Although nursing has always been a buoyant and in-demand industry with a faster than average growth since the onset of COVID-19, it still may be difficult to secure a job at a particular hospital or healthcare facility. To stand out from the competition, you must make your resume work for you in order to impress hiring managers. It needs to accurately communicate your skills and accomplishments in a way that makes you an attractive proposition. So what is the best way to develop a winning resume? Well, whatever level you are looking to work in – Graduate, AIN, Enrolled or Registered, you’ll need an eye-catching design to grab the hiring manager’s eye. In the first instance, head to our gallery of highly effective design templates to inspire the content if you want to write the document yourself.
Start by reviewing resumes of industry peers to get ideas about what kind of information you should include in yours. These documents can act as reference points and provide an idea of the language to use, the most important skills to incorporate, and examples of the best formatting. At the end of the day, you may decide to engage Nursing Resumes to prepare your documents for you, but if you decide to write your resume yourself, we have compiled some of the most useful nursing resume tips and hints to make it easy for you.
No matter your level of experience, your nursing resume should reflect a level of both hard and soft skills. As with any industry, your prospective employer will expect you to have the requisite training, reflected in academic achievement – in this case, most likely a Bachelor of Nursing. But with every candidate likely to meet this entry point, how do you differentiate yourself from the competition? This is where your soft skills as opposed to hard skills come into play. The primary difference between hard skills and soft skills is how we gain them and how we put them to use. Hard skills are more technical and people can learn them through education or specialised training such as your practicums. Soft skills relate more to the personality traits we have gained and developed throughout our lifetime. Hard skills are the technical skills and knowledge to perform your job duties and soft skills are the personal characteristics that relate to how you perform in a work environment. Your resume should include a combination of both hard and soft skills to ensure you stand out as a well-rounded candidate to potential employers.
Obviously, in terms of hard skills, there will be a minimum requirement depending on the position you are applying for. At a minimum, you will be expected to take basic patient observations, such as heart rate, blood pressure and temperature. But depending on your level of experience, you may well have areas of specialisation, such as acute care, aged care, or paediatrics. Make sure these specific skills are listed, and where you gained them.
You also need to demonstrate your knowledge of risk management and health and safety within a health facility environment.
Increasingly, you will need to demonstrate sound technological abilities to work in modern health care environments. Technology skills involve the ability to use a wide range of technology to be successful in your work environment. Nurses may use technology to share patient information, monitor vital signs and maintain patient records. More hospitals are moving towards electronic medical record systems. Electronic medical record systems are a digital version of a patient’s medical chart. This means nurses must know how to use these electronic medical record systems to record their notes and information they gather from the patient.
Your soft skills will include communication, critical thinking and problem solving, time management, resilience, ethics, confidentiality, teamwork and dependability.
In our next blog, we’ll take a closer look at these qualities, and give you more tips on how to make your nursing resume work for you.
