Staff Nurse CV Example (Ireland)

A Staff Nurse CV in Ireland is read by a Director of Nursing or a Clinical Nurse Manager who checks the NMBI register before anything else, then looks for the division, the ward and the patient group, and finally for proof of safe practice: early warning scores, medication management and the audits the ward is measured on. Put your NMBI registration and division in the headline, name each hospital and ward, and give bed numbers and patient allocation so the manager can picture you on the roster.

The Sample CV below is for a Staff Nurse with six years on surgical and medical wards at a Dublin voluntary hospital and an HSE general hospital, registered in the General division. Its bullets pair clinical work with the results a CNM3 reports upward: falls, pressure ulcers, INEWS escalation audits, discharge times and the preceptorship of new graduates.

Tailor it to each vacancy on the HSE careers site or a hospital's own portal. An ICU post wants ventilated patients and level 3 care; an emergency department wants triage and pace; a community post wants independence; a private hospital wants elective pathways. The US counterpart of this page is the registered nurse resume example, written for American hospitals on Letter paper. The Civic template keeps the page plain for HSE application portals.

Updated . The person and employers in this Sample CV are fictional. Written for applicants in Ireland; the page for applicants in the US is the registered nurse resume example.

Staff Nurse sample CV

Drawn at A4 proportions, the paper an Irish CV is printed on.

Ciara Lonergan

Staff Nurse, RGN, NMBI registered, General division

Dublin 7ciara.lonergan@example.com086 555 0163

Summary

Registered General Nurse with six years on surgical and acute medical wards, currently caring for five to six post-operative patients per shift on a 30-bed general surgery and urology ward. Led the ward's pressure ulcer work that brought hospital-acquired pressure ulcers to their lowest level in the ward's audit history, precept new graduates through their first year, and act as nurse in charge two shifts a month. Calm with a deteriorating patient and clear with families at the bedside.

Experience

Staff Nurse, General Surgery and Urology, Liffeyside University Hospital

– Present

Dublin 7

  • Care for five to six post-operative patients per twelve-hour shift on a 30-bed surgical ward, including epidural and PCA management, PICC and central line care and early mobilisation after major surgery.
  • Co-led the ward's pressure ulcer prevention group, introducing four-hourly repositioning checks and a heel offloading protocol; hospital-acquired pressure ulcers fell to the lowest level recorded in the ward's audits.
  • Preceptor for new graduate nurses and interns; all eight nurses I have precepted completed their first year and six remain on the ward.
  • Nurse in charge two shifts a month, allocating staff, managing admissions with the bed manager and escalating deteriorating patients on INEWS to the registrar and the critical care outreach nurse.
Staff Nurse, Acute Medical Ward, Suir Valley General Hospital

–

Clonmel

  • Cared for up to seven acute medical patients per shift, including sepsis, COPD exacerbations, stroke and frailty, on a 28-bed ward with a full bay turnover most days.
  • Wrote the ward's discharge checklist for heart failure patients, adopted across the medical directorate and credited by the CNM3 with fewer same-week readmissions.
  • Audited INEWS escalation monthly for the ward's quality group and ran the staff education sessions that followed each audit.

Education

BSc (Hons) General Nursing

Barrow and Nore University, Kilkenny

36-week internship on an acute medical ward; placements in surgery, care of the older person, community and mental health.

Skills

  • Post-operative and surgical nursing
  • INEWS and escalation
  • Medication management and IV therapy
  • Patient assessment
  • Pressure ulcer and wound care
  • Discharge planning
  • Nurse in charge of a shift
  • Preceptorship
  • Electronic patient records
  • Safeguarding vulnerable adults

Certifications

  • NMBI registration, General division, PIN on request, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland,
  • Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers, Irish Heart Foundation,
  • Garda vetting completed, National Vetting Bureau,

Start yours from this example

Opens this sample in the editor, in one of the templates below. Swap in your details, then tailor it to each vacancy in about two minutes.

Use this example

How an Irish CV differs

An Irish Staff Nurse CV is organised around the NMBI register and the HSE grades, not a state licence and a bed count. Registration is with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland in a named division, shown as a PIN on request; the career ladder runs Staff Nurse, CNM1, CNM2, CNM3 and Assistant Director of Nursing; Garda vetting is expected before a first shift; and HSE posts shortlist from an application form against the job specification rather than the CV alone. The page is two sides of A4 with no photo and no date of birth.

For a staff nurse in Ireland

  1. NMBI division and PIN

    Give the division (General, Children's, Psychiatric, Intellectual Disability, Midwifery), the year you registered and that your PIN is available on request. A manager will check the register before shortlisting, so make it easy.

  2. HSE grades, not bands

    Write the post as the HSE does: Staff Nurse, Clinical Nurse Manager 1, 2 or 3, Clinical Nurse Specialist. Bands belong to the NHS and licences to the US; neither means anything to an Irish Director of Nursing.

  3. Garda vetting and mandatory training

    State that Garda vetting is complete or in progress, and list BLS, manual handling, hand hygiene and Children First with the year. The HSE application will ask for all of them.

  4. The internship and the degree

    Irish nursing degrees end with a 36-week paid internship, and employers read it as your first year on the ward. Name the ward, the hospital and the patient group, especially for a first post.

  5. Overseas-trained and the adaptation route

    If you trained outside Ireland, state your NMBI registration status, any adaptation or aptitude test completed and the date your registration was granted. Hospitals recruiting internationally need it on the first page.

Every CV in Ireland

A4 paper
The page is A4. Irish employers print and file on A4, and a Letter-sized PDF is the first sign a CV was written for the US.
Two pages is normal
Two pages is the norm for an Irish CV. Graduates fit one; nobody needs three unless the role is senior.
No photo
No photo, date of birth or marital status. Irish employers do not ask for them, and leaving them off keeps the page about the work.
Dates as DD/MM/YYYY
Day, month, year where a full date appears; month and year for each role. The US month-first order confuses the reader.
Irish English
Irish English follows British spelling: organise, programme, centre, licence, specialise.
Town or Dublin postal district, not a street address
"Dublin 8" or "Cork" is enough on the contact line. A full address is not expected, and the US-style "City, ST 12345" line never is.

More on applying in Ireland, with every CV example for it, on the Ireland page.

Templates for the staff nurse CV

All templates

Every template exports on A4. The previews are drawn on Letter; the editor sets the page size when you export.

How the CV changes with experience

The same staff nurse CV, written at three levels: a profile and three bullets for each.

Entry level

Zero to two years, or a first post in the title

Newly qualified Registered General Nurse with a BSc (Hons) and a 36-week internship on an acute medical ward. NMBI registered, Garda vetted and ready for a first Staff Nurse post on a supportive ward.

  • Completed a 36-week paid internship caring for up to five medical patients under a preceptor, including admissions and discharges.
  • Delivered discharge teaching to patients and carers, with the CNM signing off every episode.
  • Worked as a healthcare assistant on the hospital's bank for two years during the degree, building confident personal care and observations.

Mid level

Three to seven years, owns a process or a workload

Staff Nurse with four years on a busy orthopaedic ward, confident with post-operative care, traction and patient education.

  • Care for five to six post-operative patients per shift across elective and trauma orthopaedics.
  • Sit on the ward practice group and helped rewrite the falls prevention care plan.
  • Preceptor for student nurses during their surgical placement.

Senior

Eight years or more, leads people, budgets or programmes

Clinical Nurse Manager 2 with twelve years of clinical and leadership experience, accountable for staffing, quality and the budget of a 32-bed medical ward.

  • Manage a team of 44 nurses and healthcare assistants with responsibility for rostering, appraisals and a ward budget of €2.1 million.
  • Reduced agency spend through a revised roster and a retention plan for new graduates.
  • Lead the ward's quality programme, including falls, pressure ulcers and infection control audits for HIQA.

Skills to put on the staff nurse CV

Hard skills

Patient assessment and INEWS
Every Irish hospital escalates on INEWS, and a nurse who assesses well and escalates early is trusted with the sickest bay.
Medication management and IV therapy
Safe administration is the baseline; IV competencies, controlled drugs and specialist infusions show you can take the higher-acuity patients.
Specialty skills such as post-operative, telemetry or triage
Wards recruit for specific skills, and naming yours matches you to the vacancy the hospital is actually trying to fill.
Electronic patient records
Hospitals name their system in the job specification, and experience with it shortens the supernumerary period.
Discharge planning
Delayed discharges are counted on every ward in the country, and a nurse who moves patients safely home is valued by the whole hospital.
BLS and mandatory training
BLS, manual handling, hand hygiene and Children First are required, and listing them with dates shows you can start without a training backlog.

Soft skills

Calm under pressure
Deteriorating patients and short-staffed shifts happen on every ward, and interviewers listen for how you kept your head.
Compassion
Patient experience surveys are read by the Director of Nursing, and patients remember how they were spoken to.
Teamwork and handover
Nursing runs on handover, and a nurse who hands over clearly keeps the next shift safe.

Mistakes that cost staff nurse interviews

  1. NMBI registration buried

    A nurse recruiter checks the register before anything else. Put RGN and NMBI registered in the headline, and the registration year and division in a registration and training section near the top.

  2. No ward, hospital or patient numbers

    Staff Nurse says little on its own. Name the hospital, the ward, the specialty, the bed count and how many patients you take per shift, so the CNM can picture you on the roster.

  3. Listing what every nurse does

    Administered medications and recorded vital signs describe the whole profession. Show what is yours: link nurse roles, audits, preceptorship, nurse in charge shifts and the results of the ward's quality work.

  4. American or NHS titles

    Registered Nurse, BSN with a state licence, or Band 5 with an NMC PIN, reads as written for another country. Use RGN, the NMBI and the HSE grades the hospital uses in its own advert.

  5. Leaving out Garda vetting and mandatory training

    The HSE form asks for them and a manager wants to see nothing has lapsed. List BLS, manual handling and Garda vetting with the year rather than leaving them to the interview.

Questions about the staff nurse CV

Where do I put my NMBI PIN on a CV?

Write RGN, NMBI registered in the headline and give the division and the registration year in a registration and training section. Write PIN on request rather than the number on a CV you upload to a portal or send to an agency.

How long should a Staff Nurse CV be in Ireland?

Two sides of A4 for a Staff Nurse or a CNM1. Newly qualified nurses often fit one side; a CNM2 with several wards and a management record may need a third, but rarely.

Do I still need a CV for an HSE application form?

Yes. The HSE form asks for your employment history and for examples against the job specification, which is your CV restructured. Writing the CV first makes the form faster, and voluntary hospitals, private hospitals and agencies ask for the CV itself.

What should a newly qualified nurse put on a CV?

Your degree and the college, your NMBI registration date and division, the internship ward in detail, your placements with the patient group and hours, Garda vetting, and any healthcare assistant or bank work. A clean mandatory training record matters more than a long skills list.

Should I list referees?

Write referees available on request. The HSE form will ask for two, usually your current CNM and a previous one, and you will be asked before they are contacted.

How do I tailor a nursing CV to a new specialty?

Lead with the transferable skills the new ward's job specification asks for, such as recognising a deteriorating patient for ICU or triage for the emergency department, and add the courses you have completed. Paste the advert into Resume Master and it rewrites the CV against it in about two minutes.

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