Writing a Resume to Fit Your Online Nursing Education

There is a growing number of accredited online universities these days and with that a surplus of online graduates. As a professional resume writer, I have particulary seen these shifts in nursing education and have been working with an ever-increasing number of job seekers with online degrees. Furthermore, I have been listening to what hiring authorities have to say on the matter and based on my accumulated experience, I have compiled a list of the top three things you must address in your nursing resume if you are an online graduate. Follow these simple steps to help increase your chances of landing the perfect nursing job!

If at all possible, do not mention that you received your nursing degree online. I have worked with countless hiring managers over the years and there is a definite bias out there, whether people want to admit it or not. A job seeker who has a degree from a brick-and-mortar university will often trump a candidate with an online education. The perception is that one has to work harder for a degree if they have to physically attend classes, hand in homework assignments, conduct presentations, etc. It may be an unfair assumption, but it’s out there.

In reality, you only need to state the school you attended, the year you graduated, and the degree you attained. Obviously some universities are known for being web-based (i.e. University of Phoenix) and you’re not going to be able to avoid that, but it’s also a bit superfluous and unnecessary to include a statement like “Degree Obtained Online” and you definitely don’t need to state “Online” as the location of the university. You would be surprised how many people do this.

I would recommend laying it out like this:

University of Phoenix 2012

Bachelor of Arts in Nursing GPA = 3.5

Coursework included: Treatment Planning, Patient Relations, Medical Transcription, etc.

You will notice from the example above that I included a “Coursework” section and this is something I highly recommend for entry-level graduates. For most graduates, the odds are you have very little professional experience in your chosen industry, so your educational experience has to speak volumes. In addition, the courses you have taken throughout your academic tenure are often a great way to incorporate strategic keywords into the context of your resume. In the example above, “Treatment Planning”, “Patient Relations”, and “Medical Transcription” would all be important keywords for an aspiring nurse to have in their resume.

Listing your most relevant classes is also a value-added tool that helps prospective employers to identify your skills sets through the coursework you have completed. If you add your GPA in addition, it can paint a powerful picture of how you will perform as an employee. Are you dedicated and motivated? Are you capable of learning and applying new concepts? These questions can be answered in a glance if you present that information properly in your resume. Conversely, I would recommend leaving your GPA off the resume if it is below 3.0. That can have an adverse effect if you have a GPA of 2.89 and the candidate next to you has a 3.0 or higher. In that situation I would just suggest you don’t include it. Let the hiring manager use their imagination.

Aside from listing your academic accomplishments, it’s very important to show your strengths outside of academia. For instance, if you have any internships, clinical preceptorships, or other relevant experience worth listing then you should definitely go into detail about that. If you’re an aspiring nurse, make sure you list the hospitals and units you worked with in order to obtain your nursing clinical hours. Specifically, think about how that experience applies to the jobs you are currently pursuing. And always make mention of the level of nursing professionals you have worked alongside of. If you were working closely with Charge Nurses or Administrators, mention that. You don’t need to name drop or anything like that, but it helps to show that you are comfortable collaborating with serious health care professionals at the upper echelons.

All that being said, the most important thing to remember when compiling your new health care resume is that you have to sell yourself without going overboard. By that I mean that a lot of people, especially entry-level candidates, have a tendency to incorporate irrelevant information or “fluff” into their resume. A good example of this is someone who includes a section for “Hobbies” and professes their love for cooking while applying for a job as a medical technician. Put bluntly, that doesn’t matter. No one cares. That is a trivial personal detail that is better addressed in an interview, if at all.

Also, as a new nursing graduate, presuming you have little professional experience, I would never recommend your resume exceed one page. After all, you don’t want to intimidate a hiring manager by giving them a novel to read. Instead, as with any effective marketing tool, you want to give the reader just enough info to leave them wanting to know more. That’s when they call you for an interview and that's when you really sell yourself with the details of your experience!