New Grad Cover Letter help!

[BosPediRN]

Hi Everyone!

I will be completing my BSN in December and sitting for the boards in Jan. I'm currently completing my preceptorship on a pediatric stem cell transplant unit and plan to apply for pediatric positions in the next few months. I think my CV/resume is strong, I'm just having a hard time striking a balance between brief and individualized in my cover letter. I would love any advice and edits you can give.Thanks for your time!!!

X X

X Road

X, MA 00000

Cell [phone]

[email protected]

October 29, 2013

X X

Nurse Manager/Recruiter

X Hospital

1 XX Street

X City, XX, 11111

Dear Ms. X,

I am writing to express my interest in X position at your institution. I am currently a second degree BSN student at X College and will graduate with honors in December 2013. I believe that my strong work ethic, ability to communicate in teams, and previous clinical experience will be a valuable asset to your unit.

As you will see from my resume, the earliest building blocks of my nursing career, even before completing nursing school, have their foundation in pediatrics. I was employed at X X Hospital from 2008 until beginning my nursing education in June 2012. As I complete my senior preceptorship on a pediatric stem cell transplant unit, I am eager to expand upon my clinical skills and the embrace the challenge of accurately assessing patients' and families' physical and emotional needs in order to provide accurate management, education, and support in relation to both short-term and long-term health issues.

Overall, I am confident that my skills will match the needs of this position, and my ambition will provide strong contributions to your unit. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

pediRN2b

[mcf011]

It looks good you express how you will benefit them. I would just put a specific example of how you will benefit their clinic. My experience on the peds floor has trained/give me these skills, which will do this for the floor. Take some things from the job posting and hit on them.

Also, I would add something to the effect of:

Please contact me at email/phone to set up an interview for the xxx position to discuss how my qualifications/experience will meet and exceed the needs of your clinic/hospital/ward. -Don't give them an option to contact you. Tell them to.

Maybe put after the first sentence something like: Once I saw the position on x job board I knew it was the perfect position for me. -Something to tell them your excited about the job.

Also move your Name, contact info into the header rather than the format you currently have. To me its a little confusing. You can also increase the font size of your name to stand out a bit.

Those are some things I would add. But over all it looks good to me. However, I have no experience apply to a nursing position (I start Nursing School in January) so I am not sure if there is different methods used compared to when applying to a non-healthcare position.

[Rednights]

"As you see from my resume" isn't really direct enough. Don't make them search, point it out immediately whatever your trying room impress them with (some sort of relevant experience).

[zeus&lincoln]

I don't know what hospital system you are applying for but when I recently was hired as a GN, I had to upload my resume and cover letter to the hospital's hiring site. Therefore an individualized letter for each unit wasn't possible. You may want to make one tailored for each floor willing to interview you. However, after going on 4 different interviews and being hired on all of them and putting countless hours into a stupid portfolio, I can assure you that NOT one floor had the time to look at my portfolio. My first two interviews I made specific cover letters for each unit, but when my interviewers continued to overlook them, I just brought a generalized one to the remainder of the units and left it in my portfolio in the event that they wanted to take a peek... They didn't.

[rdu55]

To me your letter is a good start but I would try to personalize it some for each position and hospital. Overall, I think it sounds a little generic. Maybe that's what they want but I personally would be more interested if your personality came out a little bit more. Maybe just read a few more examples online and work in what you like to your cover letter.

Also, I saw one typo: and the embrace the challenge of accurately .

[BosPediRN]

Thanks for everyone's advice! This is a cover letter specifically for a interview that is TOMORROW with the nurse manager on the unit that I am completing my preceptorship on. I would LOVE to get hired on this floor so I really need to knock it out of the park. Going forward, I plan to upload a somewhat more generic letter onto the hospital's HR website.