10 Easy Tips to Help You Write the Killer Nursing Informatics Resume

1. Begin with your professional contact information. Name, address, phone numbers, email address and URL (if you have one). Hint: A professional web site is a good place to place supplemental information. Managers are sometimes more likely to check out a website than they are to read a long resume.
   
   


2. List a “Summary of Qualifications.” This is the most important section of your resume. Make it clear and readable. You might use bullets to make it stand out. List the things that qualify you for the job you are applying for. Make it specific. and list your most important qualifications first.
   
   


3. List your skills and accomplishments. Use this section to back up the claims in the first section. Be specific about your skills, and quantify your accomplishments whenever possible.
   
   


4. You might consider using a competency format. Nursing informatics competencies fall in the domains of clinical practice, education and leadership. List your competencies in each area.
   
   


5. List professional activities. At this point, most nursing informaticists are leaders and there is some expectation that you are involved in professional activities, such as speaking, writing and that you belong to a professional organization, such as the American Nursing Informatics Association.
   
   


6. List your computer skills. What systems have you worked on, what projects have you been involved with, what programming languages do you know?
   
   


7. Highlight your nursing expertise. Are you a clinical expert, or have you focused on education or leadership? Give a brief overview of what your particular expertise is, such as, “Twelve years of critical care experience with particular expertise in trauma and neurosurgical care.”
   
   


8. Focus on the employer’s needs. Tailor your resume to communicate how you can meet the employer’s needs. If you are applying for a position with the IT department, for example, make your resume show how you can bridge IT to nursing practice. Highlight those qualifications, skills and accomplishments.
   
   


9. Create a separate resume for each company or job you apply for. Your resume must be tailored to the job in order to stand out.
   
   


10. Use active, powerful language. There is a real tendency to use the passive voice in nursing writing. Conquer it. Active verbs and power words convey that you are a doer, and that you can accomplish things for the company.