Are you a new grad? An experienced nurse looking to apply to a new job? Need a resume overhaul? Most likely a yes to one of those, so this article is designed for you.

We wrote an article back in 2012 on the topic of nursing and how to prepare for the application process.

Since then we received a lot of great feedback over the years, so we are going to share some FAQs below. We will also link to that 2012 article at the bottom of this post, so you can check out the details.

Some FAQs answered

Q. I am working in long-term care and would like to work in a hospital setting. Why is it hard to get an interview?

A. This one comes up a lot. Since working in long-term care is unique to working in a hospital, it can be a bit of a challenge to break into the hospital environment.

Definitely leverage your placement experience, and having exposure with elderly or immobile patients is actually an advantage as our hospitals are often burdened with these types of patients.

Q. I have completed a nursing program, and previously was working in a totally different career. How is this going to affect my chances of securing an interview?

A. We would recommend that the resume focus on the nursing experience, and drop off the previous experience.

Q. I’ve heard that nursing resumes are technical documents, what does this mean for me?

A. Yes we agree and wrote about this in our 2012 article. Nurses work with specialized equipment, calculate items including meds dispensing, and IV maintenance, and complete charting. It’s important to focus on these aspects of the job.

Q. I completed the Cardiac Care certificate, and noticed that jobs working in cardiology require several years’ experience. Should I still apply?

A. If you have some nursing experience already, then I would go ahead and apply and focus on what you learned from the course. If you were newly graduated without having completed any placements in cardiology, then I would focus on entry-level positions.

Q. My manager asked if I wanted to be a preceptor, but is it worth the trouble?

A. It depends on your personality and if you are able to guide, coach and mentor a new student or employee.

Working in a new role is scary, so it’s great to have someone help out and if you think about it, once your mentee is feeling comfortable, less work for you to do! It also looks great on the resume.

Concluding Thoughts

We see a lot of nursing positions posted, and we anticipate there will be a consistent stream in 2017 and beyond. Predominantly women make up the majority of the nursing positions, but we are seeing more men entering the workforce, which is good to enhance diversity.

If you enjoyed this article, please share below, and if you have some additional questions, feel free to contact us directly, or post some information below to help out your fellow nurses.

As promised, you can check out the article regarding RN and RPN nursing resume, career advice.