Need Resume Critique

[meow_kitty_kat]

Hey everybody, I am in nursing school and will finish my last semester in the fall. I want to get a good job this summer as a nurse's aide or unit clerk in a hospital for some experience. Please critique my resume! Let me know what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong. I don't have any experience in health care yet except for clinicals at school. I have 5 yrs experience in call centers. Any advice or tips would really be appreciated! Thank you!!

Career Objective

Seeking a nursing assistance position in which I may utilize my education and clinical experience gained as a nursing student; leverage my interpersonal skills and previous work experience in customer service; while fostering new career opportunities and allowing me to enhance my skills and expand my practical experience while providing the highest level of quality health care to patients.

Education

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[TD]XXXXX - XXXXX, TX

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[TD]Associate Degree in Nursing

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[TD]Expected Graduation Date:

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[TD]December 2012

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[TD]XXXXX - XXXXX, TX

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[TD]High School Diploma

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[TD]Graduation Date:

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[TD]May 2004

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Student Clinical Rotations

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• Nursing Fundamentals (84 hours) - Saint Francis Nursing Home: Accountable for the direct personal care of patients including dressing, bathing, feeding, oral hygiene, and elimination. Monitored and recorded patient vital signs and communicated with professional staff regarding pertinent observations concerning conditions of patients.
  

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• Medical/Surgical (168 hours) - Methodist Metropolitan Hospital: Managed acute illnesses and chronic, complex, multi-system disease processes of an inpatient population in a skilled nursing facility. Responsible for the administration of oral, topical, subcutaneous, and intravenous medications, calculating medication dosages, and providing patient and family education. Performed complete physical assessments, provided wound care, dressing changes, and intravenous catheter insertion and care.
  
• Psychiatric Nursing (84 hours) - Southwest General Hospital: Monitored and cared for patients in a psychiatric clinical population. Performed mental status assessments, patient interviews, therapeutic communication techniques and interventions, and maintained a therapeutic milieu.
  
• Labor, Delivery and Postpartum (84 hours) - Southwest General Hospital: Responsible for performing antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum, and neonatal assessments. Performed Foley catheter insertion and care, fetal heart monitoring, and administered neonatal intramuscular and opthalmic medications. Maintained patient and family comfort and education during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and provided anticipatory guidance and teaching to new parents regarding breastfeeding, bottle feeding and infant care.
  
• Pediatric Nursing (84 hours) - Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital: Accountable for performing physical assessments, medication administration, providing anticipatory guidance, and health promotion education to patients and families. Provided comfort and assistance with bathing, feeding and self-care to infants and children. Managed acute illnesses and chronic disease exacerbations for infants, children, and adolescents while incorporating psychosocial elements.
  

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Certifications

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[TD]CPR

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[TD]AHA Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers

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[TD]Expires August 2012

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Work Experience

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XXXXX- XXXXX, TX August 2008 - October 2010

Special Order Representative

Responsible for providing professional customer service and placing sales orders for all non-catalog and custom products requested. Completely researched and identified product availability, cost, and specifications, and subsequently presented all information as a customer quote. Utilized vendor contacts and resources to complete customer quotes, orders, and vendor purchase orders. Assisted customers with quote and order status, product information, product returns, price negotiations, and problem resolution.

Key Achievements:

• Engaged in additional tasks, projects, and reports which successfully aided in reducing accumulated departmental workload.
  
• Guided new hire associates with additional floor training and development.
  
• Progressed to a role in Customer Solutions providing leadership, assistance, and problem resolution to colleagues.
  
• Received the Team Spirit Award for displaying exemplary skills, enthusiasm, and willingness to take on additional projects, as well as serving as a role model associate.
  

XXXXX - XXXXXX, TX November 2005 - June 2008

Teleservices Representative

Ensured high priority customer service and telesales for AT&T Wireless customers and prospects. Provided customer service, equipment sales, and recommendations to customers about wireless service, features, equipment, and accessory options. Placed equipment orders, returns and exchanges for customers, as well as providing order status, and recommendations for additional features or equipment. Resolved problems or issues arising from service, billing, features or equipment.

Key Achievements:

• Praised by Performance Assessment Specialist for having outstanding quality and assurance evaluation scores.
  
• Frequently selected by floor manager to receive additional escalated calls and handle escalated issues.
  
• Volunteered to assist new employees by providing position-related knowledge and expertise, answering inquiries and explaining conditions, policies and procedures.
  

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Academic Honors

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[TD]Honors List:

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[TD=colspan: 2]Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, and Spring 2007

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[TD]President's Honors

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[TD=colspan: 2]Spring 2008, Spring 2010

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Technical Abilities

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF, Meditech, and CSR

[CaliBoy760]

Where do I start? This might sting a little, but I believe it will help you in the long run. You've never even worked as a nurse and your resume is two pages long? You are not writing a novel, you are showcasing your experience in as few words as possible. Your Objective should be no more than two sentences, not a rambling one sentence paragraph with two semi colons.. There are simply too many words on the page. An employer does not have the luxury of spending more than a minute on a prospective resume. Therefore, it needs to appear clean and concise with easily accessible information. You should list your experience with a concise heading followed by no more than four bullet statements beneath that heading. DO NOT WRITE PARAGRAPHS!!!! No one wants to read them and your resume will be round filed.

Step 1. OBJECTIVE

Seeking a Nursing Assistant position in which to utilize my education and experience gained as a Student Nurse.

Step 2. EXPERIENCE

Saint Francis Nursing Home

Nursing Fundamentals

-Performed direct patient care and ADL's on a primarily Geriatric population.

-Monitored and recorded Vitals Signs and Input/Output levels.

-Performed daily and weekly charting and communicated direct observations to the licensed staff.

Methodist Metropolitan Hospital

Skilled Nursing Facility

-Medication Administration and Charting (Oral, IV, IM, Sub-Q, etc.).

-Daily Wound Care and Dressing Changes.

-Catheter Care and Infusion (IV, Foley, G-Tube, etc.).

-Patient and family education.

Southwest General Hospital

Psychiatric Rotation

-Monitored and cared for patients in a clinical psychiatric setting.

-Mental status assessments, interviews, and interventions as needed.

-Maintained a professional therapeutic environment.

I hope that you can see how much easier it is to access the information when presented as above. Believe me, I have been asked to review hundreds of resumes and choose the ones that I want to talk to face to face. As written, yours would go to the bottom of the pile. As to your work prior to Nursing School. it has no relevance to the job that you are seeking so I would suggest simply eliminating them from your resume. No DON is going to want to read that you "utilized vendor contacts and resources to complete customer quotes" Trust me, I just didn't. Sorry if this sounds harsh, I DO want you to get the job. But I doubt you would with your resume as it is now. Think about it and good luck!

Eric

[Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN]

I agree with the above poster. One page should be a max length of resume for a new nurse or nursing assistant. It is so much easier to read when it is bulleted and less wordy. I did include my previous job experience very briefly, since I had worked for the same place for eight years. I just wanted to show that I am dependable and not a job hopper. I kept that portion very short at just 2-3 lines, since it was not healthcare related. I would definitely use a resume like what Caliboy760 listed. You will have more success. Good Luck!

[meow_kitty_kat]

Thanks for the advice. Any suggestions for a cover letter?