Travel Nurse Resume Examples to Help You Build Yours

A travel nurse is a type of nurse who travels to work in positions where hospitals are lacking staff. How can you create an application to be one of these nurses?

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Travel Nurse Resume Example

A travel nurse works at different hospitals, filling spots where there may not be enough nurses on staff. This makes traveling nurses incredibly valuable, as hospitals may not otherwise be able to provide enough patient care for everyone who comes in for treatment. If you’re thinking about applying to this position, here’s a travel nurse resume sample you can use to build your own.

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What to Highlight in a Travel Nurse Resume

Travel nurses need to be able to think on their feet and be very good at assimilating into a healthcare team. Because these healthcare professionals are always going somewhere new, they need to be able to work in new environments all the time. This means that skills like communication, flexibility and collaboration will be crucial to feature in your resume. Additionally, as with any other nursing profession, you must emphasize your skills with nursing care as a whole.

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Structure of a Travel Nurse Resume

The resume format that you choose for any resume will have an impact on the way it’s structured. Because of the amount of nursing experience required to become a travel nurse, you’ll likely use the chronological resume, which presents your work history most prominently. Here are the sections that a travel nurse resume sample will usually have.

Contact information

At the very top, as part of the resume design, you’ll see the resume header. The resume header includes your full name and your contact information, including your phone number, and any professional links you have, such as your LinkedIn profile.

Resume summary

Next is the resume summary or resume objective, a 2-3 sentence paragraph that features your top qualifications. Because a travel nurse normally has extensive experience, you will typically write a resume summary that highlights your most notable accomplishments. But if you don’t have much experience, opt for a resume objective that simply notes your career goals.

Skills

You need many skills to become a nurse. Here are some of the more common skills to consider for a travel nurse skills section:

Assessments
Critical care and acute care unit
Electronic medical system (EMR)
Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
Basic Life Support (BLS)
Accessing medical records
Collaboration
Flexibility
Attention to detail
Working with a staffing agency
Taking vital signs
Interpersonal skills
Communication

You can also see some other skills on the Registered Nurse resume example. These skills are just as applicable to travel nurses.

Work history

In your work experience section list the relevant jobs you’ve had within the last 10 years, with a focus on jobs within the nursing sphere. For each job, list 2-3 major responsibilities and accomplishments that shows you have the right qualifications for the job. Include the name of the facility you worked for, along with your job title and dates of employment.

Education

In the education section, list any formal nursing training you have, as well as any related certifications you’ve earned. Check to see whether the job you’re applying for has any additional education or certification requirements.

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Do’s and Don’ts for a Travel Nurse Resume

These additional tips can help you as you write your travel nurse resume:

Do:

Be specific about the tasks you’ve previously completed as a nurse. An ICU nurse has different tasks than a pediatric nurse, for example.
Steer toward measurable achievements if possible. Metrics and numbers can go a long way in making your resume look stunning.
Add experience that’s over 10 years old to your LinkedIn. This way, a hiring manager can still see it, but it’s not cluttering your resume.

Don’t:

Aim to make your resume longer than two pages. Going to two pages is okay if you’re featuring a lot of work experience, but you should always shoot for a resume that’s 1-2 pages long.
Include your high school information. To gain any nursing certifications, you need a high school diploma or equivalent, so it’s not important.
Include every skill you have. On average, you should include 8-12 skills in a chronological resume or up to 20 in a functional resume.

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FAQ: Travel Nurse Resume Examples

Q: Do I need to include a cover letter for a travel nurse application?

Yes. Cover letters are always important, whether you’re applying for a travel nurse job or a CEO position. A cover letter allows you to speak directly to the hiring manager, request the job interview, and provide more details about your background that show you’re the right candidate for the job. You can use the cover letter builder from ResumeHelp to help you build your letter.

Q: Do travel nurses need a lot of experience?

Yes. Travel nurses typically need more experience than nurses who don’t travel, because traveling nurses need to be able to utilize their experience in more unique ways. Remember that the relevant experience in your resume can come from a variety of places, and previous nurse positions in non-travel contexts are considered experience.

Q: How do I change my travel nurse resume to apply to different jobs?

One of the best ways to apply for a new job with the same resume is to look for resume keywords. You don’t have to rewrite your resume completely from scratch. You just have to rewrite sections of the resume around the keywords that the job description lists. This can help your resume make it through an applicant tracking system (ATS), which automatically scans resumes before they ever make it to a hiring manager, and will be looking to see how well your resume matches what the job posting lists.

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