Healthcare Resume

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare industry is expected to grow by 16% between 2020 and 2030. It’s never been a better time to get into or advance yourself in the healthcare field.

No matter your exact profession, follow our six tips to write an outstanding healthcare resume:

1. Tailor your resume to the job description

First, include the most relevant hard skills for your specific healthcare role in your resume.

You can identify the most important skills by scanning multiple job descriptions for the same job title and seeing which common skills emerge.

Next, refine your resume by using keywords directly from the job description. Try to match terms exactly, which will help your resume pass applicant tracking system (ATS) software and attract the hiring manager’s attention.

2. Highlight your interpersonal skills

Don’t forget about the “care” part of healthcare. Interpersonal skills, especially good communication, reliability, and empathy, are important for clearly explaining health problems, finding solutions, and reducing patient stress.

If you’re directly working with patients, use some of the following resume adjectives to describe the care you provide:

• Patient
• Active listener
• Empathetic
• Compassionate
• Calm
• Reliable
• Knowledgeable

Also, using action verbs can demonstrate how you work with patients and colleagues:

• Discuss
• Advise
• Write
• Administer
• Direct
• Coordinate
• Supervise
• Assist
• Collaborate

3. Add common healthcare-related skills to your resume

While a school nurse resume will be very different from a resume written by a speech language pathologist, there are some common skills that apply to any healthcare professional that will strengthen your application. Here are a few to keep in mind:

Record-keeping

From diagnoses to test results to insurance claims, record-keeping is instrumental when working in healthcare.

Note your level of experience or comfort with the exact software used at your desired workplace, if specified in the job description, to show the hiring manager that training you will be relatively easy.

Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the job’s exact software or can’t find what software they use.

Additionally, handwritten records and filing systems are still popularly used in healthcare today. So you can describe your record-keeping skills more generally as:

• Accurate
• Organized
• Detail-oriented
• Prompt after patient interactions

Math and science skills

While people outside of your field should be able to understand your resume, you can and should still discuss the technical aspects of your previous work. These descriptions, although they may contain a bit of jargon, can make the reader more confident in your abilities.

Just don’t say anything in a way that makes you appear like you’re faking your knowledge, or your application may get rejected quickly.

Bad Work Description:

Performed imaging of patients

Good Work Description:

Set exposure factors according to patient’s height, weight, involved body area, and immobilization device parameters to obtain detailed and accurate images

Willingness to acquire and maintain certifications

The healthcare field is constantly changing to better diagnose, treat, and care for patients. Show that you’re willing to:

• keep learning
• maintain your certifications
• adopt new methodologies or technologies quickly

Other useful healthcare-related skills to include

• Patient care (even if you don’t work directly with patients, such as in a hospital administrator role, it’s important to show you support the larger mission of patient care)
• Experience with and/or an understanding of insurance

4. Let each experience say something different about you

In contrast to “climbing the corporate ladder,” many healthcare professionals receive specialized training to reach and settle into permanent positions. For example, a pharmacist will likely work at different places under the same job title rather than change job titles at a single workplace.

If you’ve occupied similar roles at different workplaces, your resume doesn’t have to be repetitive. Describe different hard and soft skills that you used at each job, even if your main duties were the same.

In situations where you’ve advanced to a new job title, use the space under your junior roles to describe the fundamental skills you mastered and probably still use in your more senior role. For senior positions, discuss high-level responsibilities and management skills.

5. Add your certifications in the correct format

Similar to your education section, your certifications section is important for convincing the hiring manager that you can do the job well.

List all of your certifications on your resume to show employers you’re fully qualified for the role you want. Even if the job description doesn’t require certain additional specialties, including them shows the hiring manager you:

• have a diverse set of skills
• are dedicated and hardworking
• are willing to learn
• will be a good asset if the job evolves over time

Make sure you format your certifications correctly according to your subfield. For example, here is how a radiologic technologist would list credentials:

6. Update your resume to keep up with the healthcare industry

The healthcare industry is changing. Due to an increasingly aging population, the coronavirus pandemic, and advances in technology, healthcare is expected to:

• be more personalized
• be more preventative
• take place in more unique or reimagined settings (rather than just hospitals, as jobs in home care are likely to expand)

Depending on the types of positions you’re applying for, show that you:

• can work flexible hours
• are willing to travel
• can work in a variety of settings
• can provide more specialized care