How Not To Describe Your Experience
The worst thing you can do when describing your experience on your resume is write a simple list of the tasks you performed. Hiring managers are likely to know what you did in your previous role! Your job is to show that you were able to do it all well.Dont Do This:Volunteer Care Assistant, Shady Pines Nursing Home | 2018-2019
- Delivered enrichment activities
- Monitored residents wellbeing
Education Licensure And Certifications
In a list format, the education section should list the degree, college or university name, location, and graduation date in reverse chronological order. It is not necessary to list high school education. Listing honors, extracurriculars, or GPAs of 3.5 or higher may also be included. If space allows, grads could also list relevant coursework.
Similarly, the nursing graduate should list any and all relevant certifications and licensures on the resume, including dates. By listing required certifications, the candidate shows they are prepared to start work right away.
The new graduate’s nursing license with state and number should be explicitly spelled out. This makes it easy for human resources to verify credentials, which works in the job candidate’s favor.
Certain units require their own certifications Advanced Cardiac Life Support is commonly required to work in an intensive care unit.
Below is an example of how education, certifications, and licensure can be listed:
Education
- Bachelors of Science in Nursing , Smith & Brown University, City, ST 2022
- Associates Degree in Nursing , Charleston Community College, City, St 2018
License: Registered Nurse, Active Ohio, #55443322 expiration 01/2023
Certification: Basic Life Support , American Heart Association, expiration 11/2024
Describe Your Experience Effectively
Even when writing about experience that doesnt come from direct employment, make sure you approach it in a way that reflects the effort you put into it. Dont just list the tasks you carried out! Write about what you accomplished while carrying out those tasks.
In general, recruiters look for hard facts about your success in any given role even a volunteering role or an internship. What did you do that made your work stand out? If you can show that you were able to succeed in the past, recruiters are more likely to believe that you can do it again.New Grad RN Resume Experience Example:Volunteer Care Assistant, Shady Pines Nursing Home | 2018-2019
- Supported home staff in delivering enrichment activities to residents, and achieved consistently high enrichment attendance rates
- Took responsibility for cleaning and maintaining common areas, ensuring a comfortable and healthy home environment for residents
- Worked closely with home staff to appraise residents health and wellbeing, and to intervene where needed
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Structuring Your Job Descriptions
Its easy to overwhelm readers when writing about a job you have been doing for years or even months.
Break the information up like this to keep it simple for recruiters to understand.
Job outline
Begin each job with a short summary of who the organization is, where you sit within it, and what the main goal of your position is.
Key responsibilities
Next, write up a punchy list of your daily duties and responsibilities, using short bullet points.
Describe how you apply your skills and contribute to the running of the employers business highlighting skills which are applicable to your target jobs.
Key achievements
Show employers the value you can bring to them by adding a few achievements to your jobs.
Whether youve saved the company money or improved an internal process, let recruiters know
Add some numbers to give readers a real scale of the impact, e.g. reduced call wait time by 10%
Surgery Nurse Resume Samples
Your new resume should stand out like a blue flake in a crowd of gray. Great in nursing school? The hospitals HR team wont know without a compelling resume for new graduate nurses!
Time to make your new nursing degree resume shine. Learn to cite your experience and education in a way that gets results.
View a sample resume for new nursing graduates and modify it to suit any nursing job. Learn how to write a resume for new nursing positions that will get 10x more interviews than any other.
Do you want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It is fast and easy to use. Plus, youll get content ready to add with one click. View 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
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Basics Of A Nursing Resume
Nursing graduate resumes should be concise and informative while also persuasively conveying to the reader why they are the best candidate for the job.
The goal of the resume is to capture and retain the hiring manager’s interest and to demonstrate skills, experience, character, and potential. In short, it should make the hiring manager want to pick up the phone and schedule the job interview as soon as possible.
New nursing graduates should focus on presenting what they have to offer and not get overly concerned with limited clinical experiences. The hiring manager is not expecting much in this way from recent grads. In fact, most employers embrace the opportunity to train, guide, and mentor new graduates.
The resume should show that the candidate is open-minded and willing to learn. Though achievements should be highlighted, exaggerating about them or other experiences won’t bode well for the prospective hire.
List Your Clinical Rotations
Employers place a great deal of importance on your clinical rotations. Some places will even require them before considering your application. When listing your clinical rotations on your resume you should include the following information:
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The type of experience
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The dates you worked this rotation
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The total number of hours you completed at this rotation
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Where you completed the rotation
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Name of the unit/department you worked in
As your clinical rotations will likely be the majority of your work experience, you should include as much detail as you can. Besides the basic information above, you can also talk about the type of patients you worked with, the nurse to patient ratio, the facility’s trauma designation and the grade you received at the end. Do this for each clinical rotation you completed.
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Tailoring The Resume To The Job
Many recent graduates make the mistake of sending their resume to as many employers as possible, without tailoring their resume before doing so. For example, if you are applying to a position at an assisted living home, your resume should highlight different skills and experiences than it would for a job in a NICU.HINT: Use exact words from the job description! If you are being authentic about your abilities, you can use their language. Organizations often use a type of computer software, Applicant Tracking System , that will reject resumes that do not have enough keywords in common with the job description.
New Grad Nursing Resume Tips
There are a few final things you can add to your resume to help it stand out. One thing you can add is any special skills you have that can relate to the job. For example, people who speak multiple languages are highly sought after in nursing. If you speak more than one language, you’ll want this on your resume.
Another thing you can add is any affiliations you have. Employers want to see if you’re affiliated with groups like the American Association of Critical Care Nurses or the Student Nurses Association. List these in a separate section at the bottom of your resume.
Finally, you should include any related awards or honors you received. You can do this either in its own section, or include the information throughout the resume. For example, if you received an award for excellent care during one of your rotations, you can either include it along with the rotation or in a separate section at the bottom of your resume.
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What Should You Include In A Cover Letter As A New Grad Nurse
A new nurse grads cover letter should include your personal and contact information, like your name, address, phone number, and email, and a personal statement to the employer that you are applying for a job at.
This is your opportunity to speak personally to the employer, highlight why you want to work for them, and how your skills, experience, and passions match with the job assignment.
New Grad Nursing Resume Example
Below is a sample resume a new graduate could use to get a job in nursing:
Megan Smith555-555-5555megansmith@email.com
Recent graduate looking to join St. Claire’s Hospital as your newest registered nurse. I have a proven ability to handle medical emergencies, strong communication with patients and a passion for helping people. I recently completed a clinical rotation at New York Medical Center and I am fluent in both English and Spanish.
Certifications:
Registered Nurse, New York State Board of NursingLicense #1234567
Preceptorship Nurse / New York Medical, New York, NY – 2017 to 2019
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Kept organized files on patients, including their medications and conditions
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Ordered diagnostic tests based on observations of patients
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Worked with other healthcare professionals to create treatment plans
Work Experience
Office Assistant at Hoboken Associates / Hoboken, NJ – 2015 to 2017
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Provided general assistance to a small doctor’s office
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Answered phones and provided information to patients
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Learned to keep accurate information in regards to medicine and patient care
Volunteer Experience
Community Blood Drive Volunteer / Hoboken, NJ – 2015 to Present
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Helped donors fill out paperwork before donating
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Monitored donors after donation to ensure they were comfortable
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Kept a record of donors and their contact information
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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:
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The full official name of the school
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The location of the school
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The dates you attended
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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.
Example Job For New Grad Nursing Resume
Outline
Worked within a busy Emergency Department at a specialist childrens hospital outside of Seattle. Supported patients between the ages of 3 months to 17 years with a variety of conditions from minor injuries, severe allergic reactions, drug overdose etc.
Key Responsibilities
- Conducted initial patient examinations to determine the patients condition
- Received ambulance admitted patients including checking in patients and assisting with triage work
- Applied dressings and administered pain relief, antibiotics and other medications as required
- Kept patients and their family members updated on test results and treatment recommendations
Quick tip:Create impressive job descriptions easily in our Resume Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
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No Contact Information On The Nurse Resume
This is another one that detail is essential. Ask yourself why do you have a resume.
You have a resume so you can showcase your experience and talent. If the employer likes you what do you want them to be able to do?
You want them to be able to contact you.
If your information is not there or accurate, you make it hard for them to reach you. Many nurse hiring managers will just move on to the next candidate.
How to fix this?
Make sure to have your name, phone number and email address at the top of the first page of your resume.
Have it big and centered.
You want it big, so they cant miss it.
You want it centered so if it’s printed out regardless of which side the paper is stapled your name and contact won’t be affected.
Nursing Resume Writing Guide
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
A resume often serves as an organizations first impression of you. It tells the recruiter or hiring manager objective information about you which can be used to decide if an interview is the appropriate next step. For this reason, your resume should professionally communicate the most important information about you so the reviewer can make an educated decision. No two resumes are the same, but there are some guiding principles that you can follow.
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What Is A Rn
A registered nurse is a critical part of the US healthcare system. RNs are licensed medical professionals who provide direct, hands-on care. They can be found working in a wide range of settings, including:
- Nursing homes and care facilities
- Individual patients homes
From day to day, RNs work with doctors and other healthcare professionals to deliver specialized medical care to patients. They might have to administer medicines or other treatments, analyze the results of patient examinations, record patients symptoms or medical histories, or develop comprehensive patient care plans. While some of these tasks can only be performed with a doctors order, RNs arent exactly subordinate to doctors they have their own specialist training, and often need to make high-impact decisions under pressure.
As RNs progress through their career, they may choose to specialize in a particular field of nursing. Medicine is a wide world, and RNs can specialize almost anywhere. Some of the most popular options include pediatric nursing, emergency room or intensive care nursing, and medical-surgical nursing.
Further down the line, RNs may wish to specialize even further. If they choose to pursue a masters or a doctoral degree, they could become an advanced practice registered nurse, or APRN. APRNs can specialize in even more focused areas, like midwifery or anesthesia.
Professional Certifications For New Grad Rns
Certifications can be a great way to help your resume stand out. They show hiring managers that you can take the initiative to further your career, and that you take your work seriously. In the medical field, its vital for hiring managers to have the confidence that you can perform the tasks necessary to help your patients certifications are a way to show that youre truly capable.
With a certification on your resume, you may be able to aim for more specialized positions with higher salaries. Here are a few common certifications for RNs!
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Do You Need A Resume Objective
For non-entry-level positions, a resume objective is usually considered unnecessary. However, as a new graduate, your resume could benefit from the inclusion of an objective, as well as your resume summary.
If youre not sure about the difference between the two, its simple! A summary is a short description of the qualities and skills you have that make you suitable for the job you want. An objective is an even shorter statement about your career goals, like the industry or the type of job youre hoping to work in.New Grad RN Resume Objective Example:
- Licensed Registered Nurse with a BS in Nursing, seeking to apply my training in a new career as a RN.
Relevant Skills & Related Certifications
If you have competencies not listed in the previous sections but are significant to the position, be sure to include them here, too. These can be hard skills like basic life support or soft skills like patient empathy.
You can include certifications not required by the hiring company, but are relevant to you as a registered nurse, like training on specific medical equipment or credentials on new patient care techniques here. When you are trained for relevant skills and positions, that could make you the default choice for the hiring manager.
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New Grad Nursing Resume Tips & Examples
There are specific standards on how to write a new grad RN resume to make the shortlist of candidates and get invited to an interview. Each word of the resume should bring a sense. You need to avoid any useless phrases, inaccurate expressions, or unprofessional words. To better understand what would be useful to write in a resume, check our tips for each section below.
How Not To Write A New Grad Rn Resume Summary
Your summary needs to be clear and concise, and it should be focused on what you have to offer. If your summary is too wordy or personal, it could jeopardize your chances of getting the job. You can use your cover letter to tell the story of why you want the job your summary is about providing a snapshot of why you fit the requirements.
In fact, not all recruiters agree that a summary on your resume is necessary. If youre struggling to write a summary that gets right to the point, its not the end of the world: you can choose to leave it out.Dont Do This:
- I love helping people, so I studied hard for many years to qualify for a bachelors degree program in nursing. During my time in college, I took on as many volunteering opportunities as possible to improve my experience. Now that Ive graduated with a 3.8 GPA, Im excited to finally become a registered nurse and change peoples lives!
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Education For Your New
You should display all of your relevant college education. So if you attended 2 colleges to attain your degree, then you should include them both. Please do not include your high school education. We recommend including the following information for each pertinent education institution you attended:
There are several other details in addition to these that you may want to include regarding your education. Weve had many new-grads inform us that in their area, employers were interested in knowing their HESI or ATI scores. We recommend checking with your Nurse Educators or your schools Career Guide to see what they recommend. You may also wish to include relevant coursework and corresponding grades if you got an A. However, keep this brief and relevant to the job youre applying for. Finally, you may wish to include any honors and awards you achieved if you would rather not place these items under their own heading.