible, and work where there's a need. That might be a specialty area they hadn't considered or a geographic area that requires some travel. I don't think a gap year is inevitable for all new graduates and there might be opportunities for them to find work, and they can always continue the learning process after you're employed, even if it's not your dream job. The more significant obstacle seems to be for students who are currently still in nursing programs.

Clinical sites weren't accepting students for several months, and now that they are again, they have significantly limited the number of students allowed at one time and the number of hours they can train. When a staff member or patient tests positive, students are pulled from the site for some time, and students are struggling to get the minimum number of hours required to continue progressing in the nursing program. Some schools have even suspended admission for new groups of students instead choosing to focus on getting the current students through the program.

Do you want to know more?

List of senior registered nurse skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a senior registered nurse resume and required skills for a senior registered nurse to have include:

Patients
Home Health
Acute Care
Care Coordination
Discharge Planning
BLS
Community Resources
Triage
Rehabilitation
Medical Necessity
Appeals
Patient Safety
Level II
CPR
ICU
Medicaid

Compassion
Medication Administration
Acls
Emergency Situations
Infection Control
Surgery
Senior Care
Patient Education
Telemetry
EMR
Good Judgment
Critical Care
IV
Direct Patient Care
Primary Care
Family Education

Disease Processes
Medical Care
MDS
Emotional Support
NRP
Resuscitation
Quality Patient Care
Nursing Home
Vital Signs
Registered Nursing
Advanced Life Support
Patient Assessment
Medical-Surgical Nursing
Patient Teaching
Catheter
Medication Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Senior Registered Nurse Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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