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Resume Tips for Nurses

20141223_nurse_resumeYou’ve got your nursing degree and several years of clinical experience, but you still can’t get a job. An outdated or cluttered resume may be to blame. The good news is that it’s easy to revamp it and make your skills stand out! Check out these tips below:

List your experience in reverse-chronological order. Hiring managers will be looking at your resume to see the most recent jobs you’ve held and what skills you’ve acquired over the years. Always organize your experience with the oldest relevant job last, and make sure your current or more recent job also includes concise statements about specific accomplishments.

Use action words to describe your skills. It can be tempting to write down each one of your job tasks in an effort to sound knowledgeable, but employers don’t have time to read long paragraphs on your resume, especially when they’re reviewing multiple applicants’ information. Instead, limit your task descriptions in the experience section to just three bullet points for each job held — and begin each bullet point with an action word. For example, if you were a nurse manager at a hospital, you might say “Supervised 10 nurses and oversaw care for 30 patients during each shift.”

Maximize your strengths. If you’re new to travel nursing and only have a couple years of clinical nursing experience under your belt, you may worry that you’ll be overlooked when hiring managers compare your resume to other nurses’ resumes. Make yours stand out by creating sections that focus on the skills you have in different areas and not on the number of positions you’ve held or years you’ve worked. For example, you could rename the experience section “Key Skills” and include your training within different specialties (such as labor and delivery).

Include experience that shows your leadership skills. List organizations you’re part of and places you’ve volunteered as a nurse to show that you’re committed to being a leader. Employers like to see that you’ll work hard at their facility and will take initiative when treating patients, and volunteer work also gives you unique experience that other nurses might not have.

Leave references off your resume (but have them ready). To keep your resume as brief and experience-focused as possible, you’ll want to remove the references section. However, make sure you have at least three people — preferably supervisors from different positions or even a professor, if you’re a new graduate — who can provide positive work and character references if an employer asks for them. Be sure to call these people ahead of time to let them know that you’ve listed them as references.

Improving your resume makes it easier to land a travel nursing job or any position in the future. Check out the applications and forms section of our website for a skills checklist and other helpful information.

About the author

Lindsay Wilcox

Lindsay Wilcox is a communication professional with experience writing for the healthcare and entertainment industries as well as local government. When she's not circling typos, she's enjoying fish tacos and hanging out with her family.

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