Fired & in Need of Resume Advice

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Fired from ED after working less than six months there. Prior to that had 20 months RN experience working at a magnet hospital. Also five years LPN experience at outpatient clinic and doctor's ofc. Per recommendations from prior posts, I've re-formatted resume to functional resume style and excluded months of employment. I feel my resume needs fine-tuning and am open to suggestions from fellow nurses on AN. Resume follows. (Thank you in advance for your input.) Note that spacing/formatting did not paste as well as I would have hoped.

Dedicated Nurse, R.N.

Phone______________; Email: ______________

________________________________________________________________________

QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY

Seven years' of nursing experience in hospital and outpatient clinical settings providing skilled nursing care to pediatric and adult populations from culturally diverse backgrounds.

______________________________________________________________________________

SKILLS SUMMARY

  • Med Administration (PO, NGT, PEG, IV, IM)
  • Utilize Medical Equipment
  • Complex Wound Care
  • Foley Cath Placement/Care
  • Customer-Service Focused Care

  • Good Communication
  • Good Time Management
  • Patient Advocate
  • Patient/Family Education
  • Computer Savvy
  • Team Player

______________________________________________________________________________

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Utilize critical thinking and time management skills while providing proficient nursing care in hospital and clinical outpatient settings to pediatric and adult patients with a wide variety of diagnoses.
  • Perform complete and frequent patient assessments, recognizing changes in conditions, adjusting care, initiating protocols, interventions and advocating for the patient when needed.
  • Evaluate patient's pain status and facilitate effective pain management techniques.
  • Document patient assessments and medications via computer charting.
  • Perform frequent patient and family teaching about operative procedures, wound care, drains, treatment plan, medical devices, diet, medications, and activity.
  • Perform foley cath placement/care.
  • Administer PO, NGT, GT, SQ, IM and IV medications per state and facility regulations.
  • Utilize multiple wound care products in order to perform complex wound care on various types of wounds including pressure ulcers, skin tears, surgical wounds, colostomies, urostomies, and Jackson-Pratt drains.
  • Work with diverse medical tools such as IStat, feeding pumps, IV pumps, PCA pumps, telemetry monitors, chest tubes, and suction devices.
  • Perform hearing and vision screenings, PFTs, and EKGs.
  • Apply air casts and splints.
  • Obtain blood and urine specimens for ordered labs.
  • Team player that works closely with physicians, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, unit secretaries and clinical technicians to deliver customer service-focused patient care.

______________________________________________________________________________

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

ABC Hospital, Emergency Dept, Any City, Any State

Staff RN, 2013

Magnet Hospital, Medical-Surgical Dept., Another City, Any State

Staff RN, 2011-2013

Outpatient Clinic, Yet Another City, Any State

Staff LPN/RN, 2006-2011

M.D. Office, Any City, Any State

Staff LPN, 2009-2010

______________________________________________________________________________

EDUCATION

ABC College, Any City, Any State

Associate of Science in Nursing, 2010

Southern College, Any City, Any State

Associate of Applied Science in Health, 2007

Southern College, Any City, Any State

Practical Nursing Diploma, 2005

______________________________________________________________________________

COMPUTER SKILLS

Epic ASAP charting

Cerner Millenium Power Charting

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Outlook

______________________________________________________________________________

LICENSES/CERTIFICATIONS

RN License in the State of ______________

BLS for Healthcare Providers

NIHSS Certified

Basic Cardiac Rhythms Interpretation Course

______________________________________________________________________________

AWARDS

Recipient of _________________ Facility's Annual Award for "Expert Care, Excellent Medicine and Exceptional Time Management", 2007

_______________ Scholarship Recipient

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

I would eliminate the skills section as it is redundant and covered in your summary of professional experience. You can merge the summary and professional experience to streamline the format.

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@JustBeachyNurse: Are you suggesting that I should just bullet the content of the Qualifications Summary under Professional Experience? Thank you for your input.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

You actually have all the skills covered in the professional experience section. So you can just eliminate the section. Unless you have specialty skills like trach/vent, chemotherapy, IABP & specialized central line monitoring, etc. as an experienced nurse its redundant & irrelevant.

New grads usually list skills as a filler to show what they have been exposed to. I know experienced, specialized nurses will include a skills section

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@JustBeachy Nurse: Eliminate the Skills Summary and merge the Qualifications Summary into the Professional Experience section as a bulleted item? Thank you again for your help. Also, my seven years' total nursing experience breaks down to two years as RN and five years as LPN.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

What I'm saying for example, is bullet #1 under skills is repeated in bullet #7 under professional experience. Skills #4 is repeated in professional #6, skills #2 is repeated in professional #9, skills #3 is repeated in professional #8. You don't need both. Just keep the professional experience section as it is more specific. Your skills section is repeated in the professional experience section.

It's still nursing experience that is explained/differentiated in your work experience section. Though it is implied that you worked a full year in the ED by your current format.

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@JustBeachyNurse: Thank you. I understand you in that regard. I plan to eliminate the Skills Summary in its entirety as it's covered under Professional Experience and is indeed redundant. I just want to make sure that I'm correct in understanding that you also recommend that I should move the Qualifications Summary (above the Skills Summary on my original post) into the Professional Experience section as a bulleted item? Dealing with the challenges of a job search in a very competitive job market after termination has left me struggling with the whole resume issue. I appreciate your assistance and patience with my questions.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

If you have a lot of blank space keep the summary of qualifications (you can always edit to match the description of the job you are applying for so that you can pass the key word screen if the employer uses a program to scan résumés. If you are getting tight on space and it makes the difference between one vs two pages eliminate it.

Does that help?

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@JustBeachyNurse: Yes, that's very helpful! Thank you.

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I agree that the skills summary and professional experience sections are redundant. I also think some of the things you've listed are too obvious. For example, every nurse can give medication and collect urine specimens. I prefer simplified resumes to wordy ones.

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