You might be coming straight from school or college, or changing career and applying for a nursing course, but all the experience you’ve gained can be used in your nurse CV. Everything you’ve ever done will have helped in some way, you just need to draw attention to the right parts and relate to the skills you will need as a student nurse.
Keys skills for a nurse: communication, team work, empathy, advocacy and organisation (amongst others).
Communication skills are gained in every day life and work, the key is to use them effectively. Effective communication skills take time and practice to achieve, and usually go hand in hand with tact and intuition. To give an example in your CV of how you use have gained these skills, you could describe how you helped resolve a problem by liaising between several different parties. This could also demonstrate your integrity by remaining neutral at all times.
Team work skills are crucial, and most people also have some degree of team work abilities. You can draw attention to yours by giving an example of our your understanding of the team dynamic, and respect for everyone else’s role in the team lead to a positive outcome. As a nurse inter-professional working is key, and you’ll regularly be required to work with other healthcare professionals.
Empathy should not be confused with sympathy. Empathy allows you to put yourself in some one else’s position to see something from their perspective. Along with advocacy, these are two vital skills that every nurse must have. Advocacy is mentioned directly in the NMC code and should therefore be part of your everyday skillset. You can give examples of this by referring to an experience when you acted on someone’s behalf on a course of action that you believed was in their best interests, even if this was contrary to your own opinion.
Organisation is such an elementary skill, it may be hard to find an example in your experience of truly brilliant organisation. But it’s key for every nurse to be able to prioritise your workload, ensure care plans are up to date and maintained and to keep the needs of those in your care at the forefront of everything you do as a nurse. So if you can relate your organisational abilities to a nursing scenario in your CV, that could be really beneficial.
Don’t go overboard with how much you write, an admissions officer is just looking for evidence that you understand what will be expected of you in your future nursing career and that you are committed to your progress on the course. By taking such time and care over your application, you are demonstrating more than most others that apply.
Don’t forget, if you like the articles written on this blog – tell your friends and click the stars rating. Thanks.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
