Resume Advise, 23 yrs experience

Nurses Job Hunt

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Hi all

I am relocating to San Diego , this spring and am looking for a job out there. I have worked at my current job for the last 18 years so am looking for help on my resume, I haven't had to do one in while. Thanks in advance for the advice

Holli , RN BSN

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Compassionate registered nurse with over 23 years of experience, including 15+ years specializing in pediatric emergency nursing. Committed to providing an excellent patient experience by providing the best and safest care in conjunction with other members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Pediatric Registered Nurse 2/2000-present

  • Provide direct, quality care to pediatric emergency patients at a Level I trauma center, including triage, evaluation, and monitoring of up to 36 patients per day
  • Participate in multidisciplinary teams for critical patients in both trauma and code situations
  • Initiate orders through care protocols to help determine and facilitate the course of treatment
  • Supervise staff of up to 20 registered nurses and nursing assistants through the Charge Nurse role
  • Precept and train new nurses to the department
  • Collaborate with members of the multidisciplinary team to provide safe and effective patient care
  • Skilled in utilizing the EPIC electronic medical record to both deliver and document care
  • Member Clinical Practice Committee and Professional Development Committee

Registered Nurse 10/1995-2/2000

  • Provided direct quality care to post-surgical, rehabilitation patients
  • Supervised staff up to 2 Licensed practical nurses and 4 certified nursing assistants.
  • Trained both new staff nurses and certified nursing assistants
  • Received positive recognition from supervisors for both teamwork and professional development

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN)

CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING

  • Registered Nurse, Wisconsin License
  • Registered Nurse , California License
  • Advanced Cardiac Live Support (ACLS), expires 11/2020
  • Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS, expires 9/2020
  • Trauma Nurse Core Curriculum (TNCC), expires 6/2019
  • Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse (CPEN), expires 8/2019
  • Regional Trauma Advisory Council attended 2016 &2018

AWARDS_________________________________________________________

  • Nurse Excellence Award recipient
  • Daisy Award recipient

bump

Anyone?

I've been working on my resume and have been learning a lot about how resumes are structured these days. It's recommended that a "Highlights" section under the Summary should be included. I'm still trying to figure out what that means. I did discover it doesn't mean tasks that we do as nurses but things we, individually (I think), excel at.

Suggestions for your resume: Some of the bullet points for your present job were a bit wordy. Consider listing your job title as "Staff nurse - Pediatric Emergency Room" (or any variation of this). This would allow you to eliminate some of your bullet points because they are, in essence, a listing of what a pedi nurse does. The bullet points should list your accomplishments. For instance, eliminate the 1st three bullet points. Keep the 4th and 5th bullet points [reason: probably not every nurse in your dpmt is doing these things, but you are]. Remove the 6th through 8th bullet points. Add your Daisy Award and Nurse Excellence award as bullet points, if obtained at this hospital. They are significant awards and should be right up there.

Dropping down to your Certifications and Training, maybe list ACLS, PALS, TNCC, and CPEN under one heading and your licenses under another heading.

I hope this is helpful..

Thank you so much for the feedback. I'm not sure what a "highlights" section looks like but would be willing to add it. I tried to put as many key words in my resume to make it past the software I hear most companies have now , which is why I have so many bullet points. Trying to figure out what all to include of a 23 yr career is tough. For example should I put all the committees I've been on instead of the removed bullet points? Again thank you for any and all suggestions

You are very welcome. I just hope I'm steering you in the right direction. I completely get how tough this is.

A "Highlights" section, which can also be called a "Qualifications" section, is also a bulleted list but may be in columns. In other words, two or three columns with maybe three bulleted items in each column. "Highlights" can also be just one short list of bulleted items. Probably the best way to see how this looks is to do google search for nurse resumes. I wish I knew how to post a copy-and-paste on here for you but haven't figured out how. I've read the key is not to list your tasks [under "Highlights"] that you do, but list things about yourself that would make an employer say, "I want to talk to HER." Or if your manager was going to brag about you, you'd want to list the things a manager would say about you.

As far as resume scanning software, I learned that there are websites out there that will look at a copy-and-paste of a job posting you are interested in, then look at a copy of your resume, then see if your resume has the correct wording/qualifications/etc that software will capture. It sounds like it could be really helpful.

I think putting your committees where the the removed bullet points are is an excellent idea.

Good luck!

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