Mental health nurse resume examples for 2024

How to write a powerful psychiatric nurse resume?

Composing a winning resume for a mental health nurse practitioner, psychiatric registered nurse, and other health professionals is challenging. Yet, worry not - here are the tips to guide you through the process:

Start with the essentials

Put your name and contact info at the top. Avoid templates that put these details in the left corner or at the bottom. Such templates might not open correctly with applicant tracking systems and your resume will get tossed.

Use your first and last name, phone number, location (city and state will be enough), and email. Include a professional email that has your first and last name (i.e. Lucy-Peterson1995@gmail.com). If you have a LinkedIn profile, or a professional website, include a link as well.

Pro Tip: Double-check your contact details. If you misspell an email address or a phone number, a recruiter might not be able to contact you.

Create a dynamic profile

The Profile section is not a must-have - many good psych nurse resumes don't have it. Yet, this section allows you to quickly introduce your strengths to employers. It serves as an elevator pitch, enticing the employer to read your resume. It is especially important for entry-level nurses and career switchers when your experience doesn't speak for itself.

Write 3-4 sentences, mentioning your key areas of expertise, degrees, achievements, and your dedication to delivering quality patient care. The content will vary depending on your career level, goals, and target role. New nurses should indicate their degree, licenses, and skills gained from clinical rotations. Experienced healthcare professionals can add their specialization, i.e. whether they worked with adult patients, with substance abuse diagnoses and eating disorders, or else, and include 1-2 biggest accomplishments.

The first sentence of your Career Summary section can look as follows:

• Adjective + Mental Health Nurse with X years of experience specializing in (type of clinical setting, department, or specific disorders)

Here's an example of a psychiatric nurse resume summary for an experienced candidate:

• Highly-skilled Psychiatric Nurse with 5+ years of experience specializing in acute care and comprehensive psychiatric assessments. Proven track record in implementing crisis intervention techniques, resulting in a 30% reduction in patient incidents. Looking to leverage extensive clinical expertise to provide compassionate and personalized care, and fostering a therapeutic environment to ensure patient progress.

Add psychiatric nursing resume skills

Your resume should be very specific about your skills and proficiencies. Since most healthcare employers use applicant tracking systems, your resume can get tossed if it doesn't feature the needed skills. So, be sure to add the mental health nurse resume skills the job ad mentions.

A good psychiatric nurse resume includes a blend of hard and soft skills. Hard skills refer to your clinical competencies, whereas soft skills mean your ability to cooperate with others and provide compassionate care to adult and adolescent patients.

The rule of thumb is to include between 8 and 20 skills, depending on your expertise and the job requirements. To make your resume ATS-friendly, add skills in the same form as they go in a job description. Say, if the job requires experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), copy it into your resume word for word.

Here are the key psychiatric nursing skills you can feature in your resume:

• Behavioral health care
• Psychiatric assessment
• Individualized treatment plans
• Medication administration
• Disease management
• Therapeutic interventions
• Family therapy
• Patient safety
• 1:1 therapy
• EHR systems
• HIPPA and OSHA regulations
• Google Suite
• Verbal & written communication
• Treatment planning
• Evidence-based practice

Tips to strengthen your Professional Experience section:

• Be specific. If you worked with a particular mental illness, such as borderline personality disorder, administered medications, or supervised other nurses, give context and details.
• Go back no more than 15 years. As an experienced mental health nurse, you needn't list all jobs you've had since graduation. Focus on the most recent and relevant experience - this will keep your resume concise.
• Use powerful action verbs. Starting your bullets with Achieved, Implemented, Organized, or Streamlined will highlight your impact and proactive attitude.
• Add a short summary to each job. This isn't a must, but the hiring managers will assess your experience better if you specify what type of healthcare setting you worked in. Right under the organization's name, you can add "The largest outpatient clinic for psychotherapy in Massachusets" or "Worked in the emergency department and conducted crisis intervention"

List your professional experience

The Professional Experience section is the first thing that hiring managers look for in your psychiatric nurse resume. You should describe your previous jobs in a way that proves your expertise and value as a professional.

Firstly, avoid listing all your daily duties and calling it a day. Ideally, you should describe each job in 5-6 bullets, so be selective about what to include. Focus on your most relevant experiences and avoid obvious statements like provided nursing care to patients.

Think about how you contributed to the healthcare providers you worked for. Did you excel in crisis intervention, administer psychotropic medications effectively, or improve overall patient care? Or maybe, you trained new nurses, improved processes or reduced paperwork? If possible, prove your contributions with figures. Resumes that feature accomplishments get more interviews and allow you to negotiate a higher salary.

Here's how to format your Professional Experience section:

XYZ Behavioral Health Center, Boston, USA May 2022 - Present

Psychiatric Nurse

• Provided compassionate rehabilitative care to patients with mental health issues, specializing in crisis intervention
• Assessed patient mental health status and implemented personalized care plans, resulting in a 35% decrease in patient incidents and a 20% increase in patient satisfaction scores
• Facilitated group therapy sessions, contributing to an 18% improvement in patient well-being and reduced need for psychiatric medications
• Recognized for patient advocacy and experienced in navigating complex patient needs and creating a supportive environment to help recovery.

Emphasize your education

Each mental health nurse practitioner should have a strong educational background. An ADN or a Bachelor's degree in Nursing is a must to be considered for a position. In addition, nurses pass the NCLEX to become a registered nurse.

Quite often, companies reject resumes that do not contain the necessary qualifications and training. So, make sure to add your degree, clinical rotations, licensures, and certifications under the Education section in a resume.

New mental health nurses can place Education closer to the top. As a recent graduate, you can mention relevant coursework, your GPA, nursing clinicals, and valuable certifications from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Experienced psychiatric mental health professionals should place their experience first. But no matter how many years of experience you have, make sure that all your degrees, licensures, and certifications are in place.

Include ongoing professional development, such as certifications, training, and conferences. Here are some popular certifications for nurses to consider:

• Basic Life Support (BLS)
• Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
• Certified Life Safety Specialist for Health Care Facilities (CLSS-HC).

Add mental health certifications and licenses. Such certifications can increase your employability and help negotiate a higher salary. Some positions require certifications like board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse. By obtaining a certification, you'll broaden your career horizons. Here are the top certifications:

• Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA)
• Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)
• Board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse (PMH-BC).

Adapt it to your target job

The most effective psychiatric nurse resumes are customized. According to the statistics, over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS). If your psychiatric nurse resume is not optimized with keywords, it will get tossed before the human hiring manager sees it.

To pass the electronic screening successfully, use keywords from the job posting. Mirror the qualifications and skills the job posting requires in your resume. Don't copy and paste the keywords - use them naturally in sentences when describing your professional experience and projects.

Make sure that your resume format is ATS-friendly as well. Use a DOCX or PDF format - they open correctly with most systems. Avoid complex formatting or graphics such as images, charts, photos, and tables. The ATS might not recognize them, and the formatting of your resume will be destroyed.

Pro Tip: You needn't rewrite your resume completely for each psychiatric nurse job. Update the Skills section (most nursing skills work as keywords) and the resume summary. If the company looks for psychiatric nurses with vast experience in psychoterapy, focus on related experience in the first place.

Format your psychiatric nurse resume professionally

The formatting of your resume is just as important as the content. A neat, balanced design can encourage the hiring manager to read your resume, whereas a cluttered, poorly organized document can turn them off. Here's how to create a professional design for your resume:

• Use a clear layout with distinct sections. Choose a bigger font for headings to create a sense of structure in the document. Use standard headings such as "Summary," "Education," "Experience," "Skills," and "Certifications" so that the document is easy to look through.
• Use a popular readable font such as Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri. Set the font size to 10-12 points for easy reading. Use a slightly larger font for section headings to create a clear hierarchy.
• Add color to highlight the essentials (such as section headings or your name).
• Make sure your formatting is consistent throughout the document. If you use a full stop at the end of each bullet, do it in all sections of your resume.
• Use bulleted lists instead of paragraphs. This makes it easier for recruiters to scan your resume and quickly grasp your qualifications. In 2024, paragraphs in resumes look outdated.
• Present your work experience and education in reverse chronological order so that the most recent and relevant information comes first. Start with your most recent job and education and go backwards.

You're all set! If you follow the above tips and suggestions, you will create a psychiatric nurse resume that clearly states your value to employers.

Not sure if your new resume can generate interviews? Send it to us for a free review. An experienced consultant will evaluate your resume from the hiring manager's perspective. We will point out your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Get ready for a successful job search! Usually, we respond with a detailed critique in 3-5 business days.