Resume Qs: employment gap and volunteer experience

Nurses Career Support

Published

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

My last paid employment was several years ago, and not in healthcare (neither were the ones before it). I stopped working in order to start a family, move across country and back (not by choice), and work on my nursing degree--I graduated in May 2009. I have done volunteer work before and while I was in school--about half of it in healthcare or related fields--and I've started volunteering at a local clinic as an RN while I job hunt.

The resume links I've looked through so far don't really address my problem, so I shall ask here: how can I address this employment gap and the healthcare volunteering to my best advantage? Should I have continue to have my Employment experience seperate from my Volunteer experience...or would it be acceptable for me list all of my experiences in a single Professional/Career list, with indicating which ones were volunteer (or do I even have to say they're volunteer?). Or should I focus my resume on my education since I don't have recent paid healthcare experience? Or is there some other better way?

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