Healthcare

Top Skills for Licensed Practical Nurse Resume in 2026

The right skills on your resume can mean the difference between landing an interview and getting filtered out. Here are the exact skills licensed practical nurse employers are looking for in 2026.

Hard Skills for Licensed Practical Nurse

These technical skills are the foundation of any strong licensed practical nurse resume. Employers and ATS systems specifically scan for these:

Patient care

High demand

In-demand Patient care skills are essential for patient care workflows and employer expectations.

Medication administration

High demand

In-demand Medication administration skills are essential for medication administration workflows and employer expectations.

Vital signs monitoring

High demand

In-demand Vital signs monitoring skills are essential for vital signs monitoring workflows and employer expectations.

Wound care

In-demand Wound care skills are essential for wound care workflows and employer expectations.

IV therapy

In-demand IV therapy skills are essential for iv therapy workflows and employer expectations.

Patient education

In-demand Patient education skills are essential for patient education workflows and employer expectations.

EHR charting

In-demand EHR charting skills are essential for ehr charting workflows and employer expectations.

Collaboration with RNs

In-demand Collaboration with RNs skills are essential for collaboration with rns workflows and employer expectations.

Soft Skills for Licensed Practical Nurse

Don't just list these — demonstrate them through your experience bullets with concrete examples:

Empathy

Show through specific achievements, not just mentions.

Communication

Show through specific achievements, not just mentions.

Attention to detail

Show through specific achievements, not just mentions.

Teamwork

Show through specific achievements, not just mentions.

Composure under pressure

Show through specific achievements, not just mentions.

How to List Skills on Your Licensed Practical Nurse Resume

Create a dedicated Skills section

Place a "Skills" or "Core Competencies" section near the top of your resume — after your summary but before your experience.

Use columns for visual efficiency

List skills in 2–3 columns to save space and make them easy to scan. Bullet points or pipe (|) separators work well.

Match the job description exactly

Copy exact skill names from the job posting. If they say "REST APIs" and you wrote "RESTful services", you might miss ATS matches.

Separate hard from soft skills

Keep technical/hard skills in your Skills section. Demonstrate soft skills through your experience bullets and summary instead.

ATS Keyword Tips for Licensed Practical Nurse

Most licensed practical nurse job applications are screened by ATS before a human ever reads them. Use these keywords naturally throughout your resume:

LPNlicensed practical nursepatient carenursingmedication administrationclinical carelong-term carePatient careMedication administrationVital signs monitoring
Pro tip: Paste the job description into our keyword analyzer to see your exact match percentage and which keywords you're missing.

Skills That Command Higher Licensed Practical Nurse Salaries

These three skills are associated with the highest-paying licensed practical nurse roles:

Patient care
Medication administration
Vital signs monitoring

See the full Licensed Practical Nurse salary guide →

Skills for Related Healthcare Roles

See How Your Skills Stack Up

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