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How To Write A Nursing Resume

How To Format A Nurse Resume

How to write a nursing resume

The first step to creating your nurse resume is to decide on a format.

Just like any other career, hiring managers want specific information to jump out at them when reviewing resumes. So nurses need to make sure their resumes are formatted properly.

In 2021, the most common resume format remains the reverse-chronological format. So this is your best bet.;

Of course, there are other resume formats you can try

  • Functional Resume– This format is a lot more about your skills as opposed to professional experience. Its good if you dont have a lot of experience, are transferring to a new industry, or have gaps in your employment history.
  • Combination Resume – As the name suggests, a combination resume is a mix between Functional and Reverse-Chronological. Meaning, it focuses both on skills AND work experience. You can use a combination resume if you have a lot of work experience or changing industries.

Once youve decided on the format, you need to get your resume layout right.

Heres what we recommend

  • – One-inch margins on all sides
  • Font – Pick a font that stands out, but not too much. Do: Ubuntu, Roboto, etc. Dont: Comic Sans
  • Font Size – Use a font size of 11-12pt for normal text and 14-16pt for headers
  • Line Spacing – Use 1.0 or 1.15 line spacing
  • Resume Length – Dont go over the 1-page limit. Having trouble fitting everything into one page? Check out these one-page resume templates.

Pro Tip:

Be Specific Not Generic

Nurses should tailor their résumés to the job posting or educational program they are applying for. If the job or program requires specific skills or certifications, make sure those are highlighted in the résumé. It should be apparent to recruiters and admissions committees that the skills listed are directly applicable to the position or educational program requirements.

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:

  • 2006 State of New York, Registered Nurse
  • 2004-2006 NYU, Master of Science in Nursing, NY
  • 2000-2004 Manhattan College, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, NY

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Nursing Resume: Bypassing The Ats

Registered Nurse Resume Sample & Writing Guide

ATS is an applicant tracking system. This is a software designed to conduct the first round of eliminations before your resume reaches the human recruiter.

Research says that 75% of the employers these days are using ATS to scan the resumes.

So given the fact that you have to deal with this machine, let us learn what all you can do to crack an ATS:-

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Nurse Resume Writing Tips

The tone of a resume judges the positive or negative effect on the reader. If you add one too many personal pronouns like me or I, the professional effect of your resume will decrease. According to Nurse Resume examples, you must strictly use formal formatting in your official resume.

A commonly misunderstand error of newbie nurses is the excessive focus on professional skills than personal triumphs in your nursing career. Employers want compassionate, dedicated and proficient nurses who can prove skillful abilities than offer an incomplete service.

In case the hiring manager hasnt mentioned the length of the resume, it is better to restrict the size to less than 5 MB of data. In addition, you must not eradicate important accolades, to minimize space, but learn to condense multiple events or skills into one ominous and relevant point.

A dry objective will turn your resume futile at the hiring desk. In order to truly raise the eyes of your hiring manager, you must add job-specific terminology and your expectations to prove your unconditional passion for the service industry of nursing.

Finally, you must proofread your own nurse resume a few times to avoid degrading your value at the hiring desk. It is best to ask a family or friend to give your resume a quick scan to evaluate if there are any spellings or meaningful mistakes.

Example Job Details For Nursing Resume

Provided patient care in a Cardiac ICU that took care of post-coronary intervention patients with IABPs and Impella heart pumps, and post cardiac arrest patients requiring therapeutic hypothermia.

Integral member of units Quality Assurance Team tasked with identifying and evaluating quality issues, managing patient census, and allocating staff assignments.

Selected as an original team member for the hospitals new CVICU. Assisted in developing the units policies and procedures and ensuring the units successful launch.

Implemented discharge planning and provided health care education to the patient and significant other to promote recovery.

Selected to collaborate on Patient Satisfaction Taskforce tasked with developing, testing and implementing related policies and procedures.

Achieved highest possible quality review scores for duties realted to training and educating patients and families on ESRD.

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Creating A List From Employer Research

The truth is that employer research is most useful for job interviews. However, it doesnt hurt to conduct employer research to help with your nursing resume.

When conducting employer research for your nursing resume, you want to find details about the employer that converge with your own experience. When youre successful, its a great way to differentiate yourself and gain an edge over other candidates.

Unfortunately, every employer and individual are different. Therefore, we wont be able to provide an exact example. However, here is a list of considerations:

Ats Works On Keywords

How to write a Registered Nurse RESUME

So the ATS system is made to scan your resume with specific keywords which the human recruiter puts in.

These keywords are mostly around the exact words used in job descriptions and industry-specific words and jargons.

So your first and foremost role is to stuff your nursing resume with these keywords to get through ATS.

And that is why we mentioned the research required in the first place.

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Making Content Lists For Your Nursing Resume

Before we put our creative writing skills to work on our nursing resume, its best to create lists of potential content we might want to use. This practice is akin to making word clouds. However, were not going to make a cloud; were going to make some simple lists.

We recommend that you make lists for the following 6 categories:

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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Writing Your Nursing Resume Objective Or Summary

Think of your nurse resume objective or summary as an elevator pitch.;Crafting a good objective is all about precision and brevity.

When to use an objective

Whether you write a nursing resume objective or summary depends on your experience. If you dont have a lot of experience in nursing, then you should write an objective. Objective statements highlight training and goals for the future.;

Dont make the mistake of over-emphasizing your relative inexperience.;

Highlight what experience or training you have accumulated. For example, lead with any licensure or state designation youve earned to begin your objective. Then go into some of your skills that make you a good fit for the job.;

When to use a summary

If you have experience in the field, we suggest that you use a resume summary.;

Within the summary, make sure you include how many years youve been in the field with your designation or licensure and specific field expertise. Then outline your goal in applying.;

Heres an example:

Hard-working and passionate Registered Nurse with over eight years of management/supervising experience and paramedic background looking to continue to grow and enhance my skills for the wellness of the facility. Currently completing mymasters in nursing with a specialty in Executive Leadership.

What Do Nurses Do

Registered Nurse Resume Sample & Writing Guide

Registered nurses are typically involved in providing and coordinating patient care, while also playing an important role in educating patients and the public about diverse health conditions. They work in a wide variety of health care settings, including hospitals, physicians offices, home healthcare services, and nursing care facilities, as well as outpatient clinics and schools.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , the median annual wage for registered nurses was $75,330 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $53,410, and the highest 10% more than $116,230.

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Correctional Nurse Resume Examples

Correctional Nurses work with incarcerated patients and are employed by prisons and juvenile detention centers. Typical sample resumes for Correctional Nurses highlight work activities such as maintaining medical supplies, limiting the use of potentially dangerous instruments, assessing patient health condition and progress, administering treatments, and offering healthcare advice. Based on our collection of resumes, essential qualifications for this job are the ability to interact with inmates, independence as prison medical staff is often scarce, teamwork, and organization. Candidates for a Correctional Nurse job should be registered nurses and hold at least an Associate’s Degree in nursing.

Find out what is the best resume for you in our Ultimate Resume Format Guide.

The best examples from thousands of real-world resumes

Highlight Clinical Experience And Areas Of Expertise

Simply stating that a candidate has experience as a nurse is too vague to attract the attention of potential employers and earn an interview. The career and salary website Monster.com reported that listing areas of expertise helps to give potential employers an idea of the specific skills that the candidate is particularly adept in. While these specific skills usually will come out in an interview, highlighting them in the resume may be what it takes to earn a face-to-face meeting. Nurses should consider creating a separate section on the document, preferably near the top, where they can list skills such as blood draws, vitals taking, electronic medical record use, urgent care experience and more.

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Sample Nursing Resume Summary

Below is one example of a summary:

Summary

Registered Nurse with over 7 years of critical care;experience. Specialized practice in cardiovascular surgery, post-operative recovery, and;intensive care.

  • Extensive experience and thorough understanding of pathophysiology and pharmacology of critically ill patients.
  • Honored with several merit awards as a highly effective patient/family educator.
  • Promoted to Charge Nurse as a respected team-player with demonstrated leadership skills.
  • Current member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses since 2008. AACN Ambassador since 2011.

Wound Care Nurse: Start Date-End Date

  • Accomplishment 1
  • Accomplishment 2

I think something like that works well in this case. It might take up quite a bit of space, but youve accomplished a lot! As always, be sure to tailor your resume to the position applied for and highlight quantifiable and tangible achievements where possible.

  • Tia
  • Great Question! Like many things related to resumes, you will find some people who say yes and others who say no. I would say that it depends on how well you can quantify the nomination. For example: One of five Staff Nurses out of 160 to be nominated for the X Award.

    Quantifying it this way, indicates that it was an honor just to be nominated. If youre able to do this, or something like it, then adding the nomination to your resume could be useful. I hope this helps!!

  • Common Mistakes When Writing A Nursing Resume Objective

    Top 5 Tips For Writing A Nurse Resume!

    As with all parts of a resume, nursing resume objective mistakes are pervasive. Many people misunderstand how to use these statements effectively, and that costs them opportunities.

    You dont want to end up in that boat, right? Didnt think so. Luckily, we have your back.

    First and foremost, whatever you do, dont say that you want the job. You applied, so thats already clear. Its a nothing statement that provides zero value to the hiring manager.

    Another common misstep is a lack of specifics. You want an objective to align with the role you want to land. If its so generic it could apply to any nursing position , youre missing the mark.

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    What Should Be Included In Your Nursing Resume Summary

    There are many possibilities for your summary and there is no exact science as to what to include. Different people will have different cards to play based on their level of experience and the specifics of their job search. The only certainty is that you should always due your best to match your skills and the information you convey on your resume with the qualifications and job description in question.

    You might include the following in your summary:

    • Years of relevant experience.
    • A summary of your qualifications for the job in question.
    • A sense of your work or management style.
    • Personal characteristics that make you a good fit for the job and/or company.
    • Professional achievements.
    • Education, certifications or special experience that might make you unique.
    • Measurable improvements that youve made for previous employers.
    • Accolades or awards that youve received from previous employers.

    When considering what to write in your summary, do your best to avoid stand-alone cliches like team player or results oriented. Instead, try to convey these concepts with concrete examples. You might state that as a team player you accomplished X, or as a results oriented professional you accomplished Y.

    Nurse Resume Achievements Examples

    It is a fact that hiring managers search for technical accolades of the candidates in the achievements section. You must divide your achievements into bite-size bulleted points with technical terminologies to impress the hiring manager right away.

    If youre a versatile nurse, mention your skills of managing, monitoring and reviewing recovery processes for high-risk patients to make an emphatic influence on the hiring committee. As a universal rule of sample nurse resumes, references are restricted to a separate page.

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    How To Write A Nursing Resume

    Nursing resumes are important documents that let potential employers know about your experience and education. A good resume that lists your credentials persuasively can encourage hiring managers to invite you to an interview. Being familiar with a variety of tips and techniques can help you make your nursing resume more effective. In this article, we discuss common types of nursing resumes, how to write one with helpful tips, and provide a nursing resume example to help you write your own.

    Four Choose A Nurse Resume Format

    Nursing Resume Sample & Writing Guide

    Prior to ever typing words onto your resume, its important to first decide on a resume format. There are three types of resume layouts. While we highly recommend the reverse-chronological layout for most nursing professionals, wed encourage you to make the best choice for yourself.

    Heres a breakdown of the three most popular types of resume layouts:;

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    Include Your Volunteer Experience

    Including volunteer experience shows potential employers that you want to help others. Even though volunteering at a food bank or an animal shelter isn’t directly related to nursing or healthcare, it shows that you have a strong work ethic, and that you’re invested in your community. Volunteer experience working at a hospital is preferable but not a requirement for an impressive resume.

    Add In Your Education

    The other major part of your new graduate nursing resume is the education section. Since you are a recent graduate, you likely don’t have much work experience yet, meaning you want the emphasis to be on your education.

    In your education section, list each college you attended. For each college, you’ll want to include the following information:

    • The full official name of the school
    • The location of the school
    • The dates you attended
    • The name of the degree you achieved

    In this section, you may also want to list your grades or GPA, as long as they were good. You can either list the specific courses you took and the grade you received or list your overall grade point average. You should only list this information if the courses are relevant to the job you’re applying for or if your grades will help your resume.

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