Write Registered Nurse Resume Objective Or Summary
How to start a resume the right way? Write a resume profile that summarizes your best achievements and put it just below your contact information.
Think of your resume profile as the patient status. What is the most vital information? Focus on backing up your experience with numbers. Dont rattle off the list of your responsibilities, we know what RNs do. Focus on the impact you can make on your new ward.
Heres how to write a striking resume summary.
What Recruiters Want To See:
- How long have you been in the healthcare sector? How did you contribute to it?
- Do you have soft skills and obligatory clinical skills?
- Are physicians and hospital managers satisfied with your performance?
- What were your day-to-day tasks and duties? What did you achieve?
- How do you cope with stressful situations? Are you adept at working in a dynamic environment?
Nursing Skills And Areas Of Expertise
It is a common mistake to list hard skills last on a resume. With the popularity of ATS this mistake could cost you an interview. This is especially true in nursing as the profession requires very specific skills. List skills within the top of the resume. Your hard skills should be directly targeted to the role as it is expressed in the job description.
Is the employer asking for a specific EMR that you are experienced with? List it! Are you an expert at starting IVs because of your five years of experience in the emergency room? List it!
This should not be a generic list of skills, but a specific list that is as quantified as much as possible. Its possible that if you are a newer nurse or are making a specialty pivot that you may not have hard skills to include. In that case, its okay to omit this section and highlight your transferable soft skills within your job history.
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How To List Nursing Credentials
According to the American Nurses Credentialing Center the preferred order is: Highest degree earned, Licensure, National Certification.
- Educational degrees include doctoral degrees , masters degrees , bachelors degrees , and associate degrees .
- Licensure credentials include RN, LPN,CNA, and APRN.
- National certification, which is occasionally voluntary for nurses and obligatory for advanced practice nurses, is awarded through accredited certifying bodies such as the American Nurses Credentialing Center , includes RNBC and FNP-BC .
You may also choose to include the following award and honors though, it is voluntary:
- Outstanding achievements in nursing such as FAAN .
- Other certifications that recognize additional skills such as the EMT-Basic/EMT, awarded by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technician.
Example Nursing Job Description
ABC Health is the local leading staffing agency for hospitals and health systems in the region. Nurses at ABC Health join a diverse team of health care professionals at several local hospitals in a team that includes some of the most cutting edge health professionals in the world. Put your clinical skills to work to improve patient care and outcomes in a variety of units and settings.
Responsibilities:
- Provide evidence-based care within the nursing processes, policies and procedures of ABC Health
- Use specialty care experience when required to fill out staffing rosters in a variety of departments
- Promote quality and excellence in care by directing other team members on proper procedures
- Work with all members of a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals
- Promote improvement initiatives in your area of specialty, improving clinical and financial operations
- Foster a culture of excellence in a clinical environment
Qualifications:
- Current registered nurse license in the state
- Current CPR certification
- 2 years of Med/Surg experience within the past 5 years
In health care, employers often list qualifications that are legally required to practice medicine in the advertised position. It is important to include this information under education and certifications. Focus on the responsibilities section or qualifications that may be given in addition to basic legal requirements when highlighting skills. For this post, a tailored response should include words such as:
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Registered Nurse Resume Examples For 2022
Without registered nurses , healthcare as we know it would cease to exist. They are the glue that keeps hospitals together and are truly on the front lines in service of their patients.
It’s also a field in very high demand. In addition to the rush of hiring during COVID-19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is predicting a 12 percent growth in demand for RNs through 2028.
Healthcare is tricky enough on its own. So, don’t be discouraged if you’re struggling to draft your nurse cover letter or write a resume that puts their best foot forward.
We’re here to help with five great RN resume samples that are succeeding in the real world in 2022.
It doesn’t matter if this is your first job out of nursing school or you’re a seasoned vet, these resumes are a great place to get started before writing or updating yours.
Resume Examples
Why this resume works
- There is a lot of debate about whether to include a resume objective on your RN resume. It’s the two sentences that sit beside or below your name. Only consider including one on your RN resume if any of the following are true:
- You’re undergoing a career change,
- You just finished nursing school and this is your first RN job, or
- You’re going to customize it to the nursing job description.
Rn Resume Objective Template
When writing a resume objective, the order is unimportant, as long as the information is there. Here are a few examples of RN resume objective templates with the important elements in various order:
-
seeking a position at where they can expand and use to help patients.
-
with seeking employment as a at .
-
seeking work as for . Bringing with them .
-
To work as a at , providing .
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Will Your Nursing Resume Beat The Ats
Optimizing your resume for the Application Tracking System increases your chances of being called for an interview. The ATS is a tool that many companies use to quickly scan resumes and weed out applicants without relying on someone to read through them first.
Most resumes aren’t designed to beat ATS, and end up being filtered out before they ever reach the recruiter. However, if you know how to properly format your resume, you’ll pass the ATS scan and make your way to a person. Here’s what you should know about the role of fonts, font size, margins, header names, logical order, skills, and page length, as far as ATS-friendly resumes are concerned:
- ATS-friendly fonts make it easy for a computer to read your resume. Some of the most commonly used ATS-friendly fonts include: Times New Roman, Calibri, and Arial. Preferably, they should have a font size of 10-12 points.
- Beyond just font type, font size also matters. Preferably, your body font size should be 10-12 points, while your headers can be bigger.
- Keywords are the main focus of the ATS, so make sure your skill keywords and header names match what’s in the job description.
- The ATS is not sensitive to the number of pages, but one page is the standard across professions.
Match Your Cover Letter With Your Resume
Yep, thats right.
You might be thinking, A cover letter?! Surely the nursing skills on my resume speak for themselves!
Well, heres the thing: cover letters are still very important.
They show the recruiter that youre passionate about working for THIS position in THIS company, and you arent just sending your resume all over the place.
Having a solid cover letter with your resume can significantly boost your chances of getting the job.
The first step to writing a convincing cover letter is to get the structure right. Heres how to do that.
And heres what youd write in each section:
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How To Write A Nurse Resume Summary Or Objective
Fun fact – recruiters spend less than 6 seconds reviewing each resume. This isnt that surprising, though. You cant expect them to read the hundreds of resumes they receive from end to end.
So, if the recruiter doesnt see that youre relevant for the job in a single glance, your resume wont even be read.
Now, the question is, what can you do to hook the recruiter the moment they look at your resume.
The answer is simple: use a resume summary or objective.
As a quick intro, both the resume summary and objective are sections that go on top of your resume, just under the contact information section.
The main difference between the 2 sections is that
A resume summary is a 2-4 sentence summary of your professional experiences and achievements.
- Trauma Certified Registered Nurse with more than five years experience working in emergency care. Compassionate, ethical health-care provider with a proven ability to stay calm during crises. Hold a Masters of Science in Surgical Nursing.
A resume objective, on the other hand, is a 2-4 sentence snapshot of your professional goals and aspirations.
- Patient-focused nursing student with 2 years of healthcare experience. Pursuing internships as part of career goal to become Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse.
So, which one do you pick? A summary, or an objective?
Registered Nurse Resume Skills And Keywords
Computers are firmly integrated into the modern medical world, and the hiring process is no exception. Busy hiring teams will use applicant tracking systems to check applications for specific registered nurse resume keywords. If your resume doesnt include the terms they look for, then you might be filtered out automatically. Thats why adding the right resume skills to your resume is so important. They can help you make it past the filters and get seen by real people.
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Add Hard Numbers To Your Experience Section
One of the most effective ways to show employers your capabilities and successes as a nurse is to add hard numbers to your work experience section.
For example, when writing your resume, ask yourself the following questions:
- How many patients did you take care of in your unit?
- How many hours did you work per rotation?
- How many nurses did you work with, or train?
Numbers give the hiring manager a clear picture of your skills and abilities because they add context to the accomplishments on your resume.
Heres an example of a bullet point without numbers:
No hard numbers
- Supervised unit of a large psychiatric facility
Here is the same statement with numbers and context added:
With hard numbers
- Supervised up to 10 staff in the 200-bed adolescent unit of a large psychiatric facility, specializing in eating disorders
Nurse Resume Education Example
Some occupations don’t put too much emphasis on formal credentials but the medical and other healthcare professions absolutely do. Not only is high-caliber training a vital requirement for nurses, but it could have a bearing on your resume. If you’re applying for a nurse job in the U.S., the education section has a HIGHER- than-usual priority in your nurse resume.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center has developed recommendations regarding the order of your formal credentials and where they are placed in relation to other sections.
- If you’re an experienced nursing professional, the education section can go either above or below your employment history. This can be at your discretion, or according to local standards or employer preference.
- If you’re a new nursing graduatewith no work experience, place your education section first, right below the summary.
Are you using the resume.io builder to create your nurse resume? It’s easy to list your licenses or similar credentials in the “school” field of the education section. Just as you would normally identify the college or other learning institutions, indicate the jurisdiction/organization that issued your nursing licenses or designations.
Where does the information go, and in what order? The ANCC recommends the following priority for listing credentials nurse resumes:
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Tailor Your Nurse Resume To The Job Posting
Each time you find a job ad, scan the posting for resume keywords that can be incorporated into your RN resume. Tailoring your resume to the job posting ensures employers see exactly how you fit the position being advertised.
Heres an excerpt from a job posting for a licensed practical nurse the keywords are underlined:
When writing your nursing resume, take note of keywords like this and work them into your experience section when possible.
Formatting Your Nursing Resume
Hiring managers typically receive a torrent of resumes whenever there’s an open position, so if you prepare your nursing resume haphazardly, you are more likely to get the boot than the job. To avoid that sad scenario, you need to make your nursing resume readable, logical, and pleasing to the eye. It should showcase your skills and experience while being ATS-compliant, and it should show off a bit of your personality, too.
It make sound like an impossible task, but before your get overwhelmed, start by taking it one step at a time. First, choose your formatting style: reverse-chronological, functional, or hybrid.
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Free Resume Templates For Nurses
These rn resume templates are free for you to use. They were developed by us and you can use them as you please. They are in Microsoft Word .doc format. If you do not have Microsoft Word you can use the FREE open source software known as OpenOffice via openoffice.org. It is completely free!
Once you have downloaded the templates you can edit them and add your own content. Be sure to let you friends on facebook know about these free resume templates!
To download the resume template simply click the picture of the template you like and click open:
Tailor Your Resume To The Position
Registered nurses can work in a variety of different environments, from large emergency rooms to OB/GYN to small family clinics. Its not uncommon for nurses to move from one part of the field to another. That means that you may be applying for positions with major differences at the same time.
If thats the case, take the time to edit your resume for each job. Years of experience in pediatrics will interest family medicine clinics but might not matter in an ER. Highlighting your ability to quickly calm down anxious families, on the other hand, makes that experience relevant to ERs. If you have the necessary skills and experience for a position, editing your resume helps you best demonstrate that to employers.
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How To Make A Strong Resume For Nursing
Nursing is a fulfilling career, and most practitioners in this field are satisfied with their jobs . However, you need an effective nursing resume before you get a position that takes you to the next level in your career.
Writing a resume that separates you from the other candidates and gets the recruiters attention is not always an easy task. One tip that can help you is tailoring each resume to match the job requirements.
Usually, the job description will help you determine what the recruiter is looking for. Use it to your advantage and add the keywords and action verbs that will optimize your resume. Hiring managers dont have much time to read through long resumes, so keep it short and summarize your qualifications on one page.
The resume format, layout, and structure are also crucial. Here are more details on them.
What Is An Rn Resume Objective
A resume objective is a direct and concise way of telling a potential employer who you are and why youre the best candidate for the job. As it is the first part of a resume, it provides a significant opportunity to make a positive impression on the reader. While highlighting professional accomplishments is important, the resume objective also supplies an important opportunity to prove that you possess both clinical and communication skills.
Most of the other nursing applicants will have a similar educational history. Some may even have more extensive working experience. Through your resume objective, you can give potential employers a clear vision of who you are and what makes you a great nurse.
Your resume objective is your chance to brag about yourself. Are you a hard worker? Are you quick to cheer up patients with a smile? What makes you a unique and valuable asset, and how do you plan to use those skills in your next position? Answering these questions will help you write a persuasive resume objective.
Related: Resume Objective Writing Guide, Examples and Tips
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Five Use The Right Formatting And Design
As mentioned, modern resumes need to be formatted to pass an ATS. This includes designing it in a comprehensive way that will not confuse the ATS. We recommend the following design and formatting features:
We recommend the top margin to be set at 1, side margins set to .63. Many experts believe this strikes the perfect balance of text to white space.
ALIGNMENT
Left alignment is standard since thats how most people read. You may think a justified alignment looks tidier, but it can leave uneven gaps between words and ultimately make text harder to read.
LENGTH
In the nursing profession, length should not be the focus of the resume. While we recommend 1-2 pages, some nurses may have resumes with 3 pages. Dont stress over it too much. If the resume is slightly over the page amount by a few lines try changing the margin, font style, font size or shortening statements. Bottom line is, it should look visually appealing and should include keywords.
FONT STYLE
We recommend Times New Roman or Arial to best utilize the functionality of the ATS. However, this is your personal preference. Take note that Times New Roman can be difficult to read if it is smaller than 11pt. If you are striving for a resume that looks visually appealing when printed, there are great ways to achieve that without going overboard with design.
Experienced Travel Nurse with 8 years experience in critical care nursing.
Experienced Travel Nurse with 8 years experience in critical care nursing.
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