How to Craft a Great Nursing Resume
This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Emily Caldwell
How to Craft a Great Nursing Resume
Setting yourself apart in nursing starts with a great resume. As a Nurse, your resume serves as a place where you can showcase both your education and practical skills in a way that is attractive to employers. Given that the resume is often the first thing an employer will read when browsing job applications, it’s essential to ensure your nurse resume highlights you in the best possible manner.
Want to grab the best travel nursing and per diem nursing positions? Check out our pro tips for crafting the best nurse resume to help you score the best job opportunities, as well as set yourself apart from other applicants.
The Importance of a Strong Resume in Nursing
Keeping your resume up-to-date is important in nearly all job fields. However, a strong resume is especially important for Nurses and other allied health professionals to make an impression on potential employers. As things change and you learn new skills, you’ll want to make sure you continue to update your resume with the latest and most up-to-date information.
Not only does a strong nurse resume help you stand out in a sea of other applicants, but it’s important to maintain your eligibility on Medely. Keeping your resume updated with accurate information ensures your profile is validated in our system, helping to pair you with the best travel nursing and per diem nursing opportunities.
Be As Specific as Possible
As you begin to craft your nursing resume, remember that it’s important to be as specific as possible. You’ll want to tailor your resume toward the type of nursing position you’re interested in.
For example, if you’re interested in Oncology nursing your resume should reflect your skills and experience pertaining to that specific subset of nursing. Providing as much detail as possible can help ensure you are receiving notifications for jobs best aligned with your career goals. When employers review your resume, they are looking for practical skills and experience that can translate to their role.
Consider the Length of Your Resume
In today’s era, employers receive hundreds of online applications for job opportunities posted on several sources. With this in mind, you’ll want to be mindful of the length of your resume as employers reviewing resumes may be short on time. A resume that is too lengthy may end up being ignored, whereas a resume that is too short may lack substance.
In general, aim to keep your resume as concise as possible without sacrificing key details. It may be helpful to have several versions of your resume, depending on which types of nursing positions you intend to apply for.
Include Keywords for Easy Scanning
As mentioned above, you’ll want to ensure your resume is targeted to the type of position and organization you are applying for. Larger healthcare organizations and hospital systems receive a plethora of applications, which means they may use resume software to help them narrow down applications.
To help ensure your nurse resume gets noticed, use keywords and buzzwords that employers may look for. These keywords may vary depending on the type of position. To help you determine which keywords to determine, carefully review the job posting and required skills/education. In general, words that are used several times may indicate significance.
Don’t Skip Proofreading
While minor spelling errors and grammatical problems may seem insignificant, these small errors can say a lot about an applicant. Employers are looking for applicants that pay close attention to detail.
Before submitting your resume to any position, ensure you’ve triple-checked it for spelling, formatting, and grammatical errors. It is sometimes helpful to have another person review your resume too.
Highlight Technology & Computer Skills
In today’s advanced healthcare system, staying up-to-date with the latest technology is crucial to many nursing jobs. As healthcare jobs continue to go digital, it’s important to showcase any experience you have with specific software or technologies used in nursing. Not only does this show employers that you already have technology skills, but it shows a willingness to embrace technology and learn new skills.
Highlight What Makes You Unique
While resumes were once cut and dried, today’s resumes leave more room for creativity and uniqueness. Consider your resume a chance to highlight what makes you unique or different. For example, if you speak multiple languages, this could be something worth including. Other examples of additional information to include are:
Attendance at conferences or large events
Hobbies that relate to your field
Courses you’ve taken
Volunteer experience
Other things that make you unique may also include your accomplishments. On your nursing resume, consider adding any professional accomplishments you’ve achieved, including both hard and soft skills. Hard skills include skills involved in day-to-day job functions, whereas soft skills highlight your personality, such as strong communication skills or the ability to work well in a group setting.
Choose Clean & Legible Formatting
Although it may be tempting to use a fancy or creative resume format, simple is best. Your selected formatting should be clear and professional, using font size and type that is easy to read. In section headers, using bold font can help draw the reader’s eye to the most important information.
Many people also make the mistake of trying to fit too many words on a page by decreasing the margin size. Your resume should have some white space to ensure text is not too overwhelming for the reader.
Join the Medely Network for More Nursing Opportunities
Once you’ve crafted a great nursing resume, it’s time to start looking for jobs. If you’re looking for per diem nursing or travel nursing opportunities, join Medely today. Medley offers nurses and other allied health professionals access to great opportunities, providing more control over of work-life balance.
Learn more about joining the Medely network today to earn more and book per diem nursing assignments on your schedule. Once accepted, Medley will send you notifications tailored to your assignment preferences. We make it easy for you to find reliable nursing work that aligns with your individual job preferences.
Written by:
