New Grad - Resume and Cover Letter. Please Critique for me!

[Jaimielynn]

JOE BLOW

999 SESEME STREET

SOME CITY AB T9C4H7

Phone: [phone]

E-mail: [email protected]

OBJECTIVE__________________________________________________________________

• To obtain a position as a Licensed Practical Nurse in a Health Care facility where I can utilize my nursing education and training, as well as my interpersonal skills to provide the highest level of care
  

EDUCATION & TRAINING____________________________________________________

Practical Nurse Diploma, NorQuest College, Edmonton, AB 09/2009 - 12/2013

High School Diploma, Bev Facey High School, Edmonton 09/1996- 06/1999

HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS___________________________________________

• Considerable knowledge of principles, procedures, methods and techniques of practical nursing and health care within the license practical nurse scope of practice
  
• Excellent performer - assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing and evaluating of nursing care
  
• Quick learner- ability to learn new nursing methods, equipment and applications
  
• Caring, compassionate and patient
  
• Ethical and non judgmental- relate well to people from diverse backgrounds
  
• Organized and multi tasking- able to handle multiple priorities
  
• Possess effective verbal and written communication skills
  
• Good judgment, decision making and problem solving skills
  
• Loyal and dedicated employee; committed to doing a good job
  
• Punctual, always on time
  
• Ability to meet deadlines
  

RELEVANT SKILLS___________________________________________________________

• Assist clients with daily living activities, such as bathing, grooming, dressing, feeding
  
• Transfer clients using mechanical sitting and standing lifts
  
• Administer specified medication, orally or by subcutaneous or intramuscular injection, and note time and amount on patients' charts
  
• Assemble and use such equipment as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, and oxygen suppliers
  
• Provide direct care by assessing client health needs and participating in the planning of care by utilizing direction from the Registered Nurse
  
• Take and record patients' vital signs.
  

RELEVANT SKILLS (cont'd)

• Maintain accurate patient records and maintain confidentiality at all times.
  
• Document and communicate client data to ensure continuity of care
  
• Possess up-to-date immunization including hepatitis B
  

CLINICAL PRACTICUMS_____________________________________________________

Continuing Care Practice (4weeks), Capital Care Dickens Field, Edmonton, AB

05/2009

Acute Care Practice-Medicine (4weeks),Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, AB

09/2011

Acute Care Practice- Surgery (4 weeks), Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, AB 11/2011

Focused Practice (3 weeks) Good Samaritan Seniors Clinic, Edmonton, AB

11/2012

Comprehensive Practice (4weeks), University Hospital, Edmonton, AB

12/2012

RELEVANT EMPLOYMENT___________________________________________________

Housing Care Attendant 01/2012 - Present

Capital Care Strathcona

• Help patients; eat, dress, bathe
  
• Answer calls for assistance
  
• Assist with feeding
  
• Make beds, tidy rooms
  
• Escort patients to doctor appointments, recreation, and exercise room
  

OTHER EMPLOYMENT_______________________________________________________

Shipping/Receiving, Intuit Edmonton

04/2011 - 08/2012

Quality Assurance Assistant, Waiward Steel Fabrications

02/2008 - 06/2009

07/2010 - 12/2012

Report Analyst, Armor Reporting Solutions

06/2007 - 01/2008

Administrative Assistant, Aaron's Chiropractic

01/2006 - 08/2006

Laborer, After Hours Metal Polishing

06/2005 - 12/2005

WORK REFERENCES ________________________________________________________

Available upon request

Cover Letter

Attention To Whom It May Concern;

I am a recent graduate from Norquest College with a diploma as a Licensed Practical Nurse in the Practical nurse program. I have a real passion and desire for wanting to help people through my nursing skills I have developed. As a teaching facility and a variety of clinical settings, I would love the opportunity to become part of your team where I can gain this experience, utilize and enhance my knowledge and skills to provide quality patient care and grow as a professional nurse.

I am a highly motivated, energetic individual who takes the initiative in getting the job done. I enjoy working in a busy environment where I am able to utilize my organizational skills. I am a self-starter, and look forward to challenges. I am very compassionate about my chosen profession, as patient care and safety are number one importance to me

Through my clinical practice, and academic background I have learned to think quickly and critically, manage patients and recognize the importance of team work. I am therefore able to perform such functions as: developing, implementing and modifying nursing care plans, assessing patients and their needs and interacting with patients and their families to provide them with necessary information. I am also trained in assisting patients in their daily activities such as bathing, grooming, feeding and transferring. Through my clinical practicum's I have also gained the experience in medication administration.

I am confident that I will be asset to your organization. I am looking forward to meeting with you soon to discuss the goals within your facility and how I can help to achieve them as a LPN nurse.

Yours truly,

Carri Bear

[DedHedRN]

I don't think having a hep b vac is necessarily a skill...do you?

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Objective: use is the appropriate term, not utilize.

E & T: Looks fine, I prefer a colon between the degree and school, but that is my preference.

H of Q:

1. Dump considerable, sounds overstated. Use "Licensed" as you are a Licensed Practical Nurse.

2. Excellent performer...doesn't really mean anything to me. Skilled should work just fine and doesn't sound overstated.

3. Ok

4. Ok

5. I would change ethical and non-judgemental to "Culturally sensitive" and dump the rest. Claiming to be non-judgemental sounds to me as bad as saying you never make errors. We all have our times when we need to sit back and recognize if we are being judgemental or not, so better to not state something that really isn't true.

6. Clumsy wording, perhaps "Strong organizational and multi-tasking skills"

7. Dump "possess" because grammatically it would be "Posseses" based on previous subject and tense, which then sort of makes the sentence look ironically wrong.

8. Ok

9. Just punctual. Always on time is repetitive.

10. Perhaps something more descriptive. Understands the importance of meeting deadlines. However, this sounds more administrative than nursing, so perhaps something like "Values timely administration of medications, assessments, and charting."

Skills:

1. Tighten it up. Nurse managers know what ADL's are, just state you can perform the duty, no need to describe.

2. Ok

3. Ok

4. Ok

5. Ok

6. Ok

7. Ok

8. Ok

9. Dump the Hep B, it's not a selling point.

I would ditch the whole clinical section. They know you have to do clinicals to get your license.

Relevant Employment: Ok

Other Employment: Would make me think you only stay in a job for about six months on average. Might be worth ditching that whole section.

References: Most guides now state not to even include this as all employers understand references are available. See this guide for more helpful hints: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/resume-writing-tips/

Cover Letter: Avoid adverbs. Passion is not generally assumed to be "real or unreal" you are generally passionate or not. Dump extraneous adverbs like "very". They don't truly add

Once again remove utilize. It is an unprofessional use of the word "use".

Double check capitalization. I am a recent graduate from Norquest College with a diploma as a Licensed Practical Nurse in the Practical Nurse program."

Have you sat for your boards yet? This is not clear.

"As a teaching facility and a variety of clinical settings,"

Tenses and subjects need clarification throughout. Who is a teaching facility?

Perhaps something like "I am aware that your facility offers a variety of clinical settings, and would offer me the opportunity to gain a varied experience."

Through my clinical practicum's I have also gained the experience in medication administration.

Remove the apostrophe in practicum.

OP: Sorry if this comes across as "OMG psycho edits" but I take it seriously that if you say "I have strong written communication skills" that you show that in clarity of context and meaning in your writing.

Take the edits as you will, look over some resources, and best of luck in your endeavors!!

Tait

[SuzieVN]

High school diploma is a moot point, can't go to PN school without that.

A lot of your resume is de facto factual based on the PN school requirements- meaning, you wouldn't have graduated with out it?

For privacy concerns, say you are HIPPA informed.

There's an awful lot of errors in grammar and etc.- after you determine your best copy, run it through a spell check program.

Other than that, they all know the scope, requirements, and etc. of becoming an LPN. The second paragraph in your letter, your energy, is what I would be drawn to, more so in long term care.

Good luck.

[AmberRaye]

Would you mind looking at my cover letter and resume? I am a new grad since March 2013 and still have not had any luck landing a job

[ICUNightAngel]

Hi there! I really enjoyed reading your critique and would love for you to "psycho edit" mine please. I'm in a weird situation job wise and really want to work in Med/Surg. I see you have experience and think you would be a great mentor. Please let me know if you can help and how I can send it to you. Thanks for your time!

[EddieEddie]

Hi guys! Maybe some of you know good samples of cover letters. I've found this PhD cover letter but I'm not sure if it's good because it doesn't start like this:

JOE BLOW

999 SESEME STREET

SOME CITY AB T9C4H7

Phone: [phone]

E-mail: [email protected]

And as I understood, this opening is correct.

Thanks in advance!