Write A Cover Letter To Go With Your Nursing Resume
Our last parting wisdom to you is to have a cover letter that complements your resume.
The cover letter gives your recruiter the confidence that you are interested in them specifically.
Having a great resume is fine and all, but its much like giving someone a handshake and not giving a greeting. Its a complementary piece that needs a cover letter to reinforce and expound on the ideas covered within it.
In other words, the cover letter explains why you chose the company and helps them understand that you arent just spamming several companies with your resume.
Youve made it. Congratulations!
By this point, youve put a lot of time into your resume. You should feel proud of yourself. Youre on your way to landing that new job. Now, its time to prepare for the interview. If you need help with that, weve got you covered as well.
Resume Objective Examples For A Nurse With Hospital Experience
Many nurses who work in a hospital setting will possess a strong knowledge of resolving issues in a fast-paced environment. Many nurses will explain this within their objectives and will demonstrate how this will help them in both a hospital and clinical practice setting.
These objectives effectively portray hospital experience:
Example 1: Hard-working Nurse committed to bringing over five years of experience within a hospital setting to clinical practice. Seeking to apply the skills gained from working in an emergency room which include quick problem-solving skills and strong emotional intelligence.
Example 2:Professional Nurse seeking to take eight years of hospital experience and apply it to a teaching clinic. Hoping to use extensive experience to educate and motivate students on best practices when caring for patients.
Start With A Master Resume
A good place to start, especially if youve never written a resume before, is by putting together a master resume. This will not be what you send to job applications, but will serve as a starting point that you can edit and personalize during the application process.
The reason for starting with a foundational nurse resume is so that you can then alter it slightly for each role you apply to. No need to reinvent the wheel but, never submit a cookie-cutter resume to every position. Dale Carnegie once said that, A persons name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Personalizing your resume matters, with both how you mention and address the future employer and how to include your specific qualifications that match what they are looking for.
Taking a few moments to target your resume could lead you to the interview of your dreams. And not targeting it could lead you on the fast-track to nowhere.
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Tips For Writing A Nurse Resume Objective
The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed’s data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.
When applying for a job, you typically submit a resume that has a resume objective. A resume objective typically outlines your suitability for the vacant role by listing your credentials, aspirations and career achievements. By exploring how to write a nursing resume objective, you can ensure your resume highlights your employability for a nursing position. In this article, we define a nurse resume objective, provide some helpful tips on how to write one and share some nursing resume objective examples.
How To Make Your Nurse Work Experience Stand Out
Work experience is the most important section in your resume.
Sure, your medical skills are super important, but so is your professional experience. Heres how to structure your work experience section
- Obtained and recorded patients vital signs, intake and output and blood glucose
- Worked in the cardiatric and oncology wards of the hospital
- Used EHR software to record patient information
Now, if you really want to stand out, you should focus on talking about your achievements instead of responsibilities.
Instead of saying:
Screen patients upon arrival at emergency ward.
Go for:
Administered emergency ward intake evaluations for up to 25 patients each hour by measuring vital signs and prioritizing cases accordingly.
So, whats the difference between the two?
The second one is more specific. You know exactly what the person did, and you can say that he/she can work efficiently.
The first example, on the other hand, is too generic. Screening patients could be as basic as checking whether they have health insurance and entering their personal information into the hospital system. There is also no mention of how many patients this person is used to handling.
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Structuring And Formatting Your Cv
When creating your nursing CV, how you structure and format it, is just as important as the content listed within it.
Now, more than ever, people have very low attention spans when it comes to reading especially recruiters, who sometimes see hundreds of CVs per day.
So, making sure your CV is structured and formatted in a way that is easy to read, and allows recruiters to pick out the information they need is crucial.
The structure and format of your CV have two core purposes:
- They create the initial first impression by putting together a professional looking document that potential employers will take seriously
- They create a logical structure to allow readers to read and navigate quickly
This infographic will serve as a good for putting your CVs structure together.
Detail Your Professional Background In The Experience Section
Nursing jobs are different and may not have the same requirements. However, most hiring managers take some time on this section of your resume to see what youve previously done. Use our resume examples to get some ideas on what you should add to this section.
Structure your work history properly to make it easy for the recruiter to read. Highlight two to three previous jobs and describe your primary job duties. Add the name of the workplace, your job title, and the employment dates at each workplace.
List three to five job duties but dont leave it at that. Competition for jobs in the nursing field is stiff, and your goal should always be to stand out. Quantify your achievements at the workplace with figures and facts that show the recruiter the value youll bring to the new position.
If youre writing a nursing student resume, you may not have much experience. Detail your internships and volunteer work and highlight the transferable skills that will be useful in the nursing position.
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How To Organize Your Credentials Field On A Nursing Resume
You may have significant credentials to help you secure a great nursing position. Theres no problem with having credentials. The problem occurs when you dont know how to organize your credentials effectively.
Imagine a symphony conductor with great individual cello players that dont know how to play in sync with each otherit would be chaos.
The same goes for organizing your certifications. You may have great credentials, but not arranging them correctly could create issues for your resume.
Luckily, there is an industry-standard for listing your credentials.
The following order is encouraged:
Education: Start with your year studied, degree type and major, university name, and GPA . If you went to a prestigious school, you could also start with that. Additionally, if you are worried about age discrimination, wed suggest you leave out the years studied. Unfortunately, ageism sometimes plays a role in the hiring of nurses.
2012-2014 Masters of Science in NursingDuke University School of Nursing, 3.7 GPA
Your Licensure: With licensure, the important part is determining where to put them. If nurses have one or two licenses they will put them after their degree. However, if you have an extensive list of licenses, it may be better to place them in their own section.
Its crucial to include the following:
- If you have a license that falls under the nurse licensure compact
Sample Nursing Resume License Entry:
We suggest the following order for listing your certifications:
Best Skills For Nursing Resumes
A resume is incomplete without listing the relevant skills. These are the unique abilities that help you perform your duties efficiently. Hiring managers look for specific skills and use the applicant tracking systems to filter out the resumes that dont have these skills.
Use the job description to identify the skills you need on your resume. The right wording also plays a significant role in ensuring your resume gets past the ATS systems. Your resume should have a list of hard and soft skills in separate sections. Check out our resume templates which will help you structure this section.
Hard skills are job-specific skills that you have to learn at school or on the job. Soft skills dont require time to learn. They are character traits that allow you to interact well with colleagues and patients.
If you dont have much experience, this section helps showcase the skills that will help you perform the job diligently. Highlight your transferable skills from previous jobs and school .
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Key Skills And Achievements
Next, bullet point 4 – 6 of your key skills and/or achievements. This could include your clinical skills, competencies, interpersonal skills, notable achievements, qualifications or experience.
You should always tailor this section carefully, thinking about what would be the most relevant, most impressive or most useful to your prospective employer. Studying the relevant job advert, job description, person specification and organisation values will give you vital clues about what the employer is looking for.
Including a section like this works really well, as you’re effectively using it to grab the employer’s attention early on, highlighting the things that will be the most desirable to them, and therefore making yourself look like the best match.
Sometimes it may be necessary to draw the employer’s attention to a previous non-healthcare role, non work related achievement, or experience from a role you did a long time ago. For example, if you’re applying for a clinical team leader post, and previously worked as a manager within the retail industry, this would be very relevant, so you may choose to emphasise it within this section.
Include Soft Skills Throughout Your Or Nurse Resume
Possessing excellent soft skills, or skills related to how you work with people, distinguishes good nurses from great nurses. And giving examples of your soft skills on your resume differentiates your application from those of other candidates.
Important soft skills to describe on your operating room nurse resume are:
- problem-solving
- attention to detail
Operating room directors also need soft skills in leadership, instructing and learning strategies, and high-level decision-making.
While your technical skills can be communicated through certifications, soft skills are best shown in your work experience section with resume adjectives and action verbs that make your resume more engaging.
For example, heres a work experience entry from an operating room nurses resume. Weve emphasized the resume adjectives and action verbs that demonstrate soft skills specifically:
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Resume Objective Examples For A Nurse With Clinical Experience
Some employers may search for nurses who have experience in a clinical setting. Your objective should state your experience in a clinical setting and how this will benefit the position youre applying for.
Each of these objectives explains their experience in a clinical environment and how it will be applied in future positions:
Example 1:Efficient, experienced Clinical Nurse applying for a position within Harris OBGYN. Hoping to bring my vast knowledge of medical software and womens health to maintain the clinics standards.
Example 2:To apply my personable and communication skills gained in six years in a clinical setting to a hospital environment. Bringing my dedication and compassion to patients while working in a fast-paced emergency room.
Key Takeaways For A Nurse Resume
And if you want the perfect tool to save yourself time and win your dream nurse position, use our helpful resume builder with field-tested resume templates!
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Licensed Practical Nurse Resume
Use this template
Why this resume works
- No LPN has the same responsibilities within every industry. Connect your strengths by highlighting your technical abilities according to the nursing job description on your licensed practical nurse resume.
- If your current specialization is different from the job description, dont stress! You should still be specific about your experience, but focus on transferable skills that go hand-in-hand with other fields.
- For example, do you specialize in long-term care, nephrology, or developmental disabilities? Include how you applied those abilities throughout your LPN resume.
- Of course, you need to include where you got your nursing degree, but dont stop there! Adding a certifications or licenses section can show off your training and catch a hiring managers eye quickly.
Related Resume Guides
Required Vs Preferred Qualifications
When reading job postings youll likely come across the terms Required Qualifications and Preferred Qualifications. Understanding the difference between these two is key.
Required qualifications. These are just what they say – requirements. Those who do not possess these qualifications will not be considered.
Preferred qualifications. These are the skills that are desired but are not deal-breakers for the employer. You may still be considered even if you do not possess these. If you dont have all the qualifications listed, dont sweat it, you could still apply and be considered for the role.
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Additional Sections To Add To Your Nursing Resume
You may feel like youve put a lot of work into your resume up to this point. You have. Since youre trying to land the perfect nursing job, you want to make sure that you round out your resume. The other sections you should add to your resume are:
Conferences and courses
List any additional terms you have completed as a nurse and any conferences you may have attended or even spoken at.
Languages
The ability to speak multiple languages gives you a leg up over your other nursing competition. Dont hesitate to put in if you know other languages and designate your level of proficiency.
Hobbies
An employer is hiring a human being, not a robot. They want to hire someone who they can get along with, so listing your hobbies and interests may serve you well. Additionally, listing a hobby might give your supervisor an idea of whether or not youd be a good culture fit on the team.
Before you wrap up your resume, make sure you proofread it, and if you can, have someone else read it over for you.
You dont want your resume to get rejected because you spelled stethoscope wrong. Last, when saving your resume, make sure you cave it as a word document or PDF compared to any alternative, older file.
Quantify Your Nursing Experience On Your Resume
Listing work experience without using numbers and hard data can make it difficult for a hiring manager to get a good idea of your actual skills and abilities. When putting together bullets for your professional experience, be sure to use numbers whenever possible. Think about your experience. How many patients did you see in your unit on a daily basis? How many beds are in your hospital or exam rooms in the practice where you worked? How large was your nursing team? How many new hires did you train? Demonstrating this information can be invaluable on your resume.
Example #1
Good
Collaborated with a staff of 12 nurses serving a 100-bed elder care unit in a nursing home specializing in memory care
Cared for patients in a memory care unit
Example #2
Good
Completed rounds on time and accurately followed care plans for more than 50 patients per day
Routinely completed rounds on time
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Include A Section Showing The Professional Organizations You Belong To
If youre worried you still dont have enough qualifications on your resume, consider adding an additional section for your honors or any of your professional affiliations.
There are numerous professional organizations for nurses, and listing them on your resume is a good way to make yourself look more accomplished and possibly get an immediate in with the hiring manager .
Some examples of popular nursing affiliations include:
Career Change Nursing Objective Statements
- Dedicated mental health professional with over three years experience in a psychiatric health-care facility and recently licensed as a Registered Nurse, seeking to transition career into nursing and provide health assessments for patients who may benefit from inpatient psychiatric care.
- Enthusiastic and recently licensed Registered Nurse seeking to leverage two years of experience in an OB/GYNs office to a career in nursing focusing on womens health, bringing superior computer skills, deep understanding of a doctors OB/GYN practice in a private setting, and unbeatable stamina.
When you draft your objective statement, have the job listing in front of you. Pull the key skills from the job listing that you have, and work them into your objective statement. Emphasize that you can give the employer what it needs, both from a technical and from a personality perspective. Use the space to paint a picture of who you are to humanize yourself to the reader. Use the above objective statements as a guide for length. Be succinct but hit your key points. Finally, make sure there are no errors in your objective statement. Good luck!
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