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Nursing Cover Letter Examples and Writing Tips

Written by Kathleen Walder Content Writer, IntelyCare

Reviewed by Diana Campion, MSN, APRN, ANP-C Education Development Nurse, Content Writer, IntelyCare

Young nurse writing in a journal in front of a laptop with a cup of coffee.

Your resume is a snapshot of your credentials and experience, but it does not reveal your personality, enthusiasm, or communication skills. For that, you have a cover letter. Before you review our nursing cover letter examples, let’s address one question: Do you have to send nursing cover letters at all? The short answer is yes, unless a job posting says not to. Let’s look at why cover letters matter and what you should include to get an employer interested in you.

From a healthcare manager’s point of view, it’s important that a team of nursing professionals is full of good-spirited individuals who get along and fit in with the organization. It’s hard to glean that kind of information about a candidate from their nursing resume.

If you can communicate like-minded values and a passion for your work in your cover letter, you’re more likely than not to receive an invitation to interview. In addition to looking at nursing cover letter examples to get ideas and inspiration, you can follow the steps below to learn how to write a nursing cover letter customized specifically for each job to which you apply.

Nursing cover letter example

How to Write a Cover Letter for a Nursing Job

Most nursing cover letter examples have five to seven paragraphs. That may seem like a long letter, but keep in mind that each section can be just two or three sentences. These are the main components that should be featured:

Header

This is the easy part. You need your name and contact information up top, plus your phone number and email address. Include the job title you’re applying for if it’s not in the first sentence of your introduction.

Greeting

You probably know how to open a letter with “Dear Fill-in-the-Blank.” To get extra points with the employer, find out who will be reading the letter and use their name. You can search for the HR manager’s name on the organization’s website or LinkedIn, do a Google search, or simply pick up the phone and ask.

Introduction

Your cover letter introduction aims to grab the readers’ attention so they want to continue reading. Tell them what interests you about the job and include a brief sentence about why you’re qualified. You can also tell them why you’re looking for a job — maybe you’ve moved to a new area, been laid off, want to continue to develop your skills, or you just want to take your career to a higher level.

Your Background

Your full job history is on your resume, so don’t repeat it here. Instead, read the job ad sentence by sentence and learn how your background fits the overall job function. For example, imagine an ad asks for experience working in gerontology, and you previously worked in a rehabilitation facility with patients of all ages. Your cover letter is a great place to talk about the work you did specifically with older patients in the facility, what you enjoyed about the work, and something you learned that relates to the job responsibilities in the ad.

Your Qualifications

Tell the reader why you’re the person they should hire. To do this, read the job ad very carefully again and match the crucial keywords. For example, the words manager and supervisor imply the same thing — that you’ve overseen others. If the job is for a manager, and your past title has been supervisor, make the switch and refer to your experience as that of a manager. Continue to match words that represent your qualifications. Putting them in bullet points makes your letter easier to read.

Conclusion

The last sentence or two of your letter should accomplish three tasks:

Emphasize how you fit the job requirements.
Thank the recipient for taking the time to read your letter.
Request the opportunity for an interview.

Sign Off

Choose your closing phrase. Among your choices are sincerely, warm regards, and best regards, followed by your name. Check out our nursing cover letter examples for more sign-off ideas. Don’t forget: To make sure your letter is free of typos, proofread it and ask someone else to take a look as well. You might use an online tool such as Grammarly to pick up mistakes that may have slipped past you.

How to Write a Nursing Cover Letter That Connects: 3 Tips

You can stand out from other nurse cover letter samples by making a genuine connection with a healthcare hiring manager. These three tips can show you how.

1. Show Enthusiasm for the Job

A shower of confetti and the sound of a marching band when the hiring manager opens your letter would be … annoying. You can communicate your enthusiasm for the job by including keywords featured in the job ad and explaining how you match the qualifications. This tells the employer you paid attention to their needs. If you don’t have much of an experience section on your resume and you need to write an entry-level nursing cover letter, this is one area you can and should emphasize.

For example, imagine that the posting says you will be required to record your activities in a weekly report. Rather than just saying you’ve got experience doing that, you can point out how you always enjoyed reviewing your accomplishments during the past week while writing your report. That demonstrates a dedication to the role.

2. Show Enthusiasm for the Organization

You want to make the reader feel special, so be sure to mention a few reasons why you want to work for this particular organization. It can help you stand out as someone who wants this job and not just any old job.

The job ad may have some information about the organization’s mission and values. If not, you may find it on their website on the homepage or in an “about us” section. The key is to write a sentence or two about their values or philosophies that match up with your own.

3. Show Enthusiasm for the Profession

When discussing your job experience, include a sentence about why you chose to work in healthcare or what you like most about it. This shows employers that you’re engaged and committed to contributing to the field.