How Long Should My Nursing Resume Be?
Our article discussing the top 10 details to include on your nursing resume has received over 2 million views. The most common question we receive pertains to the length of the nurse’s resume. Inquirers are concerned that they can’t fit all of the information we recommend into a one-page document. In this article, we’ll focus on nursing resume length so you can approach the topic with confidence.
Why Nurse Resume Length Isn’t So Important Anymore
As a team of current and former healthcare recruiters with over 50 years of combined experience, we can confidently tell you that a one-page resume is no longer a requirement.
Applicant Tracking Systems
In fact, we contend that the one-page resume requirement is outdated by more than ten years. This is due to the dramatic shift from human resume screening to Applicant Tracking Systems.
In the “old days,” humans physically screened resumes. This was a monumental task considering the number of resumes an organization receives for each job opening. Therefore, organizations strongly preferred one-page resumes.
Today, most organizations use Applicant Tracking Systems that include powerful resume parsing features to screen applicants. This is why you’re told to apply online.
BluePipes: Professional Networking and Career Management Tools for Healthcare Professionals
When you apply online, you create a data file for your “account” with that organization. At some point during the process, the system will undoubtedly prompt you to upload your resume.
Many people think that hiring personnel will review this resume in its current format. While this is true in rare cases, it’s more common for hiring personnel to view your resume digitally or for the ATS to reformat your resume entirely.
Resume Parsers
Most ATS’s today have resume parsing systems. This is software that scans, analyzes, and extracts information important to recruiters and hiring managers.
There are two features you should to be aware of. First, resume parsing systems can scan through resumes for pertinent information, pull the information out of your resume and put into the job application itself. You may have even seen this in action during the online application process.
Automated Candidate Ranking
Second, resume parsing systems can scan through resumes for pertinent information that matches the job description. Additionally, many parsing systems can rank applicants based on resume match rates. The more matches the system finds between the resume and the job requirements, the higher the candidate ranks in the system.
Human resource representatives begin with the highest-ranking candidates first. By the time they get through the top ten candidates, they will undoubtedly have five to ten candidates to contact.
The human resource representatives can also parse their entire database of resumes (as opposed to only those who applied for the job in question). This way, they can locate additional qualified candidates when necessary.
As you can see, these software systems greatly reduce the significance of a one-page resume.
How Long Should Your Nursing Resume Be?
All of that said, you still need to pay attention to resume length. So, how long should your nurse resume be? The answer depends on how much job-related experience you have and the technical nature of your specialties. If you have more experience, then you’ll need more space. In addition, if your job is more technical, you’ll need more space to fit all of the technical aspects of your work experience. And because most nursing specialties are technical, you’ll have a longer resume. You should shoot for one to three pages. That said, we once worked with a Cardiovascular Operating Room (CVOR) nurse with 15 years of experience, and we could fit all of the ten details on less than two total pages. Be sure to make good use of space. You can also utilize a nursing skills checklist to convey your technical skills.
Why The Top 10 Details to Include on a Nurse Resume are Important
Of course, a human will undoubtedly view your resume at some point, so you want to be sure that it’s as convenient as possible to scan by sight and has all the vital details that hiring managers look for.
We listed the 10 most vital details we feel you should include on your nursing resume in a previous article. We sometimes receive inquiries from nurses who are concerned that their resume will be too long if they include all these details.
Here’s the thing. Hiring personnel often pass over resumes that do not include the information they are looking for. Meanwhile, it is extremely rare for them to pass over resumes that have everything they are looking for, but are “too long”.
Why Include the Number of Beds in the Hospital and Unit?
We can tell you from firsthand experience that many hospital Unit Managers will not consider resumes that do not include bed-count information. They want to know that the candidate has experience in a similar setting. This is because hospital managers are concerned that candidates won’t be able to handle the stimulus of a large hospital or the flexibility required in a small hospital.
Sometimes, managers will require that recruiters look this information up if it’s not on the resume. Time is money in the recruiting world. Therefore, the recruiter is more likely to advance a candidate with the information already listed on their resume, as opposed to looking up additional information.
Caseload
Information on the number of beds, coupled with caseload data, conveys the nursing candidate’s ability to handle stress which is one of the primary concerns of nurse hiring managers. For those who don’t have experience in a hospital setting or who are trying to move to a larger hospital, you’ll need to convey this by adding further details about your caseload or the unique stressful circumstances you faced in your particular setting.
For example, if you worked in a clinic, you can point out the number of patients you tended to daily. If you worked in a small rural hospital, identify the unique emergencies you faced and the flexibility that the small hospital setting required of you.
Being Forthright is Best
Finally, we received several inquiries from nurses concerned that some of the details we recommended might reflect negatively on them. For example, some were concerned that they had Associate of Nursing degrees as opposed to a Bachelor of Nursing degree. Others were concerned that they were certified in Basic Life Support (BLS) by the American Red Cross as opposed to the more widely accepted American Heart Association.
While we understand this concern, it’s essential to realize that if these details are important to a hiring nurse manager, they will find out one way or the other. In addition, they’ll likely want to see only nursing resumes that include the details they’re looking for. Moreover, they may be okay with your ASN or ADN, given the rest of your experience. However, if you leave the details out, your nursing resume might get rejected without ever being reviewed.
We hope this information helps. Please do not stress over the length of your nursing resume. It’s far more important to get all your vital career details into your resume.
