Resume Advice

[jennother]

Hi Everyone,

I am doing my resume and I am unsure about adding skills on each clinical rotation. I have added the different departments I have had rotations in. Should I add all the skills we perform in each? I know being redundant is never good, and I don't want to add things like therapeutic interviews, vitals, injections, if those things are understood as being completed.

Thanks for any advice!!!

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Is this a resume to apply for an RN position? Summer CNA position? Senior practicum? My answers will depend on what you're intending to use this resume for.

When I was in school, we were required to write a "resume" when submitting for our senior practicum but the requirements were to include all clinical placements and skills learned at each placement. That kind of resume is appropriate for that purpose but not so much as a professional resume.

Personally, I hate seeing nursing resumes that lists skills like "ADLs, monitoring VS and I&O, medication administration." If you're a nurse, I know you know how to do those things.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

HI! Welcome back! Long time no see! I moved your thread to resume help for best response!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Don't spend much time (or space) listing basic skills. In fact, I recommend not putting them on the front page of your resume at all. They just clutter it up. List the skills/compentencies you have mastered on a separate page. That way, they are available for anyone who wants to see them, but they are not cluttering up your basic resume and "getting in the way" of the stuff most hiring managers are really looking for.

I used to suggest to new grads that they omit the basic skills altogether -- assuming that all nurese could be counted on for basic skills. However, I have changed my opinion on this in recent years as more and more schools are graduating students with very little actual "hands on" experience with live patients. Some schools spend far too much time in learning labs and not enough with live patients. If you are a graduate of one of the better schools, play that up by including a separate sheet that highlights your "real patient" experience you have and the competencies you mastered.