Resume Writing Guide
What is the Purpose of a Resume?
A resume is a marketing tool and is one of the ways to tell your story by presenting your skills, knowledge,
and experience to a potential employer in a concise, easy-to-read way. The average employer spends only 15
to 20 seconds reviewing a resume. Ensure that yours is targeted, error-free and easy to skim!
Remember: Your resume does not get you the job; it gets you the interview.
Tips for writing an outstanding resume:
• O
ne or two pages in length: Employers prefer a one- or two-page resume, depending on your level of experience.
• Margins and Font: We recommend 0.5 inch margins or greater and 11 point Times New Roman font.
• Format: Be consistent with indentation, capitalization, punctuation, font style, font size, spacing, and other
formatting parameters.
• Avoid Clutter: Too much text and not enough white space may discourage someone from reading your resume.
• Target Your Content: Highlight experiences & transferable skills most relevant to the position. This includes
incorporating keywords from the job posting.
• Avoid Pronouns: Personal or possessive pronouns (I, my, me, we, our) are not appropriate in a resume.
• Proofread: Spellcheck does not always catch typos. Have at least 2 other people proofread your resume.
Some employers will not consider a job candidate if they see even one typo on the resume.
• Highlight Accomplishments: Don’t just list your job duties, but explain what you accomplished in your
positions/clinicals. Use action verbs, quantities, qualities, and details to describe not only what you did, but also how
you did it.
Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide |
page 2
What to
Include:
HEA
DING
• Include name, mailing address, telephone number (home or mobile) and a professional email address.
• If you have a complete and updated LinkedIn profile, include the URL after your email address. Be sure to create a
customized URL under “Edit Profile”.
RESUME INTRODUCTION
• Career Objective: 2-3 sentence statement that provides an overview of your skills, experience, and professional
goals. Best for entry-level professionals.
• Professional Profile: Combination of career objectives and stating a summary of qualifications. Can be formatted as
a short paragraph, or bulleted list. Best for mid-level professionals with major achievements, or with a specialized
expertise in respective field.
Remember: tailor the introduction to the job you're applying to.
EDUCATION
• List all institutions and degrees: Include dates of completion in reverse chronological order. Make sure to include
study abroad or summer institutes.
• GPA: Including your GPA is optional, unless the employer requires you to do so. Standard practice is to only include
GPA if over 3.2
• Include academic accomplishments: Research, special projects, presentations, and/or relevant thesis topics
CLINICAL ROTATIONS
• If you are a new RN graduate: prioritize your clinical experience by placing Clinical Rotations and any nursing
related experience (CAN, Nursing Home Aide, etc.) toward the beginning of the resume.
• Remember all new RN graduates completed clinical rotations: find a way to make your rotational experience stand
out.
• Every Healthcare System is different: try to find out from the recruiter before you apply if they would like you to
include all your clinical rotations/hours on your resume or in a separate document.
• Clinical Rotations to include: as a rule of thumb, only include the relevant rotations per the position you are
applying for. Include locations for your listed clinical rotations.
Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide | page 3
Exam
ple: Clinical Rotations on a Resume*
SETTING LOCATION
Pediatrics, Intestinal Rehab National Children’s Medical Center
Pediatrics
National Children’s Medical Center
Community Nursing
INOVA Loudoun Free Clinic
Obstetrics
INOVA Alexandria
Psychiatric Nursing
Virginia Hospital Center Medical-Surgery
Medical
-Surgery Virginia Hospital Center
Geriatrics
Fairfax Nursing Center
SEMESTER/HOURS
Fall 2015/Hours: 144
Summer 2015/Hours: 440
Summer 2015/Hours: 40
Spring 2015/Hours: 40
Spring 2015/Hours: 40
Spring 2015/Hours: 84
Fall 2016/Hours: 72
CLIN
ICAL AND WORK EXPERIENCE
• Include Clinical Experience and/or Related Experience first: If you have clinical experience outside of your
rotations include it in a “Clinical Experience” section directly after your clinical rotations. Following your clinical
experience, include a “Work Experience” section including any specific work experiences you would like to
highlight. This can certainly include jobs outside of the healthcare field.
• Reverse Chronological Order: Within both the Clinical Experience and Work Experience sections each experience
should be listed in reverse chronological order (the most recent position first). Include the employer name, city
and state, job title, and dates of employment.
• Bullet points = accomplishments: As mentioned before, don’t just list job responsibilities in your bullet points.
Show the results of your work and how it helped the organization.
• Use Action Verbs: Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb. Employers often scan the first few words of
each bullet, so catch their attention with strong action verbs that reflect your relevant skills. Do not use any
action verb more than once under the same job. See Action Verbs list on page 5 of this guide for ideas.
• Highlight Transferable Skills: These are skills that can be utilized in a wide variety of positions and settings.
Examples: project management, teamwork, relationship-building, communication and leadership.
• Be Creative: Experience doesn’t only include paid/professional work. You may also include leadership positions,
volunteer work, course projects, presentations and relevant research.
*Examples of Clinical Rotation on Resume provided courtesy of George Washington University Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide
Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide | page 4
SKILLS AND ACTIVITIES
• Technical Skills: list relevant computer applications, languages, and technical clinical skills from most unique to
least unique.
• Foundational Skills: employers expect to see foundational skill sets mentioned within an applicant's resume.
(A nurse with an Advanced Degree may have the following foundational skills: assess patient conditions,
manage lower level nurses and department, develop treatment plans and discuss and explain conditions to
patient, oversee patient records, research and write publications relevant to specialization, educate patients
or teach other nurses in a college or university)
• Languages: acceptable proficiency terms: native/bilingual; full professional proficiency/fluent; minimum
professional proficiency/conversational, limited working proficiency, elementary/basic.
• Affiliations: list professional organizations and other community affiliations that support your career goals,
including student organizations.
• Volunteer: List most recent and/or relevant activities first. In general, employers like to see some type of
volunteer activity on the resume even if it’s not directly related to the job you’re applying for.
• Certifications: List most recent and/or relevant certifications first.
Writing Bullet Points as Accomplishment Statements
Bullet points under each position should tell a mini-story and are more effective when written as
Accomplishment Statements. You should ensure that a reader understands in detail what you did, why you did it, and what
happened because of your actions. Providing specific quantifiers and qualifiers will make your work and its results even
more clear.
QUANTIFY RESULTS
As often as possible, use statistics, percentages, or numbers in your bullet points to demonstrate the scope of your
accomplishments.
Examples: Delivered direct patient care to 12 patients while also managing the needs and questions of the patients’ families.
Collaborated with the Hospital Innovation Team to strategize an effective marketing plan to promote Rent the Runway to
Hospital staff, resulting in a 55% increase in sales for the Annual Benefit Ball with over 60 dress rentals in January 2013.
QUALIFY RESULTS
Sometimes results aren’t quantifiable, but can be illustrated with a qualitative outcome.
Examples: Worked with multidisciplinary clinical team to develop education and practical tool to improve correct screening
for intimate partner violence on Labor and Delivery Unit. Tool recognized by top Hospital Administrators during monthly
meeting.
Conducted qualitative interviews with key stakeholders at Rex Medical Center involved in clinical aspects of patient
engagement. Developed SBAR and Bib list to summarize best practice communication techniques that empower providers to
communicate more effectively with patients and families
Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide | page 5
Que
stions to ask yourself when creating Accomplishment Statements
Use the following questions to reflect on notable achievements of past positions:
• Did the work you performed positively impact the organization? If so, how?
• Did you make any significant clinical accomplishments that made an impact on your unit or
organization?
• Who, or how many people, will ultimately benefit from your work?
• Did you identify any problems or challenges?
• Did you resolve or minimize any problems?
• Did you target a need for a product, service, plan, program, system, method, procedure, technique?
• Did you reduce costs, waste, time, or effort?
• Did you create any original works: reports, guides, manuals, proposals?
• Did you develop or design a new program, plan, service, product, process, project, system method,
strategy?
• Did you improve (redesign, streamline or reorganize), administer, or implement any projects, plans,
programs, processes, services, products?
• Did you make any recommendations that saved money, made money, increased efficiency or
productivity?
• Did you make a technical or clinical contribution?
• Did you facilitate or improve communication among employees, with patients, or with the community?
• Did you train, coach, or mentor team members, patients or families?
Information provided courtesy of George Washington University and Resume Genius.
Yale School of Nursing Resume Guide | page 6
ACTION VERBS by category (in CAPS)
ANALYZED
Consulted
Experimented
Promoted
Motivated
Cared
Exercised
Abstracted
Cooperated
Facilitated
Provided
Negotiated
Catered
Expedited
Anticipated
Enlisted
Fashioned
Reduced
Persuaded
Delivered
Explained
Assessed
Ensured
Financed
Restored
Promoted
Dispensed
Facilitated
Ascertained
Facilitated
Fixed
Saved
Reconciled
Entertained
Fostered
Audited
Fostered
Formulated
Stimulated
Resolved
Facilitated
Governed
Briefed
Handled
Founded
Strengthened
Solved
Furnished
Guided
Calculated
Helped
Generated
Upgraded
ORGANIZED
Helped
Handled
Clarified
Located
Improved
COUNSELED/
Accumulated
Led
Headed
Compared
Participated
Increased
INSTRUCTED/
Arranged
Listened
Hired
Computed
Preserved
Influenced
LEARNED
Assembled
Maintained
Implemented
Concluded
Protected
Initiated
Adapted
Balanced
Motivated
Instructed
Conceptualized
Referred
Innovated
Advised
Budgeted
Performed
Maintained
Correlated
Represented
Instituted
Advocated
Built
Prepared
Met
Critiqued
Served
Integrated
Aided
Catalogued
Procured
Mentored
Debated
Strengthened
Introduced
Applied
Clarified
Provided
Monitored
Defined
Summarized
Invented
Assessed
Classified
Raised
Motivated
Detected
Supported
Launched
Briefed
Collated
Recommended
Navigated
Determined
Sustained
Marketed
Cared
Collected
Represented
Ordered
Diagnosed
COMMUNICATED
Modeled
Clarified
Completed
Responded
Organized
Discriminated
Addressed
Modified
Coached
Compiled
Satisfied
Oversaw
Dissected
Advertised
Navigated
Comforted
Composed
Served
Planned
Estimated
Answered
Originated
Communicated
Coordinated
Stimulated
Prepared
Evaluated
Briefed
Perceived
Conducted
Copied
Supplied
Presided
Examined
Corresponded
Performed
Consulted
Correlated
Supervised
Prioritized
Figured
Debated
Pioneered
Coordinated
Detailed
SOLD
Promoted
Graded
Explained
Planned
Demonstrated
Developed
Advertised
Regulated
Identified
Expressed
Prioritized
Educated
Displayed
Auctioned
Reinforced
Indexed
Facilitated
Produced
Emphasized
Edited
Bartered
Resolved
Inspected
Interpreted
Promoted
Enabled
Facilitated
Enlisted
Retained
Integrated
Interviewed
Proposed
Encouraged
Filed
Facilitated
Reviewed
Interpreted
Lectured
Recommended
Enlightened
Gathered
Generated
Scheduled
Interviewed
Listened
Restored
Established
Graphed
Improved
Selected
Inventoried
Marketed
Refined
Exercised
Identified
Led
Set
Investigated
Prepared
Revamped
Explained
Indexed
Maintained
Solved
Judged
Presented
Set
Facilitated
Inspected
Marketed
Strengthened
Maintained
Printed
Shaped
Familiarized
Inventoried
Motivated
Supervised
Mapped
Programmed
Simplified
Fostered
Kept
Negotiated
Taught
Monitored
Publicized
Solved
Guided
Located
Persuaded
Trained
Observed
Quoted
Styled
Helped
Maintained
Promoted
Updated
Perceived
Recorded
Streamlined
Implemented
Mapped
Raised
COLLABORATE
D
Predicted
Reported
Substituted
Improved
Met
Recommended
Coproduced
Projected
Responded
Visualized
Influenced
Obtained
Recruited
Cooperated
Qualified
Rewrote
IMPROVED/
Informed
Organized
Stimulated
Engaged
Ranked
Spoke
INCREASED
Inspired
Planned
LED/MANAGED
Organized
Read
Taught
Achieved
Interpreted
Prepared
Allocated
Partnered
Reasoned
Wrote
Accomplished
Investigated
Prioritized
Approved
Met
Related
CREATED/
Acquired
Lectured
Processed
Arranged
Participated
Researched
DEVELOPED
Advanced
Led
Programmed
Assigned
Shared
Reviewed
Acted
Assured
Listened
Ranked
Authorized
Strategized
Screened
Activated
Attained
Maintained
Recorded
Chaired
Synchronized
Scanned
Adapted
Completed
Manipulated
Reorganized
Clarified
Worked
Solved
Assembled
Conserved
Mastered
Reproduced
Coached
Studied
Authored
Continued
Monitored
Retrieved
Conducted
Summarized
Built
Eliminated
Modified
Revamped
Consulted
Surveyed
Clarified
Encouraged
Motivated
Reviewed
Contracted
Symbolized
Composed
Enlarged
Observed
Revised
Controlled
Synthesized
Conceived
Expanded
Perceived
Scheduled
Coordinated
Tabulated
Constructed
Facilitated
Persuaded
Set
Decided
Verified
Corrected
Fostered
Prescribed
Simplified
Delegated
Visualized
Designed
Guaranteed
Programmed
Solved
Directed
ASSISTED
Devised
Inspired
Promoted
Streamlined
Dispatched
Advised
Discovered
Maximized
Read
Structured
Distributed
Brought
Drafted
Minimized
Reduced
Synthesized
Educated
Chartered
Eliminated
Motivated
Reflected
Systemized
Encouraged
Collaborated
Established
Obtained
Reinforced
Tabulated
Enforced
Contributed
Expanded
Overcame
Related
SERVED/ AIDED
Evaluated
Consolidated
Expedited
Perfected
Restored
Attended
Executed
* Extensive list of action verbs provided courtesy of George Washington University.