Nurse CV example (NHS band 5)

What a band 5 nurse CV has to prove

A shortlisting panel for a staff nurse post is checking three things. Are you on the NMC register, or about to be? Can you safely manage a group of patients on this kind of ward? And will you fit the team? Your CV answers the first in one line at the top. The rest of the page answers the other two with evidence: the wards you have worked on, the patients you have cared for, the skills you have been signed off for, and what you did when things went wrong.

Most NHS posts in England and Wales are advertised on NHS Jobs, and each advert links to a job description and a person specification. Many trusts ask you to fill in an application form as well as, or instead of, uploading a CV. Keep your CV current anyway. You will copy from it into those forms, agencies and private hospitals ask for one, and it is what you bring to the interview.

How to lay out a nurse CV

Use one column, clear headings and a plain font, so both a person and an application system can read it. Two pages of A4 is right for most band 5 nurses. A newly qualified nurse can often fit everything on one full page, and that is fine. Put the sections in this order:

1. Name, phone, email and town. Under your name, your registration: "Registered Nurse (Adult), NMC registered". Add your PIN or write "PIN available on request".
2. A short personal statement of three to five sentences.
3. Clinical experience, most recent first, with the ward or department in the job title line.
4. Clinical placements, if you qualified in the last two years.
5. Education: your nursing degree or apprenticeship, then A levels or an access course.
6. Training and certificates: life support, IV and other competencies, and mandatory training that the advert asks for.
7. Skills, grouped so the panel can scan them.

Leave out your date of birth, marital status, a photo and a full home address. None of them helps the panel, and they invite bias. References can wait until you are offered the post.

Writing the personal statement

Three to five sentences, written in the first person without the "I". Say what kind of nurse you are, how long you have been doing it and where, one or two things you are good at, and what you want next. Name the specialty you are applying to. A statement that fits any ward reads as if you have not looked at this one.

Clinical experience: show the ward, not just the title

Every staff nurse has the same job title, so the detail underneath does the work. Give the ward or unit, the type of patients, and how many you look after on a shift. Then write four to six bullet points that start with a verb and describe something you did: escalated a deteriorating patient, led a handover, planned a complex discharge, supervised a student. Add numbers where you have them, such as bed count, patients per shift or audit results, but only ones you could explain at interview.

Name the tools you use every day. NEWS2, SBAR, e-prescribing and electronic patient records tell a panel that you can start on the ward without a long induction. If you have taken on anything beyond your core role, such as a link nurse role, an audit or teaching, it goes here too. It is often what separates two otherwise equal applicants.

Newly qualified? Lead with your placements

If you are applying before or just after you join the register, your placements are your experience. Give each one a line with the setting, the length and what you did, and put your final placement first because it is where you practised with the most independence. Say how many patients you managed under supervision and which skills you were signed off for. Healthcare assistant or bank work from before or during your course belongs under experience, not hidden at the bottom.

Panels do not expect a newly qualified nurse to know everything. They want to see that you know what safe practice looks like and when to ask for help. Say which preceptorship you are looking for, if the trust runs one. NHS England publishes a national preceptorship framework for nursing, and many trusts describe their programme in the job advert.

Registration, training and revalidation

State your field of practice (adult, child, mental health or learning disabilities) and that you are on the NMC register. If your registration is pending, say when you expect your PIN. Registered nurses revalidate with the NMC every three years, so an experienced nurse can add "Revalidated" and the year, which shows the panel that your CPD and reflective accounts are in order.

List life support first, with the level and the date, then clinical competencies such as IV therapy, cannulation, venepuncture or catheterisation. Add courses that match the ward you are applying to, for example a tracheostomy course for a respiratory post. You do not need to list every mandatory training module. Mention the ones the person specification names.

Match the person specification

The person specification splits criteria into essential and desirable, and shortlisting is scored against it. Read it line by line and make sure every essential criterion appears somewhere on your CV in words the panel will recognise. If it asks for "experience of caring for acutely ill adults", use that phrase in your experience section, then back it up with an example. Tailor the personal statement and the order of your bullet points for each application. It takes ten minutes and it is the change that makes the most difference.

Mistakes that cost interviews

• Leaving out your registration or field of practice, or burying it on page two.
• Listing duties ("responsible for patient care") instead of things you did.
• One CV sent to every ward, with a statement that could be about any job.
• Gaps with no explanation. A line saying you were caring for a relative or travelling is enough.
• Patient details or anything that could identify a patient, even in passing.
• A two-column design or text in boxes that an application system cannot read.

Band 5 pay in 2025/26

Band 5 is the usual starting band for a newly registered nurse in the NHS. Under Agenda for Change in England, basic pay for 2025/26 starts at £31,049, moves to £33,487 after two years and reaches £37,796 after four. Posts in and around London add a high cost area supplement, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own pay rates.