For all you new grads...what does your resume look like?

perioddrama · Jun 19, 2012

Volunteer is great for resumes. It's a great way to get "experience."

Some new grads have put their clinical experience in their resume/CV.

Good luck

Tarabara · Jun 19, 2012

I went straight to nursing school after high school so I didnt have a lot of experience to put on my resume, but one thing i would highly recommend is doing an externship while in school. It'll look great on your resume and is excellent experience. I did that and then continued to work as a tech at the hospital when my externship was over which is what got me a job! :) Good luck to you!

champagnesupeRNova · Jun 19, 2012

I would definitely recommend putting your clinical experience on your resume if you don't have any healthcare experience. Put down skills that you learned during that time and what you gained experience with in the clinical setting (like G-tubes, medication administration, etc.). Volunteer activity would also help.

whichone'spink, BSN, RN · Jun 19, 2012

Get some sort of certification, like CNA, EMT or even psych tech. Though I think psych techs need to have a BA in psychology in many states.

scrubwearer · Jun 19, 2012

Our career counselor told us to put our clinical sites and experience down, including what we did at each site. He also had us put down any volunteer work we did during school and out of school to add to our nursing resume. I came from health insurance for 10 years so I had no nursing experience really but ended up getting a decent job at a facility.

celtchick68 · Jun 20, 2012

You can also play up your previous non medical experience. Customer service, dealing with the public, handling customer complaints etc. play up time management, organizational skills etc. select buzz words/characteristics you feel embody nursing and find a way to correlate those words with what you currently do. And yes, add your clinical stuff and education.

I've got a great resume with 15 years as a paramedic and still had trouble getting an interview while some of my classmates were called immediately with no experience. I think a lot of employers find no experience in medicine to be like a fresh canvas--easy to train them how the want them instead of possibly having a person they have to retrain or cast out possible bad habits.

luckybella · Jun 24, 2012

I would definitely get a job in healthcare while in school. Many of my classmates who are finding jobs worked some type of position in a healthcare setting whether it was working as a nursing assistant, unit clerk, or EMT. When I interviewed for a new grad position, the manager told me that she really likes to hire new grads with CNA/NA experience because they tend to be more hands on with patient care and are more comfortable in a hospital setting. I'd also volunteer as much as you could because hospitals definitely look at that. Get an externship and highlight any previous customer service experience in an unrelated field. Most of the hospitals I applied to didn't want my clinical rotations on my resume except for one, because all students will have the same clinical hours in each state. Good luck with your future nursing career!

manda0931 · Jul 1, 2012

On my resume I had the usual sections such as objective, education, work experience, (I've never worked in the medical field before) certifications (ACLS, BLS, etc) but I also put my last clinical rotation. A lot of things I read said not to put it and others said to put it but the way I looked at it was how could it hurt? I also just put my last clinical rotation down because its the rotation where I felt I learned the most. Good luck with everything!

Valinerya · Jul 4, 2012

I picked out relevant experiences from my non-nursing background to put on my resume. Before I graduated this past December 2011 at the age of 37, I was a project administrator at a satellite-telecommunications company. That's about as far away from nursing as you can get!

What was relevant from that job were things like "prioritizing multiple demands", "conflict resolution strategies", "team oriented collaboration"... you get the idea. I also put on all of my clinical experiences I had during my schooling, as well as my single-parenting skills (sounds stupid; but worded correctly, it's pretty effective.)

decembergrad2011, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2012

I used my clinical experiences. I also had some experience working in direct support, so I put that on there along with my most recent retail job. Retail and other customer service positions are worthy of being on the resume. I also listed skills like my Spanish language proficiency.