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As a NICU nurse, you'll be working in a fast-paced and highly specialized environment, caring for some of the most vulnerable patients. When crafting your resume, it's important to emphasize your skills and experience that are especially relevant to neonatal intensive care. There's a recent trend in the industry that focuses on evidence-based practices and mental-health support for families, so showcasing your knowledge in these areas will give you an edge.
Additionally, with advancements in technology and medical devices, many NICU departments prefer nurses who are skilled in using the latest equipment. Mention your experience with different monitors, ventilators, and other NICU-specific devices on your resume, as this can demonstrate your ability to adapt to a rapidly evolving field.
In addition to your RN license, emphasize any advanced certifications that are relevant to neonatal care, such as the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) or the Certification for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (RNC-NIC). These certifications demonstrate your commitment to providing high-quality care for NICU patients.
NICU nurses work closely with a multidisciplinary team of professionals. Highlight instances on your resume where you collaborated effectively with physicians, respiratory therapists, social workers, and other nurses to develop and implement comprehensive care plans for your patients.
Neonatal intensive care (NICU) nurses provide critical care for premature and severely ill infants. As an NICU nurse, you’ll also run NICU equipment, support women during labor, provide neonatal services to healthy newborns, and document patient histories. You’ll need a high level of compassion, the ability to work in a stressful, fast-paced environment, and specific skills in neonatal care, telemetry monitoring, and neonatal medical equipment.
Tailoring your resume to the specific job you’re applying for is essential. One easy way to do this is by including a resume title that matches the job title. Another is to tailor your skills list — for example, by listing NICU-specific skills like neonatal health monitoring and assessment.
If you’re listing additional qualifications and skills together in an “other” section of your resume, make sure you don’t just lump everything in together. Using separate subsections for skills and certifications allows you to list more information while ensuring that a recruiter can still easily skim your resume to find the information they’re looking for.
We spoke with hiring managers and recruiters at top hospitals and healthcare organizations, including Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Boston Children's Hospital, to gather their best tips for creating a strong NICU nurse resume. Here's what they recommended:
Recruiters want to quickly see that you have the specialized skills required for working in the NICU. Be sure to:
Avoid simply listing 'NICU skills' without providing specifics, like this:
A resume summary for a NICU nurse is an optional section that provides a brief overview of your professional background, skills, and career goals. While not strictly necessary, a well-crafted summary can help you stand out from other candidates and provide context for your experience, especially if you are changing careers or have a diverse background. Remember, an objective statement should never be used in place of a summary, as it focuses on your goals rather than what you can offer the employer.
When writing your NICU nurse resume summary, aim to keep it concise, typically no more than a few sentences or a short paragraph. Focus on highlighting your most relevant qualifications, such as your nursing experience, specialized skills, and any notable achievements. Avoid repeating information that is already covered in detail in other sections of your resume.
The work experience section is the heart of your NICU nurse resume. It's where you show hiring managers that you have the skills and experience to excel in the role. Use this section to highlight your most relevant and impressive accomplishments.
Here are some tips to help you write a compelling work experience section:
When describing your work experience, use strong action verbs that are relevant to the NICU nurse role. This helps paint a vivid picture of your contributions and makes your resume more impactful. For example:
Avoid weak or generic verbs that don't effectively convey your responsibilities, like:
Your education section is one of the most important parts of your NICU nurse resume. It's where you showcase your academic background and any relevant certifications or training. Here are some tips to help you write an effective education section that will catch the attention of hiring managers.
Your skills section is one of the most important parts of your NICU nurse resume. It's where you showcase your expertise and qualifications that make you the perfect fit for the role. However, many job seekers make the mistake of simply listing generic skills or outdated technologies. To stand out, you need to be strategic and highlight the skills that are most relevant to the job you're applying for.
Here are examples of popular skills from NICU Nurse job descriptions that you can include on your resume.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on NICU Nurse job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more likely you should include it in your resume.
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