Help!! What's wrong with my resume?

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I'm beginning to wonder if my newly made resume is the problem. I am getting no calls after submitted my resume everywhere. And I have no one to review my resume at this time so I thought I would give you folks a try. Tell me what you think....

Mr. Poor Nurse

2627 Bummed Out Ave

Nowhere, NE 12345

(895)867- 5309

[email protected]

My goal is to obtain a position as a registered nurse in a hospital setting.

EDUCATION

Associates Degree Nursing; May 2012, Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Practical Nursing; March 2008, Kaplan University, Omaha, NE

Associates Degree Professional Studies; August 2000, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE

Associates Degree Networking Technologies; August 1999, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE

EXPERIENCE

Via Christe Assisted Living, NE; January 2011-Present

Licensed Practical Nurse - Charge Nurse

Assisted Living and Memory Care Units

Functioning as charge nurse in a 60 bed facility. Providing high-quality care for up to 20 patients at a time. Duties include by mouth, subcutaneous, intramuscular, and nebulized medication administration, ostomy maintenance, wound care, assessments, resolving patient status changes, and assistance with ADLs. Charge nurse duties include acting as a supervisor and resource for 1-2 RNs/2-3 LPNs and 3-4 MAs/CNAs, delegation of assignments, staffing, facility maintenance, coordinating outpatient appointments, and communicating changes in the plan of care with patients, doctors, and family.

Nebraska Skilled and Rehab, NE; July 2008-January 2011

Licensed Practical Nurse - Charge Nurse

Long Term Care and Skilled Care Units

Functioned as charge nurse in a 3 unit facility. Providing high-quality care for 20 to 50 patients at a time. Duties included by mouth, subcutaneous, intramuscular, and nebulized medication administration, ostomy maintenance, wound care, foley catheter insertion and care, tracheostomy cares, patient assessments, resolving patient status changes, and assistance with ADLs. Charge nurse duties include acting as a supervisor and resource for 1-2 RNs/1-2 LPNs and 3-6 MAs/CNAs, delegation of assignments, staffing, coordinating outpatient appointments, and communicating changes in the plan of care with patients, doctors, and family.

Odyssey Healthcare, NE; April 2008-July 2008

Licensed Practical Nurse - Crisis Care

Functioned as a Crisis Care nurse for a variety of hospice patients. Provided high-quality cares for individual patients. Duties included by mouth, rectal, nebulized medication administration, wound care, and assistance with ADLs, including end of life cares. Other duties included various forms of documentation and communication specifically related to hospice care, patient and family support with the grieving process, patient assessment and monitoring of status changes.

Marquis Place Assisted Living, NE; October 2006-March 2008

Certified Nursing Assistant

Assisted Living and Memory Care Units

Functioned as a certified nursing assistant in a 45 bed facility. Providing high-quality care for up to 45 patients at a time. Duties included assistance with ADLs and coordination of care between staff and patients.

Memorial Community Hospital, NE; October 2007-March 2008

Clinical Externship - ER Setting

Functioned as a student nurse in an emergency room setting. Providing high quality care under the direction of a registered nurse for 1-4 patients at a time. Duties included by mouth, subcutaneous, intramuscular medication administration, assistance with ADLs, triaging and vital signs, documentation, and collection of specimens, communication between staff, patients, and physicians.

COMPUTER SKILLS

Proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Internet, and Windows.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Capstone Project

This project consisted of overall client care during a 5 day hospital stay based on a case scenario. A multidisciplinary approach was used for the project, providing all aspects of client care.

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It is really wordy... The career coach at my school told me to think of your resume as an outline for your interview. You can talk about your experience in the interview. The person looking over your resume will spend about 30 seconds glancing over the page. Do you have any other accomplishments? For example: high GPA, scholarship, honor rolls, awards. You also may want a stronger objective or no objective. Some people think an objective is a useless waste of space. It is basically saying, I'm giving you my resume bc I want you to hire me... Obviously

Also, try using an outline instead of putting stuff in bold. You only bold things that are really impressive. For example: my GPA is a 4.0. I would bold that bc not everyone has a perfect GPA.

Basically, you want it to be super easy to read at a glance... No complete sentences, you want bullets

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

My initial response is that it is VERY wordy. Rather than repeatedly describing the tasks you performed (which anyone in that position would be expected to perform) I would focus on BRIEFLY summarizing the patient populations you served.

A good, readable resume should fit on one page using 1" margins and 12 pt type.

Also, are you also applying for positions as well as submitting resumes? Are you as wordy on your applications? I might also leave off the unrelated to healthcare associate degrees - they are not pertinent to what you are looking for.

You might also refine your goal. How about something like 'transition to RN role in an inpatient setting by building upon my existing LPN skills'?

Good luck - I was an LPN many, many years ago (1970s), have since earned my AAS, BSN and MSN just two months ago!

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Ok so its too long, could you give me an example on making it shorter?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Most resumes do not contain complete sentences. A bulleted list of three or four pertinent, concise points is miles better than a paragraph. For example:

*Charge nurse for 40 skilled nursing patients

*Supervised team of UAPs and clerical workers

*Coordination of care with physicians and allied health consultants

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Alright so I cut the fat out of my resume, and gave a very basic outline. I hope this is not too vague. I want them to think I have done things without being so generic. My resume is now 1 and 1/3 pages, the computer skills got cut off to the next page.

Mr. Poor Nurse

2627 Bummed Out Ave

Nowhere, NE 12345

(895)867- 5309

[email protected]

My goal is to transition to an RN role in an inpatient setting by building upon my existing LPN skills.

EDUCATION

Associates Degree Nursing; May 2012, Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Practical Nursing; March 2008, Kaplan University, Omaha, NE

EXPERIENCE

Via Christe Assisted Living, NE; January 2011-Present

Licensed Practical Nurse – Charge Nurse

  • Charge Nurse for Assisted Living/Memory Care Units – 60 bed facility
  • Medication administration, wound care, assessments, supervisory and delegation
  • Staffing, facility maintenance, coordination of care with staff and physicians

Nebraska Skilled and Rehab, NE; July 2008-January 2011

Licensed Practical Nurse – Charge Nurse

  • Long Term and Skilled Care units – 3 unit facility
  • Medication administration, wound care, various catheter cares, assessments
  • Staffing, delegation, coordination of cares

Odyssey Healthcare, NE; April 2008-July 2008

Licensed Practical Nurse – Crisis Care

  • Crisis Care for hospice patients
  • Medication administration, assessments, wound care
  • Documentation and coordination of patient care

Marquis Place Assisted Living, NE; October 2006-March 2008

Certified Nursing Assistant

  • Assisted Living and Memory Care units – on a 45 bed facility
  • ADL’s, coordination of care, documentation

Memorial Community Hospital, NE; October 2007-March 2008

Clinical Externship – ER Setting

  • Student Nurse under RN direction
  • Medication administration, assessments and triage, documentation, communication
  • Specimen collection and ADL assistance

COMPUTER SKILLS

Proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Internet, and Windows.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Capstone Project

This project consisted of overall client care during a 5 day hospital stay based on a case scenario. A multidisciplinary approach was used for the project, providing all aspects of client care.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/.

Ok if you would like to contact me I will give you a sample of my resume.....Yours is like mine was. For 30+ yrs I used mine but finally got called on it by a recruiting outfit and how the employees really want to see it. I am a horrible resume writer so I finally had one done professionally. Trust me it cost now a days. There is a professional writer in each of these people. The whole key is to see bullets of all of your areas of experience. The employer wants to see your entire history in about 20 sec. which is all the time they spend reading one. Anything else probably goes in the trash. So if I can help you there I will send you my resume to see.......

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Sure Dafabb, any help you can provide would be appreciated. My email is correct on my resume, [email protected]

I've been shooting from the hip when it comes to resume writing. I am by no means an expert. But i'm getting nowhere, so I'll take any help I can get. I just find it hard to believe that I can't get a job anywhere.

I did get one call for an interview. However that was an nursing office type job, and was not interested. I really need to work on the floor and utilize my RN experience. So how close is my resume the second go around?

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Your second, less wordy, version is much better. My only suggestion is that it's missing some "sparkle" words.

Example:

Medication administration, wound care, various catheter cares, assessments

I'd say:

Performed medication administration, wound care, various catheter cares, and assessments while providing superior patient care.

Just add a few words here and there that showcase your ability to "perform", "delegate", "coordinate", "assist", etc.

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Also, if you use a resume builder, it will usually condense the personal info (address, email, phone) at the top into a tidy little box. That might save you about 6-10 lines.

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Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.

You can use resume builder (template) on line...it's free. It creates your resume and it will put it in around 7 different formats for you to choose the one you like the best. It does cost around $5 to download and print. But well worth it.

Definitely keep it to ONE page. That web site has many great ideas, also on creating a cover letter.

By the way, I would place the education at the end of the resume...it's not as importance as experience.

I just redid my resume 3 weeks ago, using this template. I got 2 interviews last Wednesday (and 2 job offers)!!!!!!!

I start my new position on August 13!

Good luck

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

I like your second goal too. With either one, though, tailor it to each position you are applying for before printing it out. Don't forget, the NM doesn't really care if you want any old hospital position, but wants you to care about what they do on their unit.

For example instead of:

"My goal is to transition to an RN role in an inpatient setting by building upon my existing LPN skills."

Try: "My goal is to transition to an RN role at ABC Hospital focusing on __specialty of the unit__ by building upon my existing LPN skills."

Or instead of "My goal is to obtain a position as a registered nurse in a hospital setting."

Try: "My goal is to obtain a position at a __specialty of the unit__ on _Unit name_ as a registered nurse at ABC Hospital."

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