Travel Nurse Resume
The travel nursing industry offers the best salaries in the nursing industry. We have found through research, having a great resume can separate you from the field when it comes to getting your dream travel assignment. The resume represents the most important piece of information in your quest for a great travel assignment. Let’s dig into what we have found is the best method in putting together all of your storied career into a quick and easy-to-read travel nurse resume.
The travel nurse resume must be clear, concise and tell a great story about your career in a very short period of time. If there is one thing we have learned here at Wanderly, its that nurse managers are busy people so the simpler and easier to read, the better.
Travel Nurse Resume – The Header
Let’s start with the top of the resume and what to include. You want to include your full name and all of the degrees you have and anything that will make you stand out to that manager. If you’re an ICU nurse and you have a specialized training like CCRN that would make you stand out, go ahead and include that. If you have a BSN, 100% include that. You want that nurse manager to see that you are a well educated, career oriented person as those are the people that typically perform the best. Remember, 1st impressions are everything. Your travel nursing resume is the first time that the nurse manager is going to see your name and what you can bring them from a travel nursing standpoint. Next, you want to include your City and State, no need for a home address here, just something that shows you are a traveler. Finally, make sure you put both your email and the best number to contact you (assuming these days this would be your cell phone).
Travel Nurse Resume – Education Requirements
Where you went to school and got your training is important, but being that it’s the last part of the resume means that it’s the least important. Make sure you include all your educational achievements in the header so that nurse manager can see it on the top and become impressed with your achievements. For all intents and purposes, the education requirements are just that, a requirement and don’t have too much weight when it comes to getting that next great travel assignment.
Travel Nurse Resume – Experience Requirements
As a travel nurse, you need at least one year of experience in the specialty you want to work as a travel nurse. At a minimum, you must show that you have one year of experience in that specialty on your resume. What experience to include? Through our research with all of our incredible Wanderly Clients, we recommend that you include 7 full years of experience. Whether you were a nurse or not for those 7 years doesn’t really matter. If you have been a nurse for 25 years, don’t feel the need to include all of that, just 7 years. When you are adding all of these positions you want everything to be simple, clear and concise. Here is a good example for your travel nursing resume professional experience breakdown.
Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Travel RN – May 2018-December 2018
Facility Type – Acute Care UNIT – ICU
Teaching Facility – Yes Trauma – Level 1
Total Beds – 500 Unit Beds – 12-20
EMR Type – Cerner
The type of position is super important, make sure you show what type of position you worked. If its staff, put stuff position, if its travel, put travel, very simple. You want the nurse manager to see that you know how to handle yourself as a travel nurse.
Don’t forget to include the EMR Type, if a nurse manager sees that you have used the same type of EMR that they use it will only make your orientation into the unit better which makes that nurse managers life just a bit easier.
Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. Remember, simplicity is key here always keep that in mind.
Travel Nurse Resume – Summary Requirements
The resume summary is your elevator pitch to the nurse manager. This can be your ticket to getting an interview for your dream travel assignment. Wanderly believes that the resume summary is a great place to include a synopsis about yourself and what you bring to work every day and showcase your experience in different specialties.
The most important part of the summary is your years of experience as a nurse and travel nurse. Make sure to break out the specialty experience in a simple easily consumable format for the nurse manager. You can just add your specialty, but if your creative and want to write a little bit more you can include something about you and the type of nurse you are. For Example:
“I am a career oriented team player that is flexible and adaptive to many different environments”
“I love teaching hospital environments and looking forward to a new challenge in a new teaching hospital”
The second one is obviously very specific, would be a great line to include if you are applying to a teaching hospital. Be careful to not be overly specific, you want this to be something that will get the manager thinking about how great of a candidate you are. Whatever you include in the summary be preparing for your interview as nurse managers will ask you specifically about this information and the last thing you want is to be unprepared and let that incredible travel assignment in wine country slip through your fingertips.
Travel Nurse Resume – License and Certification Requirements
When it comes to travel nurse license and certification requirements on the travel nursing resume you need to be specific and include everything that pertains to the job you are interviewing for. An excellent extra certification here would be showing an Emergency Room Certification if you are going for an Intensive Care Travel Assignment, the manager would see this as a positive in that you are more well rounded. A terrible example would be showing that you have a commercial drivers license when you’re interviewing for an Emergency Room Travel Assignment, we don’t even have to discuss what the manager would think about this. Use common sense with the License and Certification requirements and put yourself in the nurse managers shoes and you will be just fine. PS…No expired documents.
Good Luck in your searches and don’t hesitate to check out Wanderly.us to find your next great travel assignment.