What can I do to boost my nursing resume?

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Hello,

My name is Lucy, and I will be a college freshman this fall. I know jobs can be hard to come by, and I wanted to know what I could be doing during college to boost my resume when I go to apply for jobs eventually.

My ideas right now are...

- Applying for externships

- Working really hard in school to get a high GPA and Latin honors

- Getting CNA certification and working as one when I am eligible after a certain number of clinicals (I will have to ask the nursing department at my university to figure out exactly how many)

- Hospital volunteering

- Nursing home volunteering

- It isn't something I can write on a resume, but in my free time I crochet lots and lots of hats and blankies for premature babies. Perhaps I could mention that in the interview when they say "Tell me about yourself."

My ultimate goal is to become a NICU nurse. Is there anything I can be doing to gear myself towards that?

Do you have any other suggestions as to what I can be doing now to improve my job prospects?

I am paying for some of my tuition myself and need to work at both a summer job and a campus job. Is there anything you can think of that would relate to nursing?

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I'm new here and wasn't really sure where to put it.

Thank you.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Languages, depending on where you are, make a big difference. If there's a big Hispanic population, study Spanish, for example. The more languages, the better.

Working as a CNA will be really good. You'll make connections that will be very good for when it comes time to finding an RN job, and you'll develop your basic skills and get comfortable touching patients.

When you get close to graduating nursing school, do NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program). You can also look to apply to nursing associations related to that area of nursing (when you get there).

If you're looking at a campus job, what about the student health center? You could work there as a CNA, or as a desk clerk.

Are you attending a university, or a community college? You might consider saving yourself some money by doing your lower division stuff at a community college, rather than paying university tuition. It doesn't set you back any when it comes time to applying to nursing programs (though I recognize that states vary on this).

Keep that GPA up as best you can, especially your sciences, English, statistics, and psych (and any other prereqs for your program).

Good luck!!

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Thank you for your reply!

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