Trying to get out of Home Care and into a hospital

nt2002 · Oct 28, 2014

I'm not even a nursing student yet but a couple general things leapt out for me. If you do decide to put your clinical experience on your resume (and my understanding is that people on AN have differing opinions on whether this is appropriate or not), I would put your professorial RN work ahead of any clinical experience.

Looking at your resume, my inclination would be to leave the list of clinicals off unless there are specific skills you used during a clinical that you want to highlight, or you're applying for a position and want to show that you have experience in that particular area. If you want to leave your preceptorship on, you need to punch it up some (was it really only 64 hours over 3 months or is that a typo?). What did you do there? What skills did you use? How many patients did you care for at one time?

For your RN work, you need to be consistent with the verb tense you use. I usually follow the rule that if I'm still in the job, I use present tense -- so it would be "perform patient assessments", etc. Also, there's a typo -- either implement or implemented, not implemenedt.

Can you make the description of the work you're currently doing more dynamic? What are the treatments you're implementing? What nursing skills are you using now? The way your resume is currently written, it almost looks like the work you're doing since getting your RN is similar to the work you were doing as a health aide -- I'm assuming you have more responsibility now.

Typo for the langhorne HHA position -- Sept not Spet

Finally, I would include less detail about the HHA positions. I think you should leave them on since the are health care related and show job continuity. They do raise a question though, why do you have overlapping timeframes for the work in Pittsburg and Langhorne? It doesn't seem like you could have held both jobs at the same time, given the distance between the two.

Good luck!

happyinmyheart · Oct 28, 2014

Also- reference available upon request is a mistake

Always list at least 2 references

If you say "upon request" you're making more work for HR (so they'll just toss your resume)

kiszi, RN · Oct 28, 2014

Disagree with above. No mention of references needs to be made. Firstly, most online applications include a place for references. Secondly, references are typically not checked until after a job offer is made.

I agree with putting work experience at the top and leaving off clinicals. I also recommend tailoring the job skills to the positions you're applying for. Include key words from the job description; anything that emphasizes teamwork, supervision, or leadership would help. I like words such as "collaborates", "coordinates", "supervises", "ensures" to convey a sense of responibility. If you can work in something about using the nursing process that'll get you bonus points. Simple statements like "performed patient assessment" and "administered medications" are assumed and therefore unnecessary.

sugar12 · Oct 28, 2014

You've gotten good advice so far and I just wanted to add I worked 8 months after graduating as a home health nurse before I got this hospital job. You can sell your home health experience so don't sort change yourself. I spoke highly of my home health experience at my interview and made sure they knew I have some experience over the fresh new grads that would be an asset. Definitely put the home health experience before the clinical experience and all other jobs since you're not a new new grad anymore.

Best of luck!