Clinical experience is an essential asset to include in your resume if you’re looking to make a career in the healthcare industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced healthcare professional or just starting; highlighting your clinical experience sets you apart from the competition. In this article, we will guide you on how to add clinical experience to your resume to ensure that you stand out from other healthcare job seekers.
Describing Clinical Experience
When listing your clinical experience on your resume, it’s essential to keep it concise and effective; thus, using bullet points is an effective way to do this. Ensure that you carefully read through the job description and relevant medical terminologies to ensure your bullet points reflect the experience required. Here are some of the key details to include:
- Name and Location of the Healthcare Facility: Start by including the name of the healthcare organization, its location, and its surrounding amenities.
- Respective Department: List the department where you were working, and if you worked in more than one department, list each separately using bullet points.
- Position Held: Mention the title of the position held and described your responsibilities within that position.
- Dates Worked: Include the starting and ending dates when you worked with each employer.
- Accomplishments: Highlight your specific achievements within that role using actionable language, such as “created” or “implemented.”
- Skills: Include healthcare-specific skills you gained while working at a healthcare facility.
How to Gain Clinical Experience
If you haven’t had any clinical experience so far, don’t worry; there are many ways to get it. Here are some strategies for gaining clinical experience:
- Look for Volunteering Opportunities: One way to gain clinical experience is by volunteering in hospitals or clinics in your area. Volunteering is an excellent way to network with medical professionals and gain experience in a medical setting.
- Apply for an Internship: Applications for internships are open all year round, and these usually offer structured, supervised experience that is a valuable addition to your resume.
- Consider Medical and Nursing School Programs: Medical and nursing school programs offer prospective students clinical experience by allowing them to work under trained professionals.
- Shadow a Medical Professional: Volunteering to shadow a medical professional for a day or two is also a valuable way to gain clinical experience.
Highlighting Clinical Experience on Your Resume
It’s essential to ensure that the clinical experience section of your resume stands out. Here are some tips on highlighting your clinical experience on your resume:
- Use specific keywords that catch the hiring manager’s attention. For example, if you’re a registered nurse that specializes in pediatric care, use keywords like “pediatric medicine,” “childcare,” or “preventive care” in your job descriptions.
- Use powerful action verbs to describe your clinical experience like advocated, assessed, collaborated, diagnosed, observed or prescribed.
- Quantify your achievements using numbers or percentages wherever possible, such as reducing patient wait time by 50%.
- Include medical software and technology you’ve used during your clinical experience as this might give the hiring managers a reason to analyze your abilities more closely.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways from this article on how to add clinical experience to your resume:
- Bullet point the critical details about your clinical experience, including the name and location of the healthcare facility, the department, your position title, dates worked, accomplishments and healthcare-specific skills acquired.
- Gain clinical experience by volunteering, interning, applying for medical programs or shadowing a medical professional.
- Highlight your clinical experience on your resume using specific keywords, strong action verbs, numbers, and technology utilized.
FAQs
Q: Do entry-level healthcare professionals need clinical experience when applying for jobs?
Yes, entry-level healthcare professionals should also have some degree of clinical experience when applying for their first job. Although it may not be as extensive as a professional who has worked in the field for several years, any type of clinical experience is better than none.
Q: How many bullet points should I use to describe my clinical experience?
You should aim to use between 3 to 7 bullet points to describe your clinical experience. Try to keep them concise and relevant to the job description you’re applying for to make your experience resonate more effectively with the hiring manager.