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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
New Grad Nurse
Hello, Lurker here....
I just graduated from nursing school and passed the Boards. I'm updating my resume and I was wondering if I should include my clinical duties (part of my training/education)on my resume. I don't have a lot of experience, I only worked at a nursing home for a few months. And before that I worked as an Accountant. I want to make sure my resume is noticed...for good reason! Any advice you can offer? Also, do I include a lot of my job descriptions for my accounting work? Thank you very much!
Re: New Grad Nurse
Set up your resume the same way you ordinarily would do.
You are still showing your potential health care employer that you are 1-employable and 2-you have job stability; maybe you are not an accountant anymore but you are showing them you spent X years at the job. That is important.
I'd put the nursing/training and education up top on your resume --- perhaps add a section entitled Nursing and Clinical Experience and then summarize what you did and where.
Bullet point it. That makes it easier to read.
1) Include any applicable experience in your field. That means paid work, volunteer work, and things done as part of your educational requirements. It's all time you spent involved in your new profession so it's all relevant.
2) Include jobs that supported you and demonstrate long-term reliability. If there are big gaps in your work timeline that aren't filled by school it's suspicious to the employer. They often assume you just weren't working. Working hard at another type of job while heading toward this career is important to show.
I also second bullets and simple descriptions for readability. Check out resume templates of people in similar fields to you.
Thank you all! I kept in my training during nursing school and I beefed up, a little bit, my accounting work, emphasizing meeting deadlines, making priorities and confidentiality. And there's no employment gap, I was laid off and then I went to school.
Thanks again!
Hi! I'm also an new grad. I haven't taken NCLEX yet, but I already have an RN position at a local hospital. I have about six years of CNA, nurse tech, and unit secretary experience collectively, so I do think that that was an advantage for me. Those were my only jobs ever, so that's all I listed (and those were all at the same employer, so that part looked sort of bare to me), but I did list the job descriptions for all three positions. I used this template and mine came out looking pretty nice (I am really anal about my resume looking organized and streamlined) - http://workbloom.com/resume/example/rn-clinical-director.aspx. I especially liked the part where this RN listed her qualities and it was almost like she made a mission statement for herself, which was "compassionate, dedicated, and service-driven clinical director." That is great because it really lets you shine. I made my resume look exactly like this one, only it was personalized with my info.
#1 - Be sure to list all of your previous jobs, even if they include being a fry cook. There will almost always be some sort of skill in every job you will ever do that will be useful (and necessary) to have as a nurse. List your job description, too, especially if it includes any sort of time management or customer service skills.
#2 - Be sure also to include any letters of recommendation you may have from your clinical instructors or previous supervisors. Also list these people in your references section.
#3 - You do not need to list the places you went for clinical, your responsibilities/duties during clinical, or your amount of clinical hours earned because almost all nursing school students have the same responsibilities.
#4 - You may want to make a heading called something like "clinical experiences" and list any really special things that you were able to do in clinical (I was able to access a porta-cath and take care of several vented patients).
#5 - Be sure to list any certifications you may have (and list the qualifying agency like AHA for BLS) such as BLS, ACLS, CPI, or PALS.
#6 - List any special recognition, awards, or titles that you got in school or at work such as honors society, clinical excellence awards, employee of the month, perfect attendance, special achievement scholarships, positions in student government or your local nursing student chapter, etc.
#7 - If you EVER volunteered at school, work, on independently in your community, list that. For example, every year at my previous job I volunteered to help out with pre-sports physicals for the local high schools.
#8 - At the very top in small caps bolded letters with a font size larger than the rest of your resume (but don't be silly) write "Your Name, RN." Go 'head girl! You earned it!
I really would not include your clinical duties because the nurses who will be interviewing you already know what nursing school students have to do since they themselves were nursing students at one time. When I was making my resume I asked this question to many people and this is the answer that many people (including my med-surg floor manager) gave to me.