Please help! What would you do?

A retail background is a sign of people skills. By all means, put it on your resume.

I'm certainly not an expert, and I know the American Health Care system is much different than the Canadian one, but I would put down your old jobs no matter what.

It shows you have responsibilty, it shows you know how to work, and it shows you have worked with the public. Past bosses can be referances to your work ethic - were you a good worker? were you on time? etc.

I don't think anyone expects a new grad to have health care experience.

I think you should google the net for resume help. Or go to a library and look at their books on resume writing.

Just a thought - I would state my name, address, phone, email, RN license # and state, then I would state my Education, then under Experience, I'd write that my previous work, from 1985 - 2006 was in retail sales and the food service industry. I'd say that details are available upon request.

They know you're a new grad, so are not expecting that you have RN experience! But do list your work as a student nurse's aide/assistant, if you did any.

And if you did any volunteer work in the health care setting, list that.

You also need to research writing a cover letter and in that letter you can say what skills you learned in your other work. Like punctuality, reliabiliy in attendance, awards/compliments you recieved, organizational skills, interpersonal/people skills, communication, & so on.

If you have been a homemaker/parent, you have mastered lots of skills. Think about it. You planned meals, made sure kids saw the doctor and were clean, fed, clothed, supervised, enriched culturally, etc.

Read some sample resumes & cover letters and you will get the hang of it.

Congratulations and best wishes.

Consider your schoolwork and clinicals as the equivalent of work because it required self-discipline, completion of a variety of tasks similar to those required in many nursing jobs.

When writing your resume, take as much time as you need to make a detailed and thorough account of all your professional activities to date, even those you may consider unimportant. These activities may include:

• part-time jobs while you were studying,
  
• events from your college years,
  
• such as short-term projects,
  
• periods of in-service training,
  
• research projects in which you have participated,
  
• term papers or documents you have prepared,
  
• presentations made at seminars, workshops, or other meetings.
  

For more great resume info visit:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4926214_build-resume-no-experience.html

Penn has posted sample resumes for nursing students. At least one describes someone with no prior experience in health care.

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/nursing/NurseSamples.pdf

Thank you all so much for your timely replies. I guess I was just panicking a bit since im so new to this. I will take everyone's advice into consideration and probably use all of it! It's a relief to know that putting past experience in unrelated fields on a resume is not as frowned upon as i expected.

Thanks again!

Funnily enough, I just finnished helping my DH write his first ever resume. (He graduates nursing school in 2 weeks!!!!!:hpygrp:)He has been a self employed artist for almost 20 years, so his resume is alot of skills, not jobs. Creative phrasing is the way we went on this project!

Congrats on graduating to you. you earned:hpygrp: (dancing happy faces) too!

I not only had no healthcare experience, I had been out of the work force for 15+ years, home with my kids. I used my clinicals, not placing them as job experience, but giving a complete description of each clinical rotation and the skills I utilized in each. Schools have different clinical requirements and I wanted to be sure to state where I had actually participated in patient care and practiced skills vs. a one or two-day observation.

Wrong! Retail and food are great, because like it or not, nursing is a customer service profession just the same. You are selling healthcare and if they don't like you, they won't come back to your hospital. Put all of your work experience on there.

Also, did you hold any jobs for particularly long period of time...are you a loyal employee? Choose a resume format that highlights length of stay at jobs (if that's a strength in your resume). Also discuss award/achievements/promotions that you may have received...while they aren't directly applicable to nursing, promotions and awards imply a work ethic.

Basically, find something strong about your background, sell it / exploit it. In your cover letter, link your work experience and tell how it will be applicable to nursing. You waited tables...you worked with people! You were employee of the month 3 times...you have a strong work ethic and a penchant for following in house protocols. Either dazzle them with your brilliance, or baffle them with your ********.

try the "damn good resume guide" it is a fabulous book. your library probably has it.

the local library has a ton of resume writing books for every job possible. I looked at all the ones for healthcare and then chose aspects of several different ones to combine and make my own.

Wish I was creative enough to pull one out of my little brain. But I am not creative and needed lots of quidance.

I got it at the local library

Do you have a trusted advisor at school, perhaps a nursing instructor you especially respect that you could speak with about how to write your resume? If so, I would get their input on how to do this. I think they may be better acquainted with the nursing market in your area to give you specific tips on how to present your strengths.