Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) resume examples by experience level

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Use this example

In short, a licensed practical nurse resume is a one to two page document naming your state license, the scope your state's nurse practice act allows you, the competencies you have been delegated on top of it, and the setting you are applying into.

However, that third item is the one most LPN resumes leave out, and the one a director of nursing reads for. Two LPNs with identical licenses can have very different jobs, because scope is set by state law and by what a facility documents you as competent to do.

Resume guide for a licensed practical nurse resume

Specifically, this guide and the corresponding LPN resume example will cover:

• First, how to write an LPN resume, section by section
• Secondly, what your state's nurse practice act decides, written as a scope line
• Thirdly, three adaptable summaries: new graduate, practicing LPN and charge LPN
• Fourthly, why long-term care, a physician's office and home health want different resumes
• Lastly, what the job market looks like and what Bureau of Labor Statistics pay data shows

How to write an LPN resume

Overall, it takes six blocks: contact header, summary, license and scope, nursing experience, skills and competencies, and education. In general, use one page for your first five years, then two once you have charge duties, precept, or work across settings.

In practice, how a director of nursing reads sets the order. The license comes first because it is a legal gate. The scope and competency block comes second, because it is the only thing saying which assignments you can be given without a supervisor behind you.

Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker first. Nursing home groups and health systems screen applications through an applicant tracking system before a nurse manager opens one.

Choosing the best resume format for an LPN resume

Reverse chronological, single column. Use one page for your first five years, but two once you carry charge duties, precept, or have worked across settings.

However, there is one format decision specific to this occupation. For example, LPN careers often move between settings rather than up: long-term care, then a physician's office, then home health, then back to a skilled unit as a charge nurse. As a plain list that looks restless; with the setting named on each heading, however, it looks like range.

Therefore, put the setting on the heading line: "Licensed Practical Nurse, 120-bed skilled nursing facility" tells a reader what the job was.

Include your contact information

Also, put the license number and expiry on the page. Every state board publishes a verification lookup, so the file that lets them confirm you in ten seconds moves first.

Make use of a summary

In short, use four lines: license and state, setting and caseload, the competencies you carry beyond the license, and one number that moved.

Licensed practical nurse newly licensed in Kentucky, license #1085447, working a 28-resident long-term care unit on the evening shift. Passes medications by oral, topical, subcutaneous, intramuscular, rectal and enteral tube routes on a unit averaging 14 scheduled passes per resident per day, and collects and charts vital signs, intake and output, weights, skin checks and glucose readings for the supervising registered nurse. Completed a board-approved practical nursing diploma and passed the NCLEX-PN in 2026. Certified in basic life support and trained on the facility's fall and skin protocols.

Licensed practical nurse with seven years across long-term care and a four-provider family medicine practice, licensed in Kentucky and certified for infusion therapy under 201 KAR 20:490. Carries a 30-resident medication and treatment assignment on a skilled unit, performs wound assessment and dressing changes for stage 2 and 3 pressure injuries under the unit protocol, and manages enteral feeding, tracheostomy care and ostomy care. Rebuilt the skin check documentation so that pressure injuries identified at stage 1 rose from 42 percent to 71 percent of new findings in a year.

Charge licensed practical nurse with 12 years across long-term care, home health and a physician's office, licensed in Kentucky with infusion therapy certification. Serves as designated charge nurse on an evening tour for a 60-bed skilled unit, directing seven certified nursing assistants and escalating to the registered nurse supervisor under written protocol. Precepts every new LPN hire through a four-week competency covering medication routes, wound protocol, data collection and documentation. Took medication pass error reports from 19 in a quarter to 4 after rewriting the pass sequence.

Right vs wrong: the same LPN summary, twice

A manager could assign the left column to a unit tomorrow, whereas the right column is every other file in the folder.

Outline your nursing experience

Employer, setting, unit size, shift and dates, then a scope line: bed or panel count, your assignment size, who you report to and who reports to you. Then three to five bullets, each carrying a number.

Charge Licensed Practical Nurse, Skilled Nursing Unit, Bardstown Ridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, Louisville, KY, August 2020 to Present
60-bed skilled unit inside a 120-bed facility, evening tour. Designated charge nurse, reporting to the registered nurse supervisor and directing seven certified nursing assistants.
Carry a 30-resident medication and treatment assignment alongside charge duties, averaging 14 scheduled passes per resident per day.
Rewrote the medication pass sequence and the interruption rule; pass error reports fell from 19 in a quarter to 4 and have stayed there.
Perform wound assessment and dressing for stage 2 and 3 pressure injuries under the unit protocol; new pressure injuries identified at stage 1 rose from 42 percent to 71 percent of findings in a year.
Maintain infusion therapy competency under 201 KAR 20:490, and precept every new LPN hire through a four-week competency.

Write the scope your state allows, and what you were delegated

In fact, this is the block that decides between two licensed applicants, and the one most LPN resumes replace with "provided direct patient care".

Your scope is state law, not a job description. All states and territories have legislated a nurse practice act, which establishes a board of nursing and gives it authority to write rules clarifying the law; those rules carry the full force and effect of law (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Nurse Practice Act Toolkit, checked September 2026). So the first sentence of your scope block names your state: a Kentucky scope line and a California one are not the same claim.

Data collection language for LPN charting

Data collection, not assessment. This is the most reliable tell that an LPN resume was written by someone who knows the boundary. The NCLEX-PN test plan, effective April 2026, uses "data collection" throughout where the registered nurse examination uses assessment (National Council of State Boards of Nursing, NCLEX-PN Test Plan, effective April 2026). Kentucky's board puts the boundary in practice terms: an LPN may participate in the assessment phase by collecting basic data through observation, physical examination and patient interview, but may not perform a comprehensive initial assessment, interpret clinical data independently, or formulate nursing diagnoses or care plans (Kentucky Board of Nursing, Advisory Opinion Statement 27, revised October 2025).

Instead, write "collected and charted" and "escalated to the registered nurse under protocol", not "assessed the patient and developed the plan of care". After all, a manager reading the second assumes you do not know where your license ends.

Delegation, IV therapy and other LPN competencies

What you were delegated, and what you delegate. Delegation is defined nationally as allowing a delegatee to perform a nursing activity beyond their traditional role and not routinely performed, under five rights: the right task, circumstance, person, directions and communication, and supervision and evaluation. Nursing judgment cannot be delegated, and LPN or VNs may delegate where their jurisdiction allows (National Council of State Boards of Nursing and American Nurses Association, National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation, effective April 2019). On a resume that is two lines: what you carry under delegation, and how many unlicensed assistive personnel you direct.

IV and infusion therapy. This is the highest-value add-on in the occupation, and it is state-specific. Kentucky regulates it at 201 KAR 20:490, which sets the education an LPN must complete first: legal considerations and risk management, anatomy and physiology including fluid and electrolyte balance, pharmacology as related to infusion therapy, equipment preparation, administration, access device maintenance and assessment of complications (Kentucky Board of Nursing, Licensed Practical Nurse Infusion Therapy Education, checked September 2026). Write the regulation number, the year you completed it, and what your facility documents you as competent to perform. "IV certified" alone means something different at every state line.

The rest of the competency list. Wound care by stage and protocol, enteral and gastrostomy feeding, tracheostomy care and suctioning, ostomy care, catheterization, glucose monitoring and insulin administration, oxygen therapy, and your signed-off medication routes. List the routes.

Licensed Practical Nurse, Kentucky Board of Nursing, license #1085447, issued 2014, current through 2027
Infusion therapy education completed 2018 under 201 KAR 20:490; facility competency current
Medication routes signed off: oral, topical, ophthalmic, otic, nasal, inhaled, rectal, vaginal, subcutaneous, intramuscular, enteral tube
Delegated competencies: wound assessment and dressing for stage 2 and 3 pressure injuries under unit protocol; enteral and gastrostomy feeding; tracheostomy care and suctioning; ostomy care; catheterization; glucose monitoring and insulin administration; oxygen therapy
Charge nurse designation on the evening tour, directing seven certified nursing assistants, escalating to the registered nurse supervisor
Basic Life Support, American Heart Association, current through 2027

Long-term care, a physician's office and home health want different files

At the same time, the same license produces three different jobs, and a resume aimed at all three lands in none of them.

For example, federal rules give long-term care its own shape. A nursing facility must provide licensed nurses on a 24-hour basis and must designate a licensed nurse as charge nurse on each tour of duty, while a registered nurse must be used at least 8 consecutive hours a day, 7 days a week (42 CFR 483.35, current as checked September 2026). That is why LPNs hold charge designations in long-term care and almost never in a hospital.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Then use four groups: clinical, medication, documentation, and the direction work long-term care runs on. Named protocols and systems.

Clinical: wound assessment and dressing by stage, enteral and gastrostomy feeding, tracheostomy care and suctioning, ostomy care, catheterization, oxygen therapy, infusion therapy under 201 KAR 20:490
Medication: administration by eleven routes, insulin and sliding scale, controlled substance count, pass accuracy, reconciliation at admission and return from hospital
Data collection and documentation: vital signs, weights, intake and output, skin checks, glucose readings, pain scoring, escalation to the registered nurse under written protocol, PointClickCare and Epic charting, fall and incident reporting
Direction and teaching: directing certified nursing assistants on a tour, assignment sheets and shift report, family teaching, precepting, survey readiness

List your education and certifications

Program and approval status first, then the license, then NCLEX-PN, then the add-on certifications with the regulation behind each.

Diploma, Practical Nursing, Ohio Falls Technical College, Louisville, KY, 2014. Board-approved practical nursing program.
NCLEX-PN passed 2014
Licensed Practical Nurse, Kentucky Board of Nursing, license #1085447, current through 2027
Infusion therapy education completed 2018 under 201 KAR 20:490
Continuing education: wound care and pressure injury staging, 2025; dementia care, 2024
Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers, American Heart Association, current through 2027

Choose the right layout and design

Finally, keep a single column, 11 or 12 point, clear headings, no photograph. Nursing home groups and health systems parse these into a structured record before a nurse manager reads one, and license numbers and regulation citations break first in a two-column template.

Licensed practical nurse job market and outlook

Overall, this is a large occupation with slow growth and heavy replacement demand, concentrated in long-term care.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses, 2025 to 2035 projections and May 2025 wage data.

Where the jobs sit:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025.

What salary you can expect as a licensed practical nurse

Specifically, the median annual wage for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses was $64,400, or $30.96 an hour, as of May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $49,740 and the highest 10 percent more than $83,440 (BLS, May 2025).

Meanwhile, the published industry table runs from $59,520 in offices of physicians to $68,970 in government excluding state and local education and hospitals (BLS, May 2025), a spread of $9,450. Even so, inside a setting, what moves pay is a short list:

• Shift. Evenings, nights and weekends carry differentials, and in long-term care the evening charge tour is the hardest to fill.
• Charge designation. Being the licensed nurse designated as charge on a tour is a documented responsibility, not a courtesy title, and the clearest step up without further licensure.
• IV and infusion therapy. Where the state allows it and the facility documents it, this widens the assignments you can take.
• Specialty competencies. Wound care, ventilator, dialysis and dementia units all pay for documented competency.
• Precepting. Facilities with turnover pay for people who can onboard new nurses, and it leads toward staff development.

Key takeaways for an LPN resume

1. First, lead with the license number, state and expiry, because it is a legal gate.
2. Write a scope line naming your state, because scope is state law.
3. Then use data collection language instead of assessment language.
4. Also list your medication routes and delegated competencies with the protocol behind each.
5. Similarly, name the infusion therapy regulation and the year, not just "IV certified".
6. In addition, put the setting on every job heading and match the resume to the setting you want.
7. Finally, give the assignment size and the number of assistants you direct.

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Pair it with a matching LPN cover letter.