Do you include clinical sites and hours on your resume

elkpark · Feb 1, 2012

Only if you make it very clear that these were student clinical experiences and not work experience, and (IMO) only if you are talking about some special, unusual clinical experience or location that most nursing students would not have experienced. If you're talking about the ordinary, typical nursing student clinical rotations, healthcare employers are v. familiar with what kind of experiences most students have had and there is no reason (or advantage) for listing them on a resume'.

llg, PhD, RN · Feb 1, 2012

I used to adamantly tell people to NOT include their clinicals on their resumes ... unless they were special, unique experiences that were not typical for nursing students and/or they related directly to the job for which you are applying. However, with so many new schools of nursing offering poor-quality experience (and too much in labs vs. actual patient contact hours, etc.), I have updated my thinking and now recommend that you include them.

BUT -- and this is important -- make sure you are totally clear that these are student clinicals and not jobs. In fact, I recommend listing them on a separate sheet of paper. On your main resume, just make a brief summary statement about your school clinicals and state that details are included on a separate sheet. That makes them available to be read without there being any confusion and withouth "cluttering up" your resume for those who don't want to see all those details on their first review of your resume. Also highlight any special, unique, or particularly pertinent clinical experiences on your main resume and/or in your cover letter.

turnforthenurse, MSN, NP · Feb 1, 2012

I included my clinical experience and the year I took the clinical, but not the number of hours. My employer made note of that at the time because she was going to ask me about my clinical experiences but didn't really have to because they were already listed on my resume. I have a friend who applied for (and got hired) on SICU and she included her clinical experiences, too. Her employer said the same thing. I think it is a good idea, but as the others have said, make it very clear that they are your student clinical experiences, not job experience.

Carebear77 · Feb 8, 2012

Thanks so much for your thoughts and ideas on this. I will definitely make sure it is listed as clinical experience and I'll try to keep it brief as well. Thanks so much I appreciate it.

NP Sam · Feb 8, 2012

I included every hospital and types of nursing courses I took. I didn't include specific hours. Since I applied to a pediatric hospital, I mentioned specific pediatric units I was on. Tailor you resume to the place you are applying. Best of luck!

0402 · Feb 8, 2012

I included clinicals and hours mostly because I was applying to jobs on the opposite coast from where I went to school, so the local hospitals were not at all familiar with my program (yes, I still turned in transcripts, but this was an easy way to put it out there). Also, many local schools here have between 450 and 900 total clinical hours, while mine had 1400, and I truly felt that was something I wanted people to know. Also, I did a 200+ hour internship in my last semester, so when applying in that specialty area, I wanted that to be seen.

RN2be_07 · Feb 9, 2012

I've been told not to include clinicals since they assume that they are part of your nursing education. The only one I did mention on my resume was my capstone experience in which I spent 72 hours on a NICU with the same mentor. If you did anything like that I would include it and put the mentor down as a reference.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2012

When I applied for my first job, yes I included them. Now that I have close to 5 years of professional RN experience, I obviously don't anymore... with one exception. I did one of my clinicals outside of the country so I have that on there, in a separate section though.

VanessaRn89 · Feb 24, 2012

I had one of my nursing instructors help me write my Resume and she had me include my clinicals, but just the number of hours since our programs has more clinicals than other nursing schools in our area.