Healthcare hiring uses ATS software extensively — hospitals and healthcare systems process thousands of applications for nursing and clinical roles. But healthcare ATS has specific requirements that differ from general corporate hiring: certifications, license numbers, clinical specialties, and unit-specific experience are all heavily searched.
This guide covers the specific optimizations that matter for nurses, allied health professionals, and other clinical roles.
Lead with your licenses and certifications
Most healthcare ATS systems are configured to filter specifically on license type, state, and certification status. These need to be findable immediately — not buried in the middle of your resume.
Create a clear 'Licenses & Certifications' section near the top of your resume. Include: full license name, license number (optional but often requested), issuing state, and expiration date.
- ✓ Registered Nurse (RN) — State License #XXXXXXX, [State], Expires MM/YYYY
- ✓ Basic Life Support (BLS) — American Heart Association, Expires MM/YYYY
- ✓ Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) — AHA, Expires MM/YYYY
- ✓ Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) — BCEN, Expires MM/YYYY
- ✓ NIHSS Certification, Expires MM/YYYY
Clinical specialty keywords by unit type
Healthcare ATS searches are often filtered by clinical specialty. Use the standard abbreviations and full names for your specialty areas.
- ✓ Emergency Department: ED, ER, emergency nursing, triage, trauma, ACLS, PALS
- ✓ ICU/Critical Care: ICU, CVICU, SICU, MICU, critical care, ventilator management, hemodynamic monitoring, vasopressors
- ✓ Med-Surg: medical-surgical, telemetry, step-down, wound care, IV therapy
- ✓ Labor & Delivery: L&D, OB, obstetrics, perinatal, fetal monitoring, postpartum
- ✓ Pediatrics: PICU, NICU, pediatric nursing, neonatal, PALS
- ✓ OR/Perioperative: surgical nursing, perioperative, scrub nurse, circulating nurse, sterile field
EHR/EMR system keywords
Electronic health record proficiency is a common ATS filter. Name the specific systems you've used:
- ✓ Epic, Epic Systems, EpicCare
- ✓ Cerner, Oracle Cerner
- ✓ Meditech
- ✓ Allscripts
- ✓ McKesson
- ✓ PointClickCare (for long-term care)
Structure your clinical experience bullets
Apply the same action verb + what + scale formula that works in other fields. Nursing bullets should include: patient ratio, unit type, acuity level, and specific clinical skills performed.
Weak: 'Provided patient care in the ICU.'
Strong: 'Managed 1:2 patient assignments in 20-bed cardiac ICU, caring for post-surgical and hemodynamically unstable patients requiring continuous vasoactive drip titration and ventilator management.'
The strong version includes ICU, cardiac, vasoactive drip, ventilator — all of which are searchable terms. The weak version gives the ATS nothing to work with.