New grads, How did you list your clinical rotations on your resume?

[grownuprosie]

I am having a debate with some classmates about how much info we should list on our resumes about each clinical rotation. some of them are only listing the hospital, unit and date. Others are listing a brief description of each one. What has worked for you guys? Should I save all the details for the interview? Thoughts? Mine is below. too much info? Thanks! I look forward to hearing your insite.

]

Clinical Experiences]Griffindor Medical Center Respiratory/Renal Unit 3D

* ]Providing 1:2 full patient care including medications, discharge planning, patient education, and ]collaborative care.

]

Hogwarts Children's Hospital Renal Unit/Dialysis Center (March 2013)

* ]32 hours providing care to infants with polycystic kidney disease and post nephrectomy patients.Peritoneal dialysis was administered and clients were monitored accordingly. Hemodialysis patient andequipment management.

]

Hufflepuff Medical Center Orthopedics (April 2012)

* ]96 hours of 1:2 patient care highlighting pain and infection management in post knee and hip ]replacement patients. This rotation had a significant focus on patient education and discharge ]planning.

]

Griffindor Medical Center Respiratory/Renal Unit 3D (January 2012)

* ]96 hours of 1:2 patient care. Performing primary care, medications, and management of chronic andacute renal failure, hypertension, diabetes, and pneumonia. Focusing on monitoring patients receivinghemodialysis.

]

Ravenclaw Hospital Community Living Center (Sept 2011)

* ]80 hours of performing ADLS and primary care for veterans in transition from acute care to home care.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I did not list any nursing school clinical rotations on my resume as a new grad.

I had two rationales for not listing clinical experiences. (1) The vast majority of hiring managers do nor count it as experience, and (2) they could look at the graduation date on my resume and the slew of non-nursing jobs and easily figure out I was a new nurse.

[elkpark]

Back when I was in school (in the Dark Ages), no one even suggested that we list clinicals on a resume'. Potentional employers are well aware of what clinicals student nurses complete. I would not list anything unless you had some really unusual, superspecial clinical experience that really sets you apart from the other new grads.

And, if you really feel you must list them, be sure it is very clear to anyone glancing casually at your resume' that you are talking about clinical experiences in school and there is no way anyone could conclude that you are trying to pass this off as legitimate work experience; that would leave a bad taste in most interviewer's mouths.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

I listed my last two placements, year 4. Both were full time. One was acute care on an 80 bed unit, the second was OR. Many students do not receive those opportunities. And we're talking one bullet for each placement. Keep it brief.

[champagnesupeRNova]

Is Hogwart's hiring?? Pick me, pick me!

I would definitely list your clinical rotations and 1-2 lines about the non-mundane skills you did in each one. Of course every nurse manager will know that you went through clinical rotations in nursing school, but not listing them is like saying you didn't learn anything or didn't gain any experience worth listing. They need to see hospital names.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I think it is unnecessary to put school-based clinical experience on a resume. They know you went to school, and they know what rotations would be required in your state. If you absolutely must, then make it short. I personally don't see this as "experience." I see it as school, with a clinical instructor guiding you.

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

I did not list clinical experience. You graduated from an accredited nursing school, you had to have a certain set of clinicals and pass them all to graduate, that is a given. I was hired as a new grad in the ED at the hospital I wanted without any of that. I actually did my 120 hour practicum in a different ED and didn't list that on my resume, although I did bring it up during my interview.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I lumped mine into one generic group stating various specialties and locations for nursing school.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Thank you for the critique! I appreciate you reading it.

The thing that blows is that we did very little in the way of actual skills. I can think of only 2 class mates that got to put in a catheter in the past 2 years and the facilities did not allow students to put in IVs. no traches or vents either. the most complicated line I used was hanging a piggyback on a primary saline. the skills part is killing me! I did a ton of pt teaching. That is what i meant by discharge planning. I suppose I could change it to "teaching" or "education" instead of planning. thank you for pointing out psychosocial support. That is definitely something I should include.

Thanks!

I have this discussion with students all the time. First, you don't have any real nursing experience. You graduated from nursing school; the people who are looking to hire a new grad know what that means. A new nursing license is a lot like a new driver's license; it gets you on the road, but you still need a lot of experience to be good at it.

Second, you have to lose the idea that you were shortchanged because you didn't have a chance to learn what you think are "skills." Why? Because what we call in the ed biz "psychomotor skills," the things you do with your hands, can be done by anyone with enough practice. Hell, we teach lay people how to do peritoneal dialysis at home, catheterize bladders, and suction tracheostomies. I hear students all the time say, "Ooooh, you are so lucky, you got to put in a Foley / sink an NG tube / start an IV / pack an open wound." Your first year of nursing practice is gonna be one great big learning lab; I promise you that nobody expects you to have done any of those tasks as a new grad, and any you did do is gravy. Also, in three months, all of those things will assume their proper place ... as tasks. Never, never confuse what tasks nurses do with what nurses are.

Of course, your actual nursing skills-- the real ones, the ones involving assessment, judgment, planning a patient's care and teaching, and time management-- you're not too great at those yet either. You will be, but as a new grad you aren't, nobody expects you to be. Yet. They do expect you to make measurable progress on all of it in fairly short order.

So in answer to your question, it looks silly to say what all your clinical rotations were. Your senior capstone / internship / externship / whatever they call it semester that gave you an opportunity to learn more about a particular specialty is useful; even then, no one will be under the illusion that six weeks in CCU makes you a CCU nurse. Don't fall for that illusion yourself, either.

Good luck in your Job Search, and have a great first year! We need you out here.

[Sand_Dollar, BSN]

I had a new grad residency asked that a list of clinical rotations be included to the resume. All they wanted to see was facilities & departments with number of hours. So I did mine like this: Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Colorado (Neurology) 90 hours

They were in a nicely formatted list in the order they were completed. I did however put my senior practicum in bold at the top of the list separated by a space to draw attention to it (and the fact it took up more than a single line).

This however is the only resume I did this on. For my regular resume I didn't list my general clinicals.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Personally I never even considered putting school rotations on a resume, and I don't think it is necessary. As previously mentioned, if you graduated from nursing school, the hospital is going to know that you did rotations in med/surg, ortho, maternity, etc... What I would include on your resume is your preceptorship (capstone, independent study, whatever your school calls it) particularly if it is relevant to the job for which you are applying, and, if it went well, I would definitely include your preceptor as a reference.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I used to say that your school experiences should NOT be included unless they were something special that most students don't get -- such as a senior year capstone experience, preceptorship, special honors, etc. However in recent years, my opinion has changed. We are seeing an increasing number of students who are graduating with very minimal actual hands-on experience with live patients and we have learned that we cannot assume that today's new grads had the same type of experience that we had as students.

Therefore, if you are one of those students who has strong clinical experiences, it might be to your advantage to include that information and not "save/hide" it until if and when you get an interview. But I recommend that you put it on a separate page and not clutter up your basic resume with much detail.

If however, you are one of those new grads who went to a school that did not give you strong clinicals, it might be best if you didn't advertise that fact on your resume. It is probably best for those people not to emphasize their clinical experience as that is not their strong point.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Agreed. If you had a specialized placement, I would highlight that, briefly (ER, ICU, OR). At my school, only a selected few received those placements.

However, some new grads make the mistake of listing a bunch of generic skills, which will not set you apart. Employers know that you learned basic assessments, medication administration, documentation, wound care. Try to avoid listing the skills that are common to all clinical rotations.

When I was job searching, my OR training resulted in prospective employers contacting me about the OR. I don't work OR now, but it is listed on my resume. Same with the 80 bed acute unit, which is a well known inner city hospital. So it depends what you've done, and how it's presented.