Nurses who have earned advanced degrees, such as a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), have the opportunity to advance their careers in a number of fields — including becoming a nurse educator. One key to a successful nurse educator career is writing a winning resume.
As those who guide the training of future nurses, nurse educators play a critical role in a profession the American Nurses Association (ANA) refers to as “the glue that holds a patient’s health journey together.” MSN-educated nurses who are pursuing roles as nurse educators should have resumes that reflect the skills and knowledge that make them a good fit for this key role.
In addition to a solid skill set, nurses need to understand what recruiters and hiring managers look for when reviewing nurse educator resumes, as well as techniques that can help their resume climb to the top of the stack.
Resume Basics
These days, resumes have to get past a medical facility’s automated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before they ever reach hiring managers or human resources professionals.
Both bots (automated systems) and managers look for:
- A neat, well organized, and appropriately formatted resume: Career advice company The Muse recommends that nurses “stick to standard resume formatting in a normal font like Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman — the ATS can’t read fancy fonts and will reject your resume out of confusion.”
- Keywords that match the job qualifications: For example, if the qualifications include “CPR certification,” mentioning those words in the text of your resume ensures that both the bot and the human can see it.
- Properly emphasized information: Qualifying details such as degrees, licenses, and certifications should be at the top of the MSN resume.
In terms of organization, most resumes fall into one of three categories.
- Chronological: This format lists job experience from newest to oldest. It works well for nurse educators at all experience levels. It’s ideal for nurses who want to demonstrate career progression but can be problematic for those with employment gaps.
- Functional: This type of resume orders skills and achievements in terms of relevance, not chronology. It works well to highlight a specific skill set, but is less useful for students or nurses who don’t have a lot of experience.
- Combination: A mix of the other two styles, this format includes both a skills section, usually at the top, followed by a reverse-chronological listing of experience. Combination resumes usually work best for experienced nurses.
Resume Tips
Taking some key steps can help nursing applicants’ resumes stand out from the crowd. These five resume tips can help put nurse educators on a path to successfully complete their job search.
1. Verify Job Qualifications
One way to help ensure a resume gets a closer look is to double-check the minimum qualifications for the role. Nurse educator resumes are more likely to get attention if applicants can show they have the experience and skills to meet those minimum requirements.
2. Stand Out From the Crowd
The next aspect of resume writing that nurses should consider involves highlighting the skills and experience that make them the best choice for the position. Methods include:
Tailoring the Resume to the Position
Using a single resume for all job applications no longer works. Successful job-seekers know they need to speak the language of the position to get an interview. Nursing candidates should include the title of the job they’re applying for at the top of each resume and highlight any relevant experience.
Using Selective Repetition to Emphasize Relevant Experience and Credentials
Hiring managers receive a lot of resumes and have to evaluate them quickly, which means they might miss details along the way. One solution for applicants who want to get noticed is to use selective repetition. Selective repetition, the Association for Psychological Science explains, involves emphasizing relevant experience and credentials and accentuating different aspects of them.
For example, most people would think that an AIDS Certified Registered Nurse has years of experience working with AIDS patients. But if the experience is relevant to the position, it bears repeating. Including the information twice — once to provide the name of the certification and again to detail “X years of experience working with AIDS patients in a clinical setting” — makes it more likely that busy hiring managers will notice.
Including “Stand-Out” Details
Hiring managers want to bring in candidates who are well suited for the job. Relevant career experience and education are expected, but personal details that are applicable to the job can be important as well.
Because nursing is such a physical job, applicants can stand out by highlighting their physical fitness. As Eric Darienzo, president of the travel nurse staffing company RN Network, tells Monster, “stamina is a trait that isn’t easy to include on a resume, but you can take a more active role in your physical health and mention steps you’re taking to improve your fitness. For example, you might list your participation in marathons or 5Ks among your interests.”
3. Keep It Simple
Job seekers should be concise in their resumes, sticking to simple statements and providing only relevant work history from only the past 10 to 15 years. While job applications may ask for a more detailed job history, the resume should serve as more of a synopsis.
4. Coordinate With LinkedIn
Nurse educator candidates’ resumes should sync with the information noted on their LinkedIn profiles. A customized LinkedIn URL that contains the candidate’s name can help employers as they perform their customary reviews of these profiles.
5. Proofread Before Sending
The final step that any applicant should take before sending their resume is to proofread it. Misspellings, typos, and poor formatting can make a candidate appear sloppy and unprepared. For this reason, candidates should proofread their resumes to ensure that:
- All words are spelled correctly
- All proper nouns are appropriately capitalized
- All sentences are complete and properly punctuated
- All words are used correctly (then vs. than; from vs. form)
- All formatting is uniform
Reading the resume aloud or asking a friend to take a look are good ways to spot issues that may need to be addressed.
Job applicants can also make use of tools such as spell-check or Grammarly, but shouldn’t rely on them.
“Although a spell checker is a handy tool for general use, it will never fully take the place of educating yourself properly and polishing your writing skills,” says Catherine Winter for the website Lifehack. “Spell-check isn’t necessarily up to date on neologisms, slang terms, or marketing jargon, and can mark certain expressions or words as incorrect when they’re actually just fine as they are.”
Her best advice: “Whether you’re writing an essay, an article, a blog post, or your PhD thesis, it’s important to go through your work thoroughly to ensure that it’s error free: relying on a program that will only catch typos is sure to land you in trouble.”
Stand Out With an Advanced Nursing Degree
Ohio University’s online Master of Science in Nursing program prepares registered nurses (RNs) and other Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) graduates for a variety of advanced nursing careers. The program can help build the nurse resumes of students, enabling them to pursue careers as nurse educators, family nurse practitioners (FNPs), or psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs).
Discover how the MSN program at Ohio University can help you achieve your career goals.
Recommended Readings
Five High-Paying MSN Careers for Nursing Graduates
What Can I Do With a Master’s Degree in Nursing?
What Kind of Nurse Should I Be?
Sources:
American Nurses Association, “What Is Nursing?”
GlobalHealth, “The Role of Nurse Educators”
Lifehack, “Eight Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Just Rely on SpellCheck”
Monster, “5 Skills Nursing Employers Desperately Want from Candidates”
Nurselabs, “Nursing Resume: 35 Writing Tips for Nurses and ATS Tricks”
The Balance Careers, Different Resume Types
The Balance Careers, “How to Get Your Resume Noticed by Employers”
The Muse, “Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System & Into Human Hands”