Skills profiles help healthcare facility leaders communicate the specific competencies that are required (or preferred) for different nursing roles. Clarifying these skill requisites can help optimize job matching and improve overall hiring outcomes by influencing every phase of the nurse recruitment process. This ranges from tightening a job description to informing a difficult decision after the final round of interviews.
Whether you're looking to implement this hiring strategy, or bolster the process you already utilize, you're in the right place. In this skills profiling guide, we'll cover best practices to attract and retain the right nurses for your facility, and provide the following free sample skills list and profile template to give you and your hiring team a head start.
The Purpose of Highlighting Skills for Job Profiles in Healthcare
Healthcare facility leaders are responsible for hiring new staff members who are not only licensed for the position, but also a great organizational fit. This means that in addition to verifying credentials, hiring managers should consider a wide range of indicators and assess them in terms of compatibility with the vacant position. This involves the use of multiple tools and strategies, including skills profiling.
Skill profiles provide a snapshot of a nurse's relevant competencies, including clinical skills, soft skills, and transferable skills. Condensing these attributes of a nurse into a singular view is a practical way to gain an objective understanding of whether an applicant is a good match for a particular position.
Using Essential Skills Profiles During the Nurse Hiring Process
Skill profiles enter into the hiring process in two distinct capacities: either generated by the applicant or by the employer.
When a profile stems from an applicant, the nursing skills (for resume content) are typically summarized and attached to specific experiences, whether education or job based. To recognize a clinician-generated skills profile, CV reviewers may need to look for keywords woven into a resume's profile statement or work experience. Software can help with this process.
Alternatively, hiring facilities’ lists are made to clearly advertise the clinician attributes that align with those of a top performer for the specific job. In this case, there are many organizational benefits to using a skills profile. Examples of possible advantages include:
- Increased clarity about what a facility is looking for in nurse applicants.
- Earlier recognition of candidates who may be a good match.
- A better roadmap for navigating and ensuring a successful interview process.
- More informed (and unbiased) decision making when choosing among high-quality candidates for a final job offer.
Skill Profiling for Nurse Hiring Processes: Best Practices
The nursing profession encompasses many different roles and a wide variety of competencies. This can add to the challenge of hiring, because a nurse who is technically qualified may still lack the particular skills required for success within a specific job.
Using a set list of prerequisite skills (like the above skills profile sample) during your hiring process is one way to overcome that challenge. You can make the most of this resource by using these five best practices to further optimize your clinical hiring outcomes.
1. Collaborate to Define the Clinical Skills Needed
Work with your unit's nurse educator, your facility's human resources department, and unit charge nurses to identify the skills needed for the nursing role you're working to fill. Consult nursing literature to give your skills list a framework. This process will help you gain clarity regarding what your ideal candidate will look like. Think in terms of pinpointing key or critical skills, rather than creating a comprehensive skills checklist.
Example:
A hiring team meets with a medical-surgical unit’s safety committee and learns that patient falls are the unit’s most pressing safety concern. In response, the team prioritizes candidates with relevant skillsets, including safe patient handling, fall prevention initiatives, and the use of mobility equipment like mechanical lifts.
2. Include Key Skills in Your Nursing Job Description
Use the skills profile you developed as you write the nursing position job description. Be intentional when describing the desired skill, and use clear, industry-standard language. This language may inform algorithms searching for keyword matches (depending on the tools you use in your hiring process). For example, wound care is standard language in nursing, as opposed to caring for wounds.
Example:
A labor and delivery unit frequently cares for Spanish-speaking patients and identifies language barriers as a recurring issue through patient feedback. In response to patient concerns, the hiring manager specifies the need for Spanish-speaking skills (rather than a broad, generalized call for bilingual nursing candidates) in addition to specifying the need for effective interpreter-use skills (or experience).
3. Use Nursing Skills Profiling to Inform Your Resume Screening Processes
Many healthcare facilities use applicant tracking software (ATS) to screen resumes and filter candidates based on required and preferred criteria. The skills list you created for the vacant nursing position at your facility will guide the parameters you set within your ATS. High-quality nursing job boards provide users with the option of using built-in ATS to screen applicants for you.
Example:
A home health agency frequently provides tracheostomy care for their many patients with alternative airway-support needs. To identify qualified candidates more efficiently, the organization uses screening software to highlight applications that demonstrate experience with tracheostomy care among other airway management skills.
4. Incorporate Skills Assessment Into Nurse Candidate Interviews
Automated systems can streamline the hiring process, but in-person interviews are still crucial. When a candidate reaches this point, you'll likely have information about their clinical skills and care delivery experiences. However, you may be unsure of their level of proficiency in areas that are harder to assess, such as soft skills.
Keep a nursing position skills profiler handy as you ask the nurse candidate questions, and use the interview as a chance to assess the nurse's proficiency in the various categories you've defined. However, be sure to delineate the absolute requirements of the job from "nice to have" skills and attributes so you don't discourage qualified candidates. Download our free template (linked earlier in the article) to get a head start in creating a skill profile that fits your specific vacancies.
Example:
An urgent care identifies communication skills, professionalism, and customer service as key hiring criteria. Clinicians in this setting often spend only a short time with each patient, yet those quick interactions play a significant role in shaping the patient experience and influencing reviews. By prioritizing questions that identify strong interpersonal skills, the organization can more easily identify the applicant who will contribute to the best overall patient experiences and company image.
5. Identify Skill Gaps
Delivering excellent patient care is a team activity. Defining the skill profiles for individual positions on the team can help you discover what your unit is missing. Once this gap is identified, leverage the resources available to you to complete your nursing team.
This might involve working with a staffing partner to fill positions with nurses who possess the missing competencies or maximizing the reach of your job post through an online platform with ample traffic.
Example:
When a rural emergency department (ED) reviews its emergency operations plan, it identifies a gap in its ability to manage high-acuity, low-occurrence (HALO) events. Although rare, these events carry a high risk for patient harm. To strengthen their preparedness, the hospital’s recruitment team creates a skill list that aligns with trauma, critical care, and high-volume ED clinical expertise.
Need Help Matching With a Highly Skilled Clinician?
Using a skills profile template is a great nurse hiring tool and resource for meeting your staffing goals. Need help attracting knowledgeable, highly competent candidates quickly? Consider posting your open position to our network of over a million qualified nursing professionals who are actively seeking work today.