Resume Tips for Minority Nurses
With the number of nursing jobs on the rise, there are plenty of opportunities to break into this stable and growing field. There is also plenty of competition.
The good news is there are many ways to stand out, particularly if you are a minority looking to break into the nursing profession. An ability to work with minority communities can make you an even more attractive job candidate.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects the number of nurses will grow 26% by 2020, a rate far faster than the 14% projected for all occupations. With a median average wage of about $65,000, according to the BLS, nursing can also be a stable and lucrative profession.
In building a resume while searching for a nursing job, it’s important to keep certain factors in mind.
Qualifications summary. This should be at the top of every resume. Here you want to provide information on your career goals, how you can help a medical organization provide quality care and the specific qualifications and skills you have to help achieve both. For minority nurses, this is a good area to list qualifications such as being bilingual or any work you might have done specifically in a minority community.
Expertise summary. Here you can utilize bullet points to list specific areas of expertise. One sound strategy is to use phrases as they appeared in the job listing. Examples of areas of nursing expertise could be pediatrics, geriatrics, and obstetrics.
Nursing experience. For the nursing job candidate who is a minority, here again is a great place to list any work you have done in the minority community (an example might be working on a diabetes awareness outreach program in the Latino community). You also want to list areas where you have experience, such as emergency room care, rehabilitation, outpatient – wherever you have the experience.
Elaborate on experience. Don’t simply list where you’ve worked, but elaborate on how you helped better a project. For example, if you are bilingual and used that skill in your job or internship, then specifically say so. You must let employers know why the skill set you have is important to improving their business.
Provide examples that show you are a top performer. Make sure to list ways that, in previous jobs, you went beyond what was expected to accomplish an important goal. Make sure you detail how your actions impacted the patient, the medical staff or the overall medical operation (by bringing in new revenue, for example, or expanding care to a previously underserved area). This area could also branch into accomplishments such as helping reorganize a department, retrain others or developing a way to improve services to patients.
When looking for a nursing job, it’s important to keep in mind that salaries can vary depending on location, the type of medical service, and the exact nature of the job. However, the BLS reports that overall, those who work in private, general medical and surgical hospitals make the most money, with an average annual salary nationwide of about $66,650 in May 2010.
Other facilities and the annual pay of the nurses working there included physician offices ($62,880), public hospitals ($62,690), home health care services ($60,690), and nursing care facilities ($58,180).
Article provided by U.S News University Directory, a leading resource for locating accredited nursing programs and online MSN degrees from top colleges and universities. For more information visit www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com.
