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As a travel nurse, your resume should reflect your unique skill set and adaptability to different clinical environments. With the healthcare industry constantly evolving, it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and practices in the field. When writing your resume, showcase your experience in various medical settings and emphasize any specialized skills or certifications you hold. Travel nursing is all about being flexible and reliable, so highlight your ability to adapt quickly and maintain high-quality patient care in an ever-changing environment.
In recent years, travel nursing has become more competitive, and employers are looking for candidates who can easily transition between different roles and facilities. Your resume should not only highlight your clinical skills and experience, but also demonstrate your strong communication and interpersonal skills to ensure seamless collaboration with your colleagues.
As a travel nurse, you'll be placed in various medical environments, so it's crucial to showcase your adaptability in your resume. Mention instances where you've successfully adjusted to new procedures, protocols, or environments, making sure to highlight the positive outcomes for your patients and team.
In the competitive world of travel nursing, having specialized skills and certifications can set you apart from other candidates. List any relevant training or certifications, such as Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) or Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), to show potential employers that you're well-prepared for the challenges of travel nursing.
Travel nursing is a unique experience, allowing you to travel across the United States or even around the world. Many travel nurses still work in traditional hospital and clinic settings, but on temporary contracts. As a travel nurse, you may be entitled to additional benefits, including a higher salary and free accommodation or tax-free housing stipend. You’ll need a high level of flexibility to succeed in this role.
Want to show off your leadership and teamwork skills? That’s great! Just don’t fall into the trap of listing soft skills in your skills section. Demonstrate them through your accomplishments instead, using metrics like “educated 15 precept nurses in best practices” or “collaborated with 10+ medical specialists” to emphasize how you’ve used these skills in a professional setting.
Your contact information is a small but important part of your resume. If you don’t already list your LinkedIn profile as a contact option at the top of your resume, you should. This is particularly true as a travel nurse, since you may be more difficult to contact than local applicants — especially if you’re in a different time zone.
As a hiring manager who has recruited travel nurses at top healthcare organizations like HCA Healthcare, Ascension, and Kaiser Permanente, I've reviewed hundreds of resumes. The following tips will help your travel nurse resume stand out and increase your chances of landing an interview.
Recruiters look for travel nurses who have experience working in various clinical settings. Showcase your adaptability by highlighting your diverse nursing experience:
Avoid simply listing the units or hospitals without context, like this:
A resume summary for a Travel Nurse is an optional section that sits at the top of your resume. It provides a brief overview of your most relevant qualifications, skills, and experiences. While not required, a well-written summary can help you stand out to hiring managers and quickly convey your value as a candidate.
When writing your summary, focus on highlighting your nursing expertise, specialties, and any notable accomplishments or certifications. Tailor your summary to the specific Travel Nurse position you're applying for, and avoid using generic statements or objectives that don't add value to your resume.
The work experience section is the core of your travel nurse resume. It's where you prove to employers that you have the right skills and experience to excel in the role. In this section, list your relevant nursing positions in reverse-chronological order, with your most recent job first.
For each role, include your job title, the hospital or facility name, dates of employment, and a bulleted list of your key duties and accomplishments. Whenever possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your impact and showcase your value to potential employers.
When describing your nursing duties and accomplishments, use powerful action verbs to make your resume more impactful. Here are some examples:
Avoid using weak or passive language, such as:
The education section of your travel nurse resume should be concise and highlight your relevant nursing qualifications. This section is especially important if you are a recent graduate or have limited work experience. Here are some tips to help you craft a strong education section:
The skills section of your travel nurse resume is one of the most critical parts. It's where you showcase your hard skills and technical proficiencies that make you qualified for the job. When done right, it can help you get past applicant tracking systems (ATS) and catch the attention of hiring managers.
In this section, we'll break down key steps to take when writing your skills section, and share examples of what to do (and what to avoid).
Here are examples of popular skills from Travel Nurse job descriptions that you can include on your resume.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Travel 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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Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
