Career advice · Updated October 2026
How to Write a Nurse CV in Kenya: Registration, Skills and Format
Kenyan hospitals receive many applications for every nursing post, and the people who shortlist them check the same few things first: are you registered, is your licence current, what units have you worked in, and can you start soon. A nurse CV that answers those questions on page one gets read; one that buries them does not. This guide shows you how to lay out a nursing CV for county hospitals, mission facilities and private hospitals in Kenya, and the free CV builder will format it for you.
Lead With Your Nursing Council Details
County vacancy notices for nurses ask for a registration or enrolment certificate from the Nursing Council of Kenya and a valid practising licence. Private hospitals check the same. Put your cadre (for example Kenya Registered Community Health Nurse or Enrolled Community Health Nurse), your registration number and your licence expiry date right under your name. If your licence is due for renewal, renew it before applying; an expired licence is one of the quickest reasons to be dropped.
A Nurse CV Layout That Works
- Name, phone, email, town and your Nursing Council registration and licence details.
- Profile: your cadre, years of experience and the units you are strongest in.
- Clinical experience: most recent first. For each post give the facility, its level or type, your title, the units and the dates.
- Education: certificate, diploma, higher diploma or degree in nursing, with the institution and year.
- Short courses and certifications: basic and advanced life support, infection prevention, HIV care, emergency triage and similar, with dates.
- Skills: clinical procedures you are competent in and any hospital information systems you have used.
- Referees: three, ideally a nurse in charge, a matron or a clinical supervisor.
Describe Units and Patient Load
“Worked as a nurse at a county hospital” tells a recruiter very little. Name the units: maternity, theatre, critical care, paediatrics, outpatient, renal. Say what kind of shifts you worked and give a sense of scale, such as the number of beds in the ward or deliveries in the maternity unit each month, if you know it. A hospital hiring for theatre wants to see theatre on your CV within seconds.
Show Specialist Training
County boards now advertise specialist posts, such as peri-operative and nephrology nursing, that require a higher diploma plus experience. If you have a specialty, put it in your profile and repeat it in the education section. If you are working towards one, list it with the expected completion date.
New Graduates and Interns
If you have just finished training or internship, list your clinical rotations as experience: the facility, the units and the weeks you spent in each. Add any community health outreach, immunisation campaigns or school health programmes. One page is enough at this stage.
Mistakes Kenyan Nurse Recruiters Point Out
- Missing or expired licence details.
- Long lists of routine duties copied from a job description.
- No dates on short courses, which makes it impossible to tell if life support certification is current.
- Referees who cannot speak about your clinical work.
Pay and Applications
Before you apply, it helps to know what a post pays. A grade-by-grade guide to nurse salaries, with a take-home pay calculator, is on businessradar.co.ke. Send a short cover letter that names the unit you want; see how to write a cover letter in Kenya.
Build Your Nurse CV
Use the free CV builder: add your registration and licence in the profile line, list units under each job, and download a PDF ready for upload. Then look through current healthcare and nursing jobs. General CV advice is in how to write a CV in Kenya.