OR Nurse resume... considering a change

Nurses Job Hunt

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When I went to nursing school my area of passion was to work in Labor & Delivery and eventually the NICU. When I began looking for jobs I knew this was going to be a more difficult career path and took a position in an adult OR. The OR is my only RN position. Recently, I was contacted by recruitment about open L&D positions. I was hoping someone could look over my description of my OR experience... I'm really not sure how to describe what I do since it's so unit specific and unlike anything you would do on the floors. Please give advice on whether it's too vague or too specific... Any concerns about order of experience? Anything I should include and haven't? Note, this is only from the OR specific portion of my resume (I also apologize for any formatting issues):

Registered Nurse Any City, Any State

ABC Hospital Operating Rooms*Utilize the nursing process to care for patients and families in the peri-operative setting

*Circulate & scrub adult procedures including gynecological, urological & general surgery cases

*Enact job responsibilities while adhering to institutional & AORN policies

Prep patients using correct products according to JCAHO guidelines

*Plan & execute nursing interventions appropriate for unresponsive patients

*Manage multiple demands in a high stress environment while maintaining professional standards

*Use evidence based practice to guide nursing activities

*Adhere to & enforce aseptic technique

*Enhance patient care by working effectively in a multi-disciplinary team

*Precept students & new team members

*Delegate responsibilities to ancillary team members

*Timely & accurate documentation of procedures

*Ensure patient safety through assessments & nursing activities

A lot of this seems like a basic job description for an OR nurse. Can you say specific things like "precepted 5 students and 9 new employees" or "spearheaded new ___ policy by doing _____" or "served on such and such committee helping reduce _____ by _____%" They know what an OR nurse does. They are going to really want you for L&D with the OR experience so I wouldn't worry too much!

So, I took your advice to heart and made some changes to my resume. Used my email as a space for a cover letter and got a response from the recruiter. They are looking for RNs with at least one year med/surg... I am taking this to mean that they want 1 year in patient medical surgical floor nursing. I suppose I read between the lines that they would accept 1 year surgical nursing. How would you respond? My institution has accepted OR nurses into Labor and Delivery. In fact this is great experience since we can circulate and scrub... More than a c-section, which is a habitual problem that L&D nurses aren't prepared for traumas since they only do c-sections. Would you just leave it at that or ask them to contact you if they are accepting graduate nurses? I feel like it's their loss no to consider OR nurses as candidates. Ideas? I can't help but be disappointed... One of my big problems with OR nursing is that I feel like our skills are underestimated, leaving us pigeon holed. I don't want my only nursing experience to be as an OR nurse.

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