The New Grad RN Resume Checklist

Everything your new grad nurse resume needs to pass the hospital ATS and actually reach a human. No signup, no email — check it off, print it, or send it to your cohort.

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Contact Header

The first six lines a recruiter sees. Get them right or the rest never gets read.

Professional Summary

Replace the old "Objective." Lead with what you offer, not what you want.

Clinical Rotations as Experience

Your rotations ARE your experience. This is the section that wins or loses the interview.

Education

Carries real weight as a new grad — give it more than one line.

Licenses & Certifications

Recruiters scan for these specific lines. Missing one can be an auto-filter.

Skills

The ATS keyword section. Mirror the job posting language exactly.

ATS & Formatting

Most hospital systems reject resumes before a human sees them. Don’t give them a reason.

Final Proofread

One typo on a clinical resume reads as "careless with details." Don’t.

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6 Mistakes That Auto-Reject a New Grad Resume

These are the ones that get a new grad nurse resume filtered out before anyone reads it.

Calling it an "Objective" instead of a Professional Summary
Listing clinical rotations as a vague paragraph instead of bulleted experience
No BLS certification listed
Two pages with padded, low-value content
A photo, graphics, or skill bars that break the ATS parser
Generic — not tailored to the specific job posting

Turn this checklist into your actual resume

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