I'm about to graduate in May with a DNP and want to start the job search as an FNP soon. I'm not sure how to present myself as a soon-to-be provider, especially since I'll be brand new with no NP experience yet. Do I include clinical experiences ("clinical experiences in Pediatrics, Women's Health, Family Practice...") and if so do I include how many hours I did in each?
I was also told by faculty to include my DNP project in my resume - unsure about whether this is a good idea or not.
Any tips or help would be much appreciated. It's exciting and scary to look for work in a brand new specialty.
Thanks to all who have commented so far. I just had a recruiter ask for my resume by next week (!!), so I'm working on it right now. It's interesting seeing points of view from many different people on what to include.
Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).
My school is in the top 5 and they spent a lot of time providing job search coaching. For the resume, here is the format I used and I got 9 NP job offers as a new grad:
Name, contact info
Education (for new grad only put Education first)
Clinical Rotations and Clinical Experience (list rotations and then list prior work experience)
Certifications and Skills (NP license #, DEA #, EHRs, etc)
Professional Associations
ALWAYS list your clinical rotations. Prospective employers will always ask about this and it will look weird not to have this on your resume. For the random employer who doesn't care about this, fine, they can skip it. Briefly describe any significant projects that have clinical application.
You need to make your resume stand out to prospective employers. Since you are a new grad, most employers don't expect you to know anything about being an NP. What they will definitely want to know is if you have had exposure to patients similar to their patients, if your interests dovetail with the employer's patient demographics and issues, etc. If you want to work for an FQHC, then experience working with underserved populations is a plus. If a prospective employer is in an area with a lot of mental health and comorbid chronic conditions, then an FNP with a proven interest in mental health/addiction, etc., is going to be of great interest.
Not necessarily. The reason I was hired with no nephrology experience was because of my RN experience in a very high volume (80,000+ visits/year) ED (10 years). I capitalized on my assessment skills, ability to multi-task with several critically ill/injured pts and my excellent critical thinking skills. I was hired over 5 others, some of whom I later found out had nephrology APRN experience.
While I agree that clinical experience is all you have to go on as far as what is closest to NP experience, its in no way independent practice and as Dodongo stated, 160-200 hours is not experience, its much more like shadowing.
I still say capitalize on your RN experience and solid skillset. Thats what will get you hired.
I have to agree with Trauma here. While in school I was offered several positions from local practices who knew me for 15 years, based on my ER / ICU / CCU experience. They had no idea what kind of NP I would be.
My school is in the top 5 and they spent a lot of time providing job search coaching. For the resume, here is the format I used and I got 9 NP job offers as a new grad:
Name, contact info
Education (for new grad only put Education first)
Clinical Rotations and Clinical Experience (list rotations and then list prior work experience)
Certifications and Skills (NP license #, DEA #, EHRs, etc)
Professional Associations
This is exactly how I formatted my resume. In my phone interview, the recruiter asked about school clinical experience and was interested in some of the populations I dealt with there, along with many questions about my experiences as a nurse. It makes sense, since the only predictors of my future abilities as an NP would be RN experience and whatever I was exposed to in my NP program.
tejon, DNP, NP
92 Posts
Thanks to all who have commented so far. I just had a recruiter ask for my resume by next week (!!), so I'm working on it right now. It's interesting seeing points of view from many different people on what to include.