Resume evidence
LPN job description for a resume
What should an lpn put on a resume?
The short answer
An LPN writing a resume should describe what they actually did — work like measure and record patients' vital signs — rather than copying a generic bullet list. The U.S. Department of Labor classifies the role as Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses (SOC 29-2061.00). Its 15 published duties are the place to start, and the 14 most relevant are listed below. Service Orientation is the capability O*NET rates highest for the work.
What follows is the published duty list, not a set of bullets to copy. The difference matters: a line describing work you did not do is one interview question away from falling apart.
What an lpn does
Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing required.
O*NET occupation: Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses (SOC 29-2061.00).
LPN duties you can put on a resume
O*NET publishes 15 core duties for this occupation. These are the 14 its incumbents most often report performing, ranked by O*NET's published relevance rating — not a complete list of the job. Which ranking is a fact from the source; which of them you personally did is not something any dataset knows. Use the list as a memory aid, never as a list to paste.
- Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.
- Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.
- Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.
- Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.
- Collect samples, such as blood, urine, or sputum from patients, and perform routine laboratory tests on samples.
- Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary.
- Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions.
- Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.
- Apply compresses, ice bags, or hot water bottles.
- Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.
- Assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, or oxygen suppliers.
- Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.
- Record food and fluid intake and output.
- Prepare patients for examinations, tests, or treatments and explain procedures.
Skills an lpn can list
O*NET rates these at importance 3.0 or above for this occupation.
- Service Orientation
- importance 4.12
- Social Perceptiveness
- importance 4.00
- Coordination
- importance 4.00
- Active Listening
- importance 3.88
- Speaking
- importance 3.88
- Monitoring
- importance 3.88
- Reading Comprehension
- importance 3.75
- Critical Thinking
- importance 3.75
Turn what you did into resume evidence
Select the duties you genuinely performed, add any real detail you have, and this builds editable lines from your own facts. It will not write a result for you.
Select what you actually did
Tick only the duties you genuinely performed. Everything below is built from those choices and the facts you type — nothing is invented, and nothing leaves your browser.
Nothing selected yet. Tick a duty above to start building evidence.
What not to claim
- A duty from the list above that you did not personally perform. It describes Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses as an occupation, not your particular job — and interviewers for lpn roles ask about the specifics.
- Duties from the 1 published items not shown here, unless you genuinely did them. A longer list is not a better one.
- A percentage, a headcount or a volume you did not measure. "Improved satisfaction by 35%" is the single most copied line on resume-example sites, and almost nobody who pastes it can source it.
- Service Orientation at a level you have not worked at. O*NET rates it highest for this occupation, which makes it the most likely thing to be probed.
- A tool, system or certification you have not used or hold. This is the fastest claim to disprove.
Source and method
| Occupation | Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses |
|---|---|
| SOC code | 29-2061.00 |
| Published duties | 14 |
| Skills at importance 3.0+ | 8 |
| Source | O*NET 30.3 Database, U.S. Department of Labor |
| Last verified | Verified 2026-09-04 |
| Price | Free |
| Account required | No |
| Invents experience | No — every line is built from duties you select and facts you type |
| Server storage | None. Your selections stay in this browser |
| Output | Editable evidence lines, not finished resume text |
O*NET data are provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 licence.The duties and skills above are reproduced as published. The resume guidance, the prompts and any generated lines are RoleSprint's, and O*NET did not write them.
Related occupations
Same occupational family in the SOC classification, so the duties often overlap with work you have done.
Once your experience is written down
Documenting what you did is the first half. Whether that evidence matches a particular opening is a different question, and the one worth answering before you apply.
Compare this evidence with a job you want