(Source: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm)
This means that there will never be a shortage of jobs for you. On the other hand, the healthcare profession has high stakes in human lives. Which means not anyone can get a job easily, only well qualified professionals can get good jobs in the medical world.
While you might be well qualified, you might still fail to get a good job if your health care resume is not good enough. You have the knowledge and skills for your role as a health care professional but maybe not for resumes and everything about the human resources world with hiring managers.
You have nothing to worry about though, we are here for you. We have curated this article especially for you and other healthcare professionals who are on the lookout for healthcare jobs.
We will tell you all about healthcare resumes, from how to write a healthcare resume to extra tips to make your resume exceptional. Let's dive in!
What is a health care resume?
The healthcare industry is big and essential for human lives across the globe. The term 'healthcare' covers a number of professions and roles such as:
- Physician
- Surgeon
- Nurse
- Gynecologist
- Ophthalmologist
- ENT specialist
- Phlebotomist
- Laboratory assistants
- Pediatrician
- Dermatologist
and many more dedicated to various body parts, diseases and everything in between. A healthcare resume is basically the resume for any and every professional who belongs to the healthcare sector. That includes a neurosurgeon to nurse and everyone in between.
Healthcare resume describes all the skills, experience, education and every other relevant information of a healthcare professional's profile.
A good healthcare resume can make a big difference for the job seeker because it is the only way to impress the hiring managers with proper presentation of what all the candidate brings to the table.
How to write a health care resume?
Writing a resume is simple, however resumes for every profession have certain aspects to consider carefully. Whether the job seekers are mental health professionals or medical assistants, the resume needs to be written very carefully.
Healthcare resumes should have all the key skills, a proper resume format, carefully laid out work history, key qualifications as demanded in job posting and everything else listed in job description as job requirements.
Contact information
The contact information section should be on top of your resume. It should have your name, contact number and email address.
Your contact number should be written accurately. Your email address should be professional and properly written.
Make sure there are no mistakes otherwise the recruiter might fail to contact you.
Summary
Healthcare professionals' resume summary in the resume should be brief, crisp and concise. You should write it in bullet points. Begin with the total years of experience and background of your work.
Follow up with your key accomplishments and key healthcare skills. Try to quantify wherever you can with numbers, your contribution, your impact, your responsibilities and how they made a difference.
Experience
The experience section will describe all your previous jobs and medical experience. Make sure to write your experience in the reverse chronological order, meaning you should begin with your latest experience and walk back towards your first job.
When writing the experience, mention the job title you held, the name of your employer and the period of time that you worked there for.
The details of each experience in the healthcare industry should be written in bullet points. Focus on your accomplishments and key healthcare skills. You should also mention your responsibilities and how you performed well.
You should highlight your accomplishments with numbers. Quantify as many details as possible with numbers. Quantify the results you achieved, how you contributed and what difference did your contribution make.
Education
A healthcare job requires relevant education unlike many other professions where you only need skills and maybe a little experience and relevant education is not mandatory.
Without the relevant education, you will not have the skills or knowledge that is required. For example, medical terminology, basic emergency protocols, legal aspects of patient care, protocols of the healthcare field, knowledge of the medical field and much more that is important.
When you are writing the education section, mention the name of your education institute first, followed by the name of the degree.
Skills
Medical professionals have many skills and every role requires some soft skills and some hard skills. These skills may overlap between various roles and sometimes a particular role requires a particular skill.
Which skills in particular are required for your role is something that you might know well, we will provide you with some soft skills and hard skills that you can include in case they are applicable to your role.
📌Soft skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Patient care
- Patience
- Communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Time management skills
- Attention to detail
- Positivity
- Stress management skills
- Critical thinking
- Compassion
📌Hard skills
- Medication knowledge
- HIPAA knowledge
- CPR & first aid
- Crisis Management
- Medical equipment handling
- Medical documents handling
- Medical records keeping
according to the particular role, there will be more specific skills as well. For example, an ophthalmologist should know how to check the powers of a patient's eyes, a phlebotomist should be good at drawing blood, a nurse should know the medication dosages and emergency protocol and so on.
Healthcare jobs are always high stakes and any error could result in a major crisis ranging from legal issues to a patient's death! This is the reason why your skills are extremely important for the recruiter.
You need to reflect that you are competent to provide healthcare services because you have the necessary technical skills and other relevant skills that cover all the key healthcare skills. Medical profession is very important and medical professionals are scrutinized well whether you are a surgeon or a medical assistant.
As a healthcare professional, you will be expected to not only provide healthcare services but also take care of patient concerns, medical billing, emergency medical services, emergency treatment, maintain patient records, ensure good patient care, improve patient outcomes with all your essential skills and knowledge and experience.
Certifications/Licenses
As a healthcare professional, your role might require certain certifications or licenses and in that case, you need to mention the details of your certification or license in the resume in appropriate format.
You should check the job description and also get in touch with the hiring manager to confirm which certifications and/or licenses are mandatory for the role they are offering.
The documents of such certification and licenses should also be secured as you might need to show them for verification at any stage before onboarding.
There are many roles where you cannot get hired without the necessary certifications and licenses so do not forget this section or you might not get hired or even get a call back.
Extra
In addition to all the sections described above, you can also add extra sections for any other relevant information.
You could write a section for your internships and volunteer work experiences. Describe highlights of those experiences to showcase the learned skills and your accomplishments.
You can write a section for any awards or recognitions you may have received during your education and professional career.
A section can be allotted for your language proficiencies if you are multilingual.
You can also add a section for hobbies and interests if any of those are relevant to the role you are applying for.
Any other information that you might find relevant can also be added in extra sections, it could even be relevant events you may have attended or special programs, or online courses you completed or any certifications you have acquired.
Cover letter
Cover letters are usually not mandatory. Very few job postings may have mentioned them and most of the job application portals might not ask for them. However, cover letters can make a big difference for you.
A healthcare resume example has all the information that a hiring manager might need. However, the resumes do not address the hiring manager directly. But in cover letters, you can address the hiring manager directly and convince them that you are the right candidate for the role they are hiring for.
The cover letter is also your chance to include more keywords. In the cover letter you should mention your contact details and address the hiring manager. The cover letter's outline is almost like a regular letter, with gratitude and your name or signature at the end.
You can describe your experiences, skills and explain how you were inspired to get into this career line. You can also describe how you plan to contribute and make a difference and what you can offer to the employer.
Extra Tips
Your healthcare resume is your sales pitch which means it has to be effective. To be effective it needs to be extraordinary.
Keywords
You may have heard of Applicant Tracking System or ATS. The ATS is software used by the hiring managers to scan the resumes and shortlist them. The ATS works based on set parameters and these parameters are the relevant keywords for the role.
Relevant keywords of skills, experiences, responsibilities etc. If you want your healthcare resume to beat the ATS, you need to make sure that your resume has all the relevant keywords in it.
You should research your role, responsibilities, employer, job description, industry and everything in between to make sure you don't miss any keyword that needs to be included in your healthcare resume.
Language
When it comes to writing a professional resume, there are certain rules. These rules make a resume formal and professional which is a must for a serious profession like healthcare profession.
These rules are simple and must be followed to make sure your resume is absolutely competent according to the standards of professionalism.
First rule is never use pronouns in sentences, your sentences should start with action words and should be concise and crisp.
Second rule is to use the third person throughout your resume, never first or second person.
The third rule is to use the past tense throughout your resume, from summary to experience and any extra sections you might add.
With these three rules, your language will be professional and formal and your resume will be up to professionalism standards.
Proofread
Once you are done writing your resume, you should proofread your resume twice. A professional resume should not have any errors. If the hiring manager notices any errors in your resume, your impression will be ruined in their eyes immediately.
While you proofread, double check the details you have mentioned. Check and remove any spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes. Make sure that your resume is accurate and there are no errors.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as a healthcare professional, you need to make sure that your healthcare resume has the presentation of your profile in the most appealing manner. Make sure you take into consideration all the guidelines and tips described in this article. You can also use this article as a checklist for writing your resume.
You will see many resume examples and templates, make sure you never copy them as is, make edits according to your profile's information and the role you are applying to. We have a number of resume examples and templates you might want to check out.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I need a cover letter?
Cover letters are not mandatory for every job. However, including a cover letter is always a good addition to your job application and increases your chances of landing that job.
Should I write a resume objective along with a summary?
Resume objective is a little old concept, these days hiring managers are more interested in what you can offer and what you bring to the table. You do not need both the objective and the summary. Resume summary is enough.
How long should my resume be?
The preferable resume length is one page; however , if you have multiple experiences and information that requires more than one page, you can extend your resume up to two pages.
