adding clinicals to a resume

Jenngirl34RN · Jan 20, 2015

I made a section for clinical rotations right after the education section. I don't have it listed by number hours, just which clinical (ie: Foundations of Nursing, Medical-surgical 1, Medical-surgical 2, etc.) followed by the hospital name and the quarter (ie: Fall 2015).

Raviepoo · Jan 20, 2015

I wouldn't. I list skills, not hours of schooling. The schooling is in a completely different section of my resume. If you have a license the employers assume you did clinical rotations.

llg, PhD, RN · Jan 20, 2015

I used to say, "Don't do it," as most nursing students do pretty much the same things in clinical and no one needs to see it listed. However, I have changed my recommendation in recent years as I have seen many new grads come through with very limited clinical experience.

My suggestion is not to incorporate the details in the actual cover letter and resume -- but to add a sheet with the clinicals and skills learned as a separate sheet. That way, the resume can remain "clear, uncluttered, and brief" -- but the information is there, easily accessible for the reader to see if they choose to look. Within the cover letter and in the education section of your resume, I would simply make a brief statement something like, "The attached 'Educational Clinical Experiences' list provides a summary of the clinical learning experiences of my academic program." The reader can then look at that summary ... or not ... depending on their interest.

Also, I would probably include in the cover letter and/or in the resume itself, any special in-depth experiences that directly relate to the job for which you are applying. For example, if you did an 8-week capstone experience in the ICU and you are apply for an ICU job, I would highlight that particular experience in my cover letter and in my resume. It's the routine stuff that I would put on the separate "Clinical Educational Experiences" summary.

Whatever you do ... Don't make it in any way confusing or vague about whether your clinical experiences are supervised, student experiences or a job. If it is vague, it looks like you were trying to fool the reader -- and that makes you look very bad.

Good luck!

Nienna Celebrindal · Jan 20, 2015

The only clinicals I really discussed in my cover letter was my Leadership Capstone, I worked in the MICU and CICU and took a full assignment and was just watched by a preceptor. I did everything and worked 20 shifts which is more than they give at our hospital for new grad RNs. It worked well for me, the person I interviewed with was very excited about that experience.

elijahvegas, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 20, 2015

I create a section with the heading

"Volunteer / internship"

Not at all a lie when you think about it haha

elkpark · Jan 21, 2015

I create a section with the heading
"Volunteer / internship"
Not at all a lie when you think about it haha

Maybe not a "lie," but not clear, either. There are paid "internships" out there for new graduates, and clinical rotations in school are not exactly "volunteer" experiences. What is the point of not just clearly identifying them as your school clinical rotations? HR departments and nurse managers and others who might be involved in interviewing are not going to be amused by any clever efforts to rename school clinical experiences, and, if you give someone the impression that you are attempting to pass off your school experience as "real" work experience, you run the risk of being dropped from consideration entirely as a result.

RunBabyRN · Jan 21, 2015

Check out the resume forum for some of this- a lot of us have posted what we have listed there.

I included it under my educational experience, and I listed the unit, the hospital, and how many hours completed. I have seen on here that clinical experiences vary widely, so I think it's good to at least put that much. I only expanded the skills I used when I described my senior preceptorship.

shall62 · Jan 21, 2015

Thank you all for the information. I believe that the two years worth of clinical in nursing school is invaluable and should be acknowledged. But I didn't want to add every little detail about my clinical. I plan on applying on the inpatient surgical unit. I got a lot of say in where I wanted to go for clinical rotations. I'm doing my preceptorship on the surgical unit and in my med/surg semester I had a lot of clinical days in the OR, same day, preop and PACU.

I really liked the idea of incorporating it into the cover letter yet briefly putting it on the resume.

Should I also add my evaluation from my preceptor in with my cover letter and resume?

elijahvegas, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Jan 24, 2015

Maybe not a "lie," but not clear, either. There are paid "internships" out there for new graduates, and clinical rotations in school are not exactly "volunteer" experiences. What is the point of not just clearly identifying them as your school clinical rotations? HR departments and nurse managers and others who might be involved in interviewing are not going to be amused by any clever efforts to rename school clinical experiences, and, if you give someone the impression that you are attempting to pass off your school experience as "real" work experience, you run the risk of being dropped from consideration entirely as a result.

Simply put, any confusion can be cleared up during an interview that I probably scored for the very reason that I was vague and oversold my resume.

Calling a spade a spade, we all look the same on paper, especially new grads with little or no experience. Many have absolutely nothing to work with, so one resume looks exactly like the next just with a different name. You may be a wonderful nurse with a great personality and impeccable skillset, but HR would never know because they've never met you.

As long as I'm not blatantly lying about my skills or anything else on my resume, I'm going to paint the prettiest picture I can in order to score an interview and show them who I really am. The worst-case scenario is that I dont get hired. Id feel better if I at least made it to an interview instead of having my resume tossed into the trash because it looked like the rest. I'm assuming this is why the OP would include clinical experience at all in their resume. Hiring managers know for the most part clinical experience is required in the coursework so it isn't worth mentioning, but if I had to guess, I would say theyre looking for a way to beef up an otherwise thin resume.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jan 24, 2015

Simply put, any confusion can be cleared up during an interview that I probably scored for the very reason that I was vague and oversold my resume.

And you aren't concerned that the interviewer is going to wonder what else you've been vague and how you've oversold yourself in the interview itself? That is not going to make a good impression, and if it were me doing the interview (we do panel interviews with management and staff), well, there won't be any other interviews elsewhere in the facility. Heads up, managers talk with each other- including with those from other facilities. You could get yourself unofficially blackballed.

elkpark · Jan 26, 2015

Simply put, any confusion can be cleared up during an interview that I probably scored for the very reason that I was vague and oversold my resume.

At which point, HR or the nurse manager will conclude that you are sketchy and not to be trusted, and you will be dropped from consideration for the position. No one in a position to hire in healthcare is going to appreciate how clever you were to inflate your resume' to get an interview; they're just going to consider you dishonest.