"Work History" - include clinical rotations or not?

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Specializes in Emergency, Administration.

I've recently started applying for new graduate positions in CA and am stumped on what to put in the "Work History" section. I have all of my clinical rotations AND previous work experience on my resume, but there's not nearly enough room to include all of that on the fill in the box type of applications I've been seeing recently.

So to all you new graduates, are you putting relevant clinical rotations under work experience? Are you only putting previous payed experience even if it's not related to nursing? Are you doing some combination of both? When there are only 4-5 spots for previous work experience, I'm stumped as to what to include.

Thanks for your help!

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Do NOT put your school clinicals as "work experience." They are 2 totally different things. Listing your school courses as "work" makes it look as if you are trying to exaggerate your experience and/or deceiving the employer into thinking you have more experience than you actually have.

If you are young and haven't had many jobs before, then you may not have enough information to fill all of the blank spaces. That's OK. As you get older and have more experience, you will soon find you have more experience than there are spaces on those forms.

I recommend including all of your previous jobs even if they did not relate directly to nursing. They can show that you are a good worker, reliable, able to work as a team, able to work with customers, etc.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

I put only my paid (non-nursing) work experience as "work experience." On the front page of my resume I included a one-line item which said, "1,200 hours of clinical education including ____"

I would NEVER (ever) presume to put nursing-school clinical rotations under "work experience." I think that would get a resume tossed in the circular file without further consideration.

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I think you should definately showcase all the experience you have. Make a section called clinical training with all the different rotations and locations in which you were trained.

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Specializes in Emergency, Administration.

I think I need to clarify my original post. I'm referring to the online applications where you don't get to upload a resume (or if you do upload one, it just automatically fills in some of the boxes for you... and often does them incorrectly :p ) These are the applications where the recruiter will never see your word doc resume, only the items you type into the little boxes. Does that make sense? If I'm able to upload my own cover letter and resume in .doc format, then this post is a completely moot point as my resume most certainly has separate sections for Clinical Experience and Professional Experience.

If I don't include any clinicals in the work/experience/volunteer section, then where should I include them? There's never been a separate section for clinical experiences, and if I skip over them in this section then the recruiter will not have the contact information for any of my instructors or charge nurses I have worked under.

I wish all institutions would simply allow us to upload resumes in .doc format :) That would be simply lovely...

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I think I need to clarify my original post. I'm referring to the online applications where you don't get to upload a resume (or if you do upload one, it just automatically fills in some of the boxes for you... and often does them incorrectly :p ) These are the applications where the recruiter will never see your word doc resume, only the items you type into the little boxes. Does that make sense? If I'm able to upload my own cover letter and resume in .doc format, then this post is a completely moot point as my resume most certainly has separate sections for Clinical Experience and Professional Experience.

If I don't include any clinicals in the work/experience/volunteer section, then where should I include them? There's never been a separate section for clinical experiences, and if I skip over them in this section then the recruiter will not have the contact information for any of my instructors or charge nurses I have worked under.

I wish all institutions would simply allow us to upload resumes in .doc format :) That would be simply lovely...

I see what you are saying. It is very frustrating to deal with online applications that do not allow for changing things according to your specific situation. Derned if you do, and derned if you don't. And a pox on those who make a section mandatory even if you have no entry. Like a phone number entry that refuses to accept zeroes, when you don't have a phone number to put there.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
If I don't include any clinicals in the work/experience/volunteer section, then where should I include them? There's never been a separate section for clinical experiences, and if I skip over them in this section then the recruiter will not have the contact information for any of my instructors or charge nurses I have worked under.
I've filled out a ton of those apps and I know of what you speak.

Read between the lines, though... If they haven't provided a place to put clinical rotations then they don't really care. In one sense, it doesn't matter because we all had similar kinds of clinical rotations (M/S, ICU, ED, Psych, CH, OB...).

Heed the proffered advice: Give them what they're looking for (it's analogous to interview questions... answer what they actually asked, not what you wanted them to ask). When they ask for work experience, give them work experience. Your clinical rotations are not work experience.

The contact information for instructors or charge nurses belongs in your references (presuming that they've offered to vouch for you).

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If you have no work experience then you need to leave it blank. Don't ever include clinical rotations in nursing as a form of experience because it isn't. There's nothing wrong with not having work history, but you can make up for in under volunteer work if you have any. Good Luck

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Can't you just cut and paste....on my resume I have a separate work experience section and a Clinical Experience section which listed in detail all of the tasks/duties with which I had come into contact and had some experience and familiarity. I was a career changer from the legal and business world. I couldn't even get a job as a CNA before I did that.

Now a year of ICU under my belt and waiting to hear from CRNA programs for interviews.

Good luck and don't listen to every stranger on a forum...generally if something makes sense then it is probably the right move...obviously just don't misrepresent something. Good luck!

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I ended up redoing my resume and including it, because most nurse recruiters want to know what areas you have been exposed too.

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Usually what i do is i put just my non-nursing work experience in that section since i have no actual rn experience(I'm a new grad). I leave out my preceptorship and volunteer work. I don't know if that's the right way to do it but when i think of work experience what comes into mind is paid work experience. If i'm wrong please don't hesitate to tell me.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
Usually what i do is i put just my non-nursing work experience in that section since i have no actual rn experience(I'm a new grad). I leave out my preceptorship and volunteer work. I don't know if that's the right way to do it but when i think of work experience what comes into mind is paid work experience. If i'm wrong please don't hesitate to tell me.

You are right in that you should not list your preceptorship and volunteered under "work experience" because those things were not "jobs." However, be sure to find another way to include them in your application and/or resume. Many online applications allow you to attach a resume and you could include those other things there. Or the online application itself may have a place to include "other relevant experience" or something like that. Those preceptorships and volunteer experiences (particularly if they are relevant to the job you are applying for) can be the factor that gets you the job.

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