New grad. in Dec. I would appreciate help with resume/odd job experience/first year

[Km24]

I have been browsing this site for resume tips and I find all of them to be very helpful. I graduate in December as an GVN and will be looking for a job to start in January. I am nervous but also excited. I will still be a full-time student, preparng to enter the BSN program at UTSA 2010 hopefully.

I am curious about the best avenue to gain experience. Ideally I will be able to gain experience in the my 6-12 months to enter home health or either agency nursing. I would like to work less and have a more flexible schedule during my 1 year BSN program. In the meantime I am open to any type of work to get me closer to my goals.

I am also concerned about how to format my resume and what to include. I have not actually been employed since Dec 2004 in which I moved from a 7 month job at washingtom mutual in CA back to TX. In March 2005 I entered a cosmetology program full-time until June 2006 when I decided this is not what I want to do. July 2006-Jan 2008 I attended school full time taking RN pre-reqs and for income I was a medical research participant.

All of my experience has been since 2002 in which I worked mostly in the service industry, waiting tables and retail. I moved a lot so some of this is short history and also not that relevant to nursing. Except for maybe being a certified PT trainer for a period of time. Also an 8 month stint in the Army whereas I was medically discharged in 2003. I feel like it is a mess and do not know if or how I should include my medical research participation?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, and thanks so much for reading!

[PiPhi2004]

As for a resume, keep it short and only include relevant job experience. No one wants to read 2 pages of irrelevant job experience and will probably get bored and throw it out. If you have done anything in a medical-related field then keep it, otherwise get rid of it. Do not include high school experience, if you graduated with your LVN they know you went to HS.

As for good experience, I have never been an LVN or hardly worked with them (I'm in an area that doesnt utilize them much), but I would suspect that you should look to your interests when it comes to applying for a job. If you enjoyed geriatrics, theres LTC and med/surg and, in some places, ICU. If you enjoyed peds, do peds work, L&D, whatever you enjoy or you feel will be the best fit for you and something you will want to continue when you have your BSN.