Registered Nurse Resume Keywords (2026): 60+ ATS Skills

Q: What ATS keywords do RN resumes need?

Clinical skills (patient assessment, medication administration), required certifications (BLS, ACLS, specialty certs), and the EHR system named in the posting (Epic, Cerner). Include your RN license status explicitly — it's one of the first things a parser and a recruiter both look for.

Q: Do I need to list my BLS and ACLS certifications separately?

Yes — list each certification by its full name and acronym (e.g. 'Basic Life Support (BLS)'). ATS keyword search is literal, and certifications are commonly used as hard filters, so an unclear or missing certification line can remove you from consideration before a human reviews the application.

TL;DR — keyword categories

Category	Examples	Count
Clinical skills	Patient Assessment, Wound Care, Triage	15
Certifications	BLS, ACLS, PALS, CCRN	10
Systems & compliance	Epic, Cerner, HIPAA	8
Specialty areas	ICU, ED, Med-Surg, L&D	10
Soft skills	Patient Advocacy, Care Coordination	10
Action verbs	Administered, Monitored, Educated	10

01Clinical skills

Core clinical competencies

Match these to the specific unit and patient population named in the posting.

Patient Assessment Medication Administration IV Insertion Wound Care Vital Signs Monitoring Triage Care Planning Patient Education Charting & Documentation Infection Control Post-Op Care Pain Management Discharge Planning Catheter Care Blood Draws / Phlebotomy

02Certifications & licensure

List your RN license status explicitly at the top of your resume — it's often a hard filter before anything else is scored.

Registered Nurse (RN) Basic Life Support (BLS) Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse (CMSRN) Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN) Compact RN License

03Systems & compliance

Epic Cerner Meditech Electronic Health Records (EHR) Electronic Medical Records (EMR) HIPAA Compliance Joint Commission Standards Meds Reconciliation

04Specialty areas

Use the exact unit abbreviation from the job posting — a parser won't connect "ICU" and "Intensive Care" as the same term unless both appear.

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Emergency Department (ED) Medical-Surgical (Med-Surg) Labor & Delivery (L&D) Neonatal ICU (NICU) Operating Room (OR) Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Oncology Telemetry Home Health

05Soft skills & action verbs

Patient Advocacy Care Coordination Cross-Functional Collaboration Crisis Management Administered Monitored Educated Coordinated Advocated Assessed

06How to actually use these keywords

Certifications and system names can go straight into a Skills or Licensure line — those are meant to be scanned directly. But clinical skills score highest when they're embedded in a real bullet next to a measurable outcome, using what we call the X-Y-Z formula — Accomplished X, measured by Y, by doing Z.

Weak:   "Responsible for patient care on a busy floor."
Better: "Provided direct care for 6-8 patients per shift on a 32-bed med-surg unit."
Best:   "Delivered patient assessment and medication administration for 6-8 patients per shift, maintaining zero medication errors across 18 months on a 32-bed Med-Surg unit."

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Pull from the posting, not this list

This list is a reference, not a checklist to copy wholesale. The keywords that actually move your score are the ones that appear in the specific job posting — paste it into our free scorer and it'll surface exactly which ones you're missing.

07Frequently asked questions

What ATS keywords do RN resumes need?

Clinical skills, required certifications (BLS, ACLS, specialty certs), and the EHR system named in the posting. Include your RN license status explicitly — it's often checked before anything else is scored.

Do I need to list my BLS and ACLS certifications separately?

Yes — list each by full name and acronym (e.g. "Basic Life Support (BLS)"). Certifications are commonly used as hard filters, so an unclear listing can remove you from consideration before a human reviews the application.

Should I name the EHR systems I've used?

Yes, if the posting names a specific system (Epic, Cerner, Meditech). Naming the exact system you've used is a direct keyword match most generic nursing resumes miss.

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