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Nursing Student Resume Sample

A nursing student resume is an important part of getting a job after you get out of nursing school. However, that first job can also be one of the most difficult ones to get. You likely don’t have almost any professional experience at this point, mostly just skills, and although you may be a CNA with a strong knowledge of healthcare, that’s not always enough. You need to make sure your resume template actually reflects what you need to understand. Here’s how you can create a nursing student resume sample that looks great for your job.

Nursing Student Resume Example

What To Highlight In A Nursing Student Resume

The best resume for a nursing student will highlight your experience and your knowledge. A hiring manager looking for a new nursing assistant will typically need to ensure that they have all the correct certifications, but they’re also looking for someone who generally appears knowledgeable about the clinical experience. That means you need to be able to show how good you are at providing nursing care, even though you’re an entry-level worker.

Nursing Student Resume Example

Nursing Student Resume Example
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How To Structure Your Nursing Student Resume

The first step to finding your resume structure is choosing your resume format. Even though the chronological resume format is meant for those with lots of experience, you might be able to use it if you have a lot of experience in a student medical center. Otherwise, you may want to choose a more skills-based format like a functional resume format. Once you've decided on your resume format, you can move forward into different headings.

Resume header

The header is technically part of your resume design. It usually includes your contact information, like your phone number, as well as your social media links, including your LinkedIn.

Resume summary or objective

At the very top of your resume is your resume summary or resume objective. This is a two to three sentence paragraph that very quickly goes through your entire professional resume and summarizes it. In the case of a resume objective, you should also include a sentence stating your objective with your resume.

Skills

Resume skills take up a large portion of many people’s resumes and this is especially true in a field that requires such an attachment to skills as nursing. Here are a few nursing skills you might consider featuring on your resume as bullet points:

  • Managing clinical rotations
  • Generalized patient care
  • Specialization in a specific field (Pediatrics, orthotics, family medicine, etc.)
  • Measuring vital signs
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Life support equipment
  • Time management

One of the important elements to remember is that the specific skills you list on your resume will have to do with the skill keywords you see reflected in the job description. These are many and varied but will typically include both hard skills and soft skills. As long as you cover those skills, you’ll likely to be deemed qualified by a hiring manager or recruiter.

Work history

If you’ve just gotten your license as a registered nurse, then you may think there’s no work experience you could possibly include on your resume. However, it doesn’t have to specifically be a nursing job in order to put it in your work history section. Recruiters are looking for relevant experience. That may include relevant coursework, internship experience, volunteer work and more. Remember to list it in reverse-chronological order, with more recent work first.

Education

Your education section will need to include whatever program you’re a grad from, typically the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). You can also include whatever certifications you’ve received and any organizations you’re part of, like the Student Nurses’ Association.

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Do's and Don'ts

  • Use resume templates to create a simpler student resume. The ResumeNerd resume builder is a great starting point for anyone who wants to create their resume more easily.
  • Always include coursework and internships in your resume. These help you develop experience before you’re able to work on your own.
  • List your education in reverse-chronological order, as well as your work history. The most recent education should go first.
  • List only hard skills or only soft skills. It’s important to include both hard and soft skills on any resume, including a nursing resume.
  • Neglect the resume writing process. Don’t just assume that “your skills will get you the job,” as that’s definitely not the case.
  • Restrict “irrelevant” college experience. If you have any college degrees outside of nursing, then you can put them in your education section.

FAQ: Nursing Student Resume Example

Yes. A cover letter is an important part of any job application, regardless of what you’re applying for. It gives you a chance to talk directly to the hiring manager, allows you to discuss your experience and allows you to ask directly for the job interview, which you can’t do anywhere else in your application. You can use the ResumeNerd cover letter builder to create your own cover letter.

Nursing experience can be difficult to achieve right after you graduate. However, it’s important to remember that you already have experience; you just don’t have experience specifically working as a nurse on your own. Your coursework, internships and any other experience you have can show your qualifications. Additionally, you can rely more on your skills rather than your experience.

It’s best not to use exactly the same resume to apply to multiple different jobs. This can come across as generic and it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to fit two different jobs with the same resume. Instead, your best bet is to personalize your resume by scanning through the job description and looking for keywords. Pay close attention to the skills and job requirements and match them in each resume.

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