Skills
Registered Nurse Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in registered nurses, and how to build and show them.
Registered Nurses need technical skills such as patient assessment, medication administration and dosage calculation, and iv therapy, plus people skills like critical thinking and compassion and emotional resilience. They also use tools such as Electronic health records such as Epic or Cerner and IV infusion pumps.
Technical (hard) skills
- Patient assessment
- Medication administration and dosage calculation
- IV therapy
- Care planning and documentation
- Recognizing clinical deterioration
- Patient education
People (soft) skills
- Critical thinking
- Compassion and emotional resilience
- Clear communication under pressure
- Prioritization and delegation
Tools, equipment and technology
- Electronic health records such as Epic or Cerner
- IV infusion pumps
- Cardiac monitors and telemetry
- Glucometers and point-of-care testing
- Barcode medication administration scanners
- Automated dispensing cabinets
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how registered nurses put their skills to work:
- How to perform a head-to-toe nursing assessment
- How to hang an IV piggyback medication
- How to call a provider using SBAR
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Patient assessment” and “Medication administration and dosage calculation.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “critical thinking,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as NCLEX-RN license near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our registered nurse glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Registered Nurse training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.