Travel nursing is an exciting way to explore different parts of the country as well as gain vital skills in various healthcare settings. With its flexibility, this kind of role can be the perfect way to make the most of a nursing career.
But, it’s not just a couple of nurses traveling around the country for work. In fact, there are over 1.7 million travel nurses currently employed in the United States. With the nature of travel assignments, most nurses sign on for 13-week contracts with some extending longer, but it’s no surprise that jobs open up (and get filled) rapidly.
To get the right travel nursing roles, nurses will need to have strong resumes that go over all the most important details about their education, experience, work history, certifications, and other pertinent information an employer may care about.
Resume Tips for Travel Nurses
Travel nurses often pick up and move, which is why it’s so important to have a strong resume that helps you land the roles you want. Having a strong resume means you show off the best parts of your education, experience, and personality, so travel nursing recruiters and hiring managers know you’re the right fit for a role and bring you on board. So, what do you need on your resume to get the travel nursing job of your dreams?
Remember, even though there are plenty of nursing roles open in the country (over 31,000 roles on Indeed as of May 2024), there’s still tough competition in the field. The highest-paid, most flexible, and coveted roles will always fill quickly.
What to Include in Your Resume
Now that you know why having a resume is so important as a travel nurse, it’s time to build yours. Whether you’re reworking your resume or you need to build one from scratch, there are several things you’ll need to do to land the travel nursing job you want.
As a travel nurse, your resume is an essential tool in showcasing your skills, experience, and qualifications to potential employers. With the demand for travel nurses on the rise, having a strong and up-to-date resume can set you apart from the competition and help you land your desired assignments.
To build your resume, include:
- Your name, qualifications, and contact information. Start by adding your name, qualifications, and contact information to the top of the page. Include your current address, email, phone number, and all applicable post-nominal initials (such as BSN or RN).
- A summary. Describe who you are, what you want to do, and other important facts about yourself that pertain to the role. For example, if you are applying to a role that requires nights and weekends, it’s not a bad idea to include “will work nights and weekends” in your summary.
- Your specialty. Include your specialty, if you have one, near the top of the page. For people who specialize in multiple areas, include them all. However, if you want to work only in one area, you may want to draw attention to that request in your summary.
- All your licenses and certifications. List your certifications, when you got them, and the educational institutions you attended. You can use columns to divide the page if this section begins to look too lengthy.
- Your professional experience. You should include as much of your professional experience as possible. For example, if you worked at a hospital, include that information as well as if it was a teaching facility, what trauma level you worked in, number of beds, and so on.
- Information about your computer skills. Yes, it’s helpful to put information about your computer skills. Even in the 2020s, many people can’t type quickly or use computers well. Show off your expertise. If you’ve worked with electronic health record (EHR) systems and software, like EPIC, include that information in your resume as well.
- Your past education. Discuss your education and if you had an internship or mentorship, include that as well, since it shows an even longer work history.
Overall, your resume is a crucial tool in marketing yourself as a travel nurse. A well-crafted resume can help you stand out in a competitive job market and secure the travel nursing assignments you want.
Top Resume Writing Tools
With the push toward artificial intelligence (AI), there are several AI tools that you can use to help craft your resume. Just keep in mind that these tools aren’t perfect — you’ll still want to read over and edit to ensure everything is accurate and meets the requirements of the role you’re applying for.
AI can help in healthcare resume writing to:
- Help you create a powerful professional summary
- Review your resume for readability
- Help you show off your expertise, experience, and achievements
- Draw attention to your education, certifications, and skills
- Optimize your resume’s keywords
All AI is not the same, though, so it’s important to look into a few different tools if you want to go this route. Commonly used AI tools include:
- Grammarly
- Jobscan
- RezScore
- SkillSyncer
- ChatGPT
AI isn’t the right choice for everyone, so you have other options as well. For instance, travel nursing agencies might use an online profile as part of your application, so you can see what’s most important to include in your resume. Additionally, your travel nursing recruiter should be able to help tailor your resume or job submission to any job you’re applying to. They will have valuable insight into what the hiring manager is looking for.
Travel Nursing Jobs with Supplemental Health Care
Getting the right role to help you move forward in your travel nursing career should be simple. At Supplemental Health Care, we place an emphasis on helping nurses find the right travel jobs wherever they want to go.
Ready to find your next destination? Contact our team today or search for open travel nursing roles today!
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