The Only Travel Nurse Resume Sample You’ll Need

If you’re like most nurses, working on your resume isn’t the most exciting part of your day. And if you’re a travel nurse your resume needs updating almost every 13 weeks. Just because nurses are in high demand and your resume says“RN”, doesn’t mean you’re set. You need to make sure that you are keeping your experiences and qualifications fresh.

When writing a resume, it’s best to start with a travel nurse resume sample.  A travel nurse resume sample gives you an idea on the essential areas that need updating, how to present stand-out experiences, and ultimately makes your life SO MUCH easier!

Step-by-step Travel Nurse Resume Sample

Whether you’re starting from scratch or improving a draft, follow along with this step-by-step travel nurse resume sample and get the help you need to create a winning document.

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1. Contact Information

• Full name
• Email + Phone
• Tax home address
• Profession
• Primary specialty

2. Objective or Summary

This is your first opportunity to capture the reader’s attention with a strong synopsis of who you are as a nurse, what makes you stand out, and why you’re the best fit. It should speak to your past career, and future objective. It should not be too long (a few sentences, max). Lastly, don’t be shy! Show some passion, and give that movie trailer teaser on why they need to read more.

Example Objective and Summary for Travel Nurse Resume:

A dedicated Registered Nurse with over 6 years of ICU and PICU experience, and a total of 8 completed travel assignments, who excels in fast-pasted environments and adapts to new workflows quickly. With a devotion for patient care and satisfaction Casey Maxwell is a passionate nurse with a continuous desire for for new challenges and learning as she advances her career as a traveling nurse.

3. Licenses & Certifications

License(s)

• License Type (Registered Nurse, Paramedic, Medical Assistant)
• State of Issuance
• Indicate if this is a multi-state or compact license. Not sure? Find out here.
• License Number
• Expiration Date

Certifications

• Certification Name
• Expiration Date
• Certification Number (if it has one)

Do this for each of your licenses, even if they’re not relevant for the current position you’re searching for. Meaning if you’re not interested in returning to Florida for another contract you should still list out that Florida License. Secondly, many of us have worked previous healthcare roles before becoming a nurse (EMTs, Respiratory Therapists, etc.), if you’re still maintaining that license showcase it.

4. Work History

With all the different facilities, employment dates, and job details this becomes the most daunting task when building a travel nurse resume, but it is vital. The recruiter you send this to is almost immediately finding your work history section and looking for the relevant experience. So don’t short yourself!

• Facility name. Make sure you list the full, legal name. If you’re not sure look it up here.
• City and State
• Your Profession during this job.
• Specialty or Department you worked in.
• Start and end dates. Month and year or “Currently working here” is all that’s necessary.
• Employment type.
• Were you employed directly the facility/hospital, or a staffing agency? If staffing agency, disclose which agency.
• Did you work full time or part time?
• Travel contract or PRN?
• Hospital profile:
• Is it a Teaching Hospital?
• EHR/Charting System Used.
• Does it have level classifications: i.e. NICU or Trauma
• Is this a Critical Access Hospital? Look it up here if you’re unsure.
• What is the Unit Bed Count?
• What is the Patient to Nurse Ratio?
• Additional details that look good:
• Did you float to other departments, if so, where?
• What specific patient populations did you work with?
• What equipment types did you use?
• What were some commonly preformed procedures?

Though these details may feel irrelevant to your actual experience as a clinician they guide the recruiter on where they can and cannot place you. Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for specific keywords to match against the position they’re trying to fill. The more accurate the match, the more likely the nurse is going to be a strong fit.

5. References

Any seasoned travel nurse will tell you that references can get worn out quickly, and it might be best to keep them on hand, ready to provide, but only when absolutely needed.

6. Education

You studied hard, time to flaunt it!

• Degree(s) earned
• Graduation date
• Name of school/university

7. Employment Gaps

Explain any recent (with in the last two years) gaps in employment. Travel nurses typically have some gaps between contracts, so focus here on anything greater than 4 weeks. Less is more. A simple “personal time off” explanation is all that’s needed. Provide the dates and location where you lived.

Importance of a Strong Travel Nurse Resume

• Competition.When there’s a great contract, with a strong pay package, in a cool city, during the perfect season, you won’t be alone in applying for that position. If you’ve been traveling for any period of time you’ve probably lost a contract opportunity. Your goal is to win future contracts by preparing ahead of time and building a travel nurse resume that is ready to go.

• Recruiter discretion. A nurse who is organized, ready to go, and a good fit for a travel contract is the ideal candidate to recruiters. Recruiters are tasked with filling hospital needs with the best fit, as soon as possible.  Be sure to articulate your value as a nurse and be able to present yourself on the fly with a kick-ass resume. Using a travel nurse resume sample document is your key to giving the recruiters exactly what they want!

• Speed to submittal. Once you’ve passed your resume to the recruiter, they need to get it to their hiring manager. But before they do, it’s likely going to take some manipulation for their system to process it. The more time they spend here means the less time they spend completing other tasks in getting you submitted.

Robots Are Reading Your Resume

Other important consideration here — some staffing agencies use what’s called a “resume parser” to swiftly (but not very accurately) unpack stacks of resumes by identifying keywords and phrases and moving the information into their system of record. Oftentimes, this resume you’re working so hard on, wont even be read by a human.

This is important for you to know for a few reasons:

• Accuracy is key. “Bots” will miss words that are spelled incorrectly or phrased uniquely.
• Special fonts don’t do well in the resume parser. Use a standardized font like Arial or Times New Roman.

A Simpler and Smarter Solution

If this sounds overwhelming that’s because it is – but it doesn’t have to be. Today, technology can simplify and automate the travel nurse resume process, making it quick to update and even quicker to submit.

At Kamana, our free and secure profile, not only is a convenient place to store all your important job data, but you also have access to the resume builder! Once complete you can securely share it (along with the rest for your professional portfolio) with anyone right from your phone, any place, anytime.

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