Additional Information About The Nursing Resume
With the population growing, so will the demand for medical care and nursing professionals. Nursing jobs are becoming increasingly in demand.
Indeed, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 7 percent from 2019 to 2029.
Several factors will contribute to growth, including an increased emphasis on preventive care rising rates of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity. Furthermore, the baby boomer generation is expected to be an increasingly active and long-lived population, increasing their demand for healthcare services.
Additionally, the average salary for a registered nurse is highly competitive. As of May 2020, the median annual wage for registered nurses was $75,330.
So its no wonder that so many job seekers are looking to start their nursing careers. The best way to rise above other nurses is to write an effective registered nurse resume!
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.
FONT SIZES
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.
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Highlight Your Educational Achievements For Health Care
Registered nurses might have a diploma, an ASN or a BSN. While all of these paths can lead to a career as a registered nurse, education level plays a big role in hiring and in determining salary levels. When listing education, dont just state the degree earned. Be sure to include where you went to school, the location, when you graduated and the degree. Then, pull out the relevant coursework to match each application. For example, if applying at a pediatric office, highlight any clinical training that worked with children.
Example #1
Johns Hopkins University, 2019
- Exceeded expectations during pediatric clinicals and demonstrated compassion working with younger patients
- Participated in hospital volunteer program for youth patients with long-term hospital stays
Associate of NursingBaltimore Community College, 2019
- Participated in clinical rotations in the surgical unit and excelled at providing compassionate care both pre- and post-surgery
- Passionate about improving recovery outcomes through the use of individualized care plans and with patient input
Baltimore Community College, 2019
What Are The Main Skills Sought For In A Nursing Resume
As a practicing nurse, youll be tasked with handling many different types of situations and responsibilities. Therefore youll have to possess a wide variety of skills to perform your tasks successfully.
While this may be the case, weve compiled a list of skills that are widely accepted as useful skills to have as a nurse. Try to include some of these skills into your resume:
- Bi-lingual in English and
- Drug administration trained
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The Structure Of The Nursing Resume
Another essential element for writing successful nursing resumes is making the text look easy to read and logical.
Making sure that the text in your resume is well written is important in more ways than one!
Hiring managers tend to use the applicant tracking system to filter out all poorly written and structured resumes. This is a known fact.
To start, youll have to format your text structure effectively. The most common resume format is the reverse-chronological format, which means that most of your content is going to be written from oldest to newest. The newest content, such as work experience, will be at the top of the section.
Another crucial factor in making the text appear clean and good-looking is to use bullet points for separating key details and information about your previous jobs, education, or skills.
We also recommend using font style Times New Roman or Arial and font size 10 12.
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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Write A Strong Nursing Education Section
While hospitals dont expect students to have an extensive professional history, they do want to know that youre making the most of your education. Thats why writing a detailed resume education section is essential for nursing students.
Details you can add to your education section include your GPA , honors or awards, when you plan to graduate, relevant coursework, or even extracurriculars.
Heres an example of a strong nursing student resume education section:
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, Arlington, TXBachelor of Science in Nursing , Expected 2022
Serving as a current president of the student nursing association
This example works because after reading it an employer knows roughly how far along the candidate is in their education, that theyre an excellent student, and that they have leadership skills from leading the student nursing association.
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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Highlight Your New Grad Rn Resume Skills And Specializations
Hiring managers in the healthcare sector look for specific educational backgrounds, certifications, and nursing skills in their ideal candidates.
Writing a strong resume skills section is essential towards landing your desired job because it shows employers what you can do for them, the hospital, and your patients.
Below are some of the most coveted resume skills and qualifications you can list on your registered nurse resume as a new grad:
- Family Nurse Practitioner
- Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
- AIDS Certified Registered Nurse
- Certified Pediatric Nurse
How To Write An Undeniable Nursing Resume
Nursing is a tough job, but somehow thats still a secret to many people.
You deal with long hours, a heavy workload and shift schedule, and lets face it: serious responsibility.
Most people spend their days worrying about deadlines or quotas. Your patients lives are in your hands. Theres just no comparison.
You deal with unpredictable developments and tough medical situations constantly, but youre expected to remain calm, cool, and collected no matter what.
Youre used to it. If you were in it for the money you would be working in an office or a bank.
Nursing isnt just your job, its how youve chosen to make a difference in this world.
Youre always there for your patients, but who has your back? If youre not feeling supported, appreciated, and yes, well compensated, in your current role it may be time for a change.
The best way to find new job opportunities is with a compelling new Nursing resume, and we can help you write yours.
Just follow our simple, no-nonsense guide to formatting the ideal resume.
Remember, Leet Resumes can also write your resume for you. We dont want to brag, but were kind of resume experts.
If you dont have time to write your resume right now, leave it to us! Weve written thousands of personalized resumes.
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Hard Skills For Nurse Resume:
- Assisting in surgery
- Critical thinking
- Physical endurance
- As a general rule, wed recommend not to go overboard with Soft Skills. They are certainly important in the medical field, but they are also harder to back up. Doctors need people with hard skills standing next to them, so give these priority.
Looking for a more comprehensive list? Heres a mega-list of 150+ must-have skills in 2022.
Languages In A Nursing Resume
Being a nurse can be quite challenging there will be many patients and staff that are from different nationalities and dont speak English as their native language.
Thats why a job post might request a registered nurse whos multilingual. Being able to show off your knowledge of different languages is a big plus on a nursing resume.
You can show off your bilingual expertise through the language section.
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How To Align Your Resume With The Job Description
While the need for nurses is expected to grow, hiring managers may still sort through dozens of resumes to find the best fit. The right mix of skills and experience is critical when hiring, so its important to make sure your resume reflects the most important requirements for each potential job.
The best way to tailor your resume for each job posting is by including the skills and experiences that are most important to a prospective employer. How do you tell which requirements are the most important? In general, the information posted first is the most critical, along with any information that might be repeated. To make sure you locate the right skills and use the best keywords, compare your resume to the job posting.
Nurse Practitioner Resume Template
Nurse practitioner is a more advanced position in the nursing field. These professionals have an even greater need for medical knowledge because they almost act like doctors or physicians. They are able to diagnose and treat patients, which is more than nurses usually have the opportunity to do. Emphasizing your knowledge and medical training improves your resume. Additionally, a great focus on your working experience, whether that is as a nurse, nurse practitioner, or something else entirely, demonstrates your capabilities to readers. Even more than with other nursing positions, you need to inspire confidence in your abilities.
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How Does Ats Work
Not all ATS systems are created equally. They vary greatly in their functionality and behavior. For example, some ATS systems will not be able to differentiate between titles, such as Clinical Nurse II and Registered Nurse.
Other ATS systems may not be able to distinguish between the terms BLS and Basic Life Support.
Bottom line, read the job description and use the exact wording for the qualifications requested that you possess. If you use acronyms and abbreviations, make sure to spell out the entire word followed by the shortened version – it would be disappointing to have all the requested qualifications but be filtered out by the ATS because you used only the acronyms, when the robot was programmed for the full phrases spelled out
While ATS has streamlined the hiring process for employers, its also made job search extremely challenging for the job seeker. In fact, 94% of hiring professionals say that ATS has positively influenced their hiring goals, while 80% of job seekers say that their online job search is stressful.1
Certified Nursing Assistant Resume
Use this template
Why this resume works
- Much like applying for an RN role, you should include your license right in your resume title . This effectively alerts the employer that you’re qualified for the role .
- In addition to your title, if you have any certifications or additional licenses, include them on your resume in a designated section.
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How To Get Your Contact Information Right
Maybe youve created the perfect resume with amazing content on your skills and experience. But if you mess up the contact section, you wont be getting a lot of interview invitations .
For your contacts, include:
- Title – For nurses, your best bet is likely Registered Nurse.
- Phone Number – Double-check, triple-check this. One typo can really mess up your chances of an employer contacting you.
- Email Address – Make sure to use a professional email address , and avoid that email you created back in 5th grade .
- Location – Applying for a job abroad? Mention your current location.
What To Include In A Nurse Resume
The main sections in a nurse resume are:
- Contact Information
If you want your resume to stand out more, you can also try these optional sections:
- Conferences & Courses
- Interests & Hobbies
Now, were going to go through each of those sections, and explain how to write them.
Not sure which sections to use? Check out our guide to What to Put on a Resume.
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Do You Need An Objective Or Summary On Your Nursing Resume
When crafting your nursing resume, you have the option to use career objectives and summaries.
When to include a career objective in your resume:
- You can use an objective when changing or modifying your career.
- For instance, if you plan to change from a surgical assistant registered nurse to an emergency room registered nurse, you’d use an objective to highlight that you’re pursuing a new subfield within nursing.
When a summary is right for your resume:
- Use a summary to highlight your most valuable experience and skills. These are ideal when you have vast experience in nursing.
- For example, if you’ve worked in a health setting for 10 or more years, you can include a summary.
When not to use objectives or summaries:
- Unclear objective example: “Looking for a nursing job to apply my skills and knowledge.”
- This lacks specificity and reads “I just need a job to pay the bills.” While that may be true, employers want to know you’re passionate about your work and will improve your workplace.
When objectives or summaries are worth including: