Nursing CVs get filtered on two very literal axes at once: your active certifications (BLS, ACLS, PALS — expired or missing ones are often an automatic reject, not just a scoring penalty) and the specific EHR/charting system the unit uses (Epic vs. Cerner vs. Meditech aren't interchangeable to an ATS). Clinical narrative matters for the human reviewer after that, but the certification and systems keywords are usually what decides whether a human ever sees the CV at all.
These are exact-match terms — not synonyms — that recruiters commonly build screening filters around for this role. If you genuinely have the experience, make sure the specific term appears in your CV, not just a paraphrase of it.
Example 1
Provided care to patients on a busy medical-surgical floor.
Managed a 5-6 patient med-surg assignment per shift, documenting in Epic and coordinating interdisciplinary rounds, contributing to a unit-wide 15% reduction in 30-day readmissions over two quarters.
Example 2
Assisted with emergency situations as needed.
Led first response on 12+ rapid-response and code-blue events as ACLS-certified charge nurse, maintaining a 100% documentation-compliance rate on post-event charting.
Do I need to list certification expiration dates?
Yes if you have room — a listed BLS/ACLS with no date can read as ambiguous to a recruiter who's been burned by expired certifications before, and some ATS configurations specifically flag for currency. If a certification lapsed, don't list it as active; note it's in renewal if that's true.
How do I list EHR systems if the job posting doesn't name one?
List every system you have real hands-on charting experience with (Epic, Cerner, Meditech) regardless of what the posting says — many postings assume familiarity and don't spell it out, but the ATS filter and the hiring manager's checklist usually still search on the specific system name.
My experience is mostly per-diem/travel nursing across many units — how do I keyword that without it looking scattered?
Lead each entry with the unit type and acuity level (ICU, med-surg, ED) rather than just the agency name, and repeat the certifications/EHR systems against each relevant entry — ATS parsers often score on keyword frequency and recency, so a certification buried once in a summary section scores lower than one that appears against the actual clinical entries.
More role-specific CV guides