INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nursing positions are at a 9% growth rate, which is as fast as average. With that said, there are currently 3,080,100 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 276,800 to 3,356,900 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Nursing jobs was $75,330 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $53,410, and the highest 10% more than $116,230.
Our conclusion? The Nursing job market is wide open for candidates.
Top medical surgical nurse sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
What to write in your medical surgical nurse experience section
Perfecting Your Medical Surgical Nurse Resume Experience Section:
- Focus on results, not responsibilities;
- Use 4-6 bullet points per position;
- List only positions that are relevant to what you’re applying for;
- Include at least some form of quantitative data – it can be linked to the number of people you’ve managed or the - percentage decrease in costs that’s followed from your work - you decide;
- Choose action verbs over buzzwords.
We’ve collected some of the top resume experience sections from real Enhancv users. Check them out when drafting your own Medical Surgical Nurse resume!
- Manage critical care devices such as CRRT, intra-aortic balloon pumps, Impella devices, LVADs, EKOs, and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) devices
- Ventilator management as well as evaluating spontaneous breathing trials and extubation readiness criteria
- Primary RN in the post anesthesia recovery and management of all cardiac, thoracic and heart/lung transplant surgeries
- Manage patients on vasoactive, inotropic, paralytic and sedation drips, as well as administering post-operative drug reversals
- Assist with insertion, set up, and management of hemodynamic monitoring systems including Swan-Gantz catheters, arterial lines, central lines, chest tubes, tracheotomy insertions, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy insertion, scopes, and emergent ECMO cannulation
- Monitor noninvasive and invasive hemodynamics, interpret and communicate data with providing team to enhance patient outcome and goals
- Leadership
- Currently orienting into role of Critical Care Lead Nurse, a role designed on our unit for experienced, CCRN trained nurses to assist new nurses with critically ill patients, as well as orienting as Charge RN
- Manage critically ill patients often involving Level 1 Traumas, intubation, conscious sedation, mass blood transfusion, arterial lines insertion and central line insertion
- Initiate and manage vasoactive, sedation and paralytic drips as well as assisting with chest tubes, needle decompression, paracentesis, peritoneal dialysis, and overdose reversal
- Primary nurse and first assist for acute emergencies such as malignant hyperthermia, pnemothoracies, cardiac tamponade, emergency thoracotomies, acute strokes, aortic dissections, severe burns, myocardial infarctions and CPR/ACLS
- 1 of 5 hired through the competitive New Graduate Nurse Residency Program
- Triage trained to rapidly identify and assess patients allowing the autonomy of ordering EKGs, labs and emergent CT based on patient presentation. Additionally trained in triage for mass casualties and chemical hazards
- LEADERSHIP
- Served on the New Graduate Nurse Residency Education Committee as Unit Sepsis Specialist
- Executed daily goals and care plans for up to 5 surgical patients during the day and up to 8 patients at night.
- Reviewed physician orders and monitored patients pre-operativevly as well as postoperatively, set up PCA, if required for pain management, initiate IV fluids and oriented patients to unit
- Managed care from admission to discharge including but not limited to wound care, ostomy care, drain care, PICC lines and parental nutrition.
- Administered oral medications, Intravenous, subcutaneous and intramuscular medications and monitored responses while working with healthcare teams to adjust care plans.
- Provided care to post-op patients, ensuring to encourage nutrition and ambulation, assessing for bladder retention and communicating to the surgeons any concerning assessment that would require necessary intervention and obtain orders for the same.
- Efficient in providing care after bowel surgeries, jaw surgeries, general surgeries, as well as patients under physician service of urology, gynecology and orthopedics.
- Performed Foley catheterization in both male and female patients with success, maintaining sterilized technique
- Nasogastric tube insertions and removed JP drain/sutures/staples.
- Conferred with physicians to discuss diagnoses and devise well-coordinated treatment approaches.
- Communicated medical information and discharge instructions to patients and families to reduce return visits.
- Performed direct patient care on the Dementia/Alzheimer's unit in a Long Term Care facility, assisting residents with medications, behavioural assessment, as well as head-to toe nursing assessment.
- Diligently practiced good sanitation and sterile techniques to avoid infection and the spread of contagious illnesses.
- Advocated and participated in maintaining patients' skin integrity
- Supervised and assigned work to Personal Support Workers on the floor.
- Efficient at documentation using Electronic medical record system (Point Click Care).
- Demonstrated strong assessment skills on assigned patients and reported any abnormal findings immediately
- Collaborated with respiratory therapist, physiotherapists, pharmacists and other members of the health care team to provide patient-centered care in an interdisciplinary team
- Efficiently practiced nursing skills under supervision like medication administration, wound care including VAC dressings, removal of sutures/staples, tracheostomy care, management of drains and insertion sites
- NG tube insertion, and Foley catheter insertion in both male and female patients with success
- Efficiently documented admission, transfer and discharge notes on assigned patients
- Proficiently managed chest tubes and witnessed a bed-side chest tube insertion as well as its removal
- Became familiar with the use and maintenance of a PICC line and its dressing change, and administered TPN feeds under supervision.
- Assisted in receiving patients from PACU and OR and monitored condition postoperatively. Focused on pain management and became familiar with PCA for post-op patients. Assisted and monitored patients receiving blood transfusions
- Assisted patients in activities of daily living such as incontinence care, mobility and bathing
- Ddemonstrated proper donning and doffing of Personal Protective Equipment and maintained isolation precautions
- Practiced interpersonal skills of empathy and compassion with patients and their families.
- Experience with Pyxis medication distribution machine and computer charting - EChart and PCIS.
- Provided pre-operative and post-operative care to patients.
- Controlling critical and stressful situation.
- Ensuring and maintaining a clean environment in the post-operative ward.
- Monitor and maintain inventory and supply levels; prepare and submit supply replenishment orders to maintain par levels.
- Changing dressings, inserting catheters, and starting IVs.
- Answering questions and educating patients and their families on surgical procedures and post-surgery care.
- Adhere to proper safety and sterilization protocols and techniques to ensure infection control.
- Assessed signs and symptoms indicating physiologic and psychosocial changes in the patient’s condition.
- Maintaining effective interdisciplinary communication processes.
- Collected, analyzed, and interpreted data and information from health care members and documents actual and potential nursing diagnoses.
- Prepares and administers (orally, subcutaneously, through an IV) and records prescribed medications.
- Collaborate with laboratory personnel and report lab findings to doctors.
- Management of care under contact, droplet, and airborne isolation precautions.
- Responds to life-saving situations based upon nursing standards and protocol.
- Consults and coordinates with health care team members to assess, plan, implement and evaluate patient care plans.
- Highly proficient clinical skills: IV Starts, pushes, drips, 12-lead EKG, cardiac monitors, blood monitoring, transfusions, central line care, drawing blood gasses (arterial and venous).
- Records patients’ medical information and vital signs .
- Monitors and adjusts specialized equipment used on patients, and interprets and records electronic displays.
- Assisted patients with bathing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, standing and walking.
- Teaches patients and significant others how to manage their illness/injury, by explaining: post-treatment home care needs.
- Valuable experience in critical thinking, analyzing, and planning.
- Assessment skills with teamwork and collaboration.
- ~ 288 hours of Theory in relationship to nursing.
- `800 Clinical experience hours on the floor with patient care.
- Provide the basic activities of daily living to residents, and create an environment that is caring, provides privacy, and dignity.
- Complete and record vital signs including activities of daily living.
- Nutrition, elimination monitor, and monitoring intake and output.
- Provide personal hygiene and grooming.
- comfort and privacy; Protect patient privacy and maintain confidentiality, keep call signals within patient's reach, answer call signal promptly.
- Safety and precautions by carry out isolation precautions, practice medical asepsis and infection control, practice standard precautions, and observe oxygen precautions.
- Dedicated NCM for The Home Depot
- Medical and disability case manager, applying medical treatment guidelines, reviewing medical treatment requests, providing teaching to associates, providing medical opinions and collaborating with claims adjusters on claim direction. Ensuring quality care and return to work plans,
- Easily Adapted to new THD role, flexible, quick-learner, team player
- Manager: Amanda Razzouk
- Operating Room Nurse, Medical/Surgical Floor Nurse, Intensive Care Nurse
- Full time nurse in 2011, currently per-diem ICU nurse 1 shift per month
- Committees: Nurse Peer Review, Women's Health Committee
- Heart foundation Ambassador 2017
- Promoting and performing healthy heart checks
- Responsible for maintenance of medical supplies, medications, cold chain management and triaging.
- Providing education and advocating for patients .
- Performing observations, ECG's, spirometry and venepuncture our patients.
- Working overnight in a 24 emergency clinic, quick thinking, problem solving, team work and stamina are essential skills.
- Helped over 40 mothers with malnourished children by giving health education
- Obtain health history and current concerns, record patient vitals, and perform a brief assessment on up to 30 patients per day
- Performed physical assessment and routinely monitored vital signs of patients enrolled in the radiation treatment plan.
- Assisted the radiologist/oncologist of the precise radiation treatment plan.
- Worked with radiology therapist/oncologist to deliver radiation therapy through External Beam Radiation Therapy and Internal Radiation Therapy.
- Fostered care and support for the patients regarding both the physical and emotional difficulties brought on by cancer and radiation therapy.
- Monthly report and evaluation of ICU patients status to Nursing Service Department.
- Allocating budget and resources to provide quality care for patients while maximizing unit income and minimizing capital expenses of the area efficiently.
- Evaluate work performances, organizing monthly staff meeting, establishing work schedule and recommendation for ICU staff.
- Providing support to patients’ family and extended care circle as part of holistic care approach, including cases of terminal prognosis
- Recognising and early response to signs of patient clinical deterioration
- Functioned as a Team Leader responsible for: - Shift coordination - Coordinating complex patient care - Directing and maintaining staff roles (including skill mix delegation) - Understanding and maintaining the eight national standards within nursing practice
- Provide acute care management, ongoing research & education, and systematic care & plans to inpatient/outpatient cardiac patients.
- Provide and coordinate care for pre-heart transplant or mechanical circulatory support screening and evaluation.
- Support NP team program growth endeavors by increasing numbers of NP patient clinics as well as collaborating with residents/fellows.
- Management of patients with CardioMems PA sensor implant, anticoagulation, and chronic care management.
- Provide intensive care services including diagnosing, treating, and managing acute conditions in the Intensive Care Unit in collaboration with physicians.
- Provide procedural services including Accu-cath and PICC line insertions.
- Management of patients in the ICU including ordering lab work, diagnostics studies, treatment therapies, and medication management.
- Provided high-quality care to a variety of intensive care patients including post-stroke, TIA, aneurysm repairs, pneumonia, sepsis, ARDS, and vascular surgeries.
- Assisted the physicians with bedside procedures including ventriculostomy/ EVD placements, EGD, colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, and cardioversion.
- Collaborated with members of the interdisciplinary team to ensure quality patient care.
- Advocated for patient safety in compliance with national patient safety goals.
- Management of patients with vasoactive drips and life sustaining devices.
PRO TIP
Check the Medical Surgical Nurse job description for inspiration. Look for similarities between your employer’s values and your experience.
Action verbs for your medical surgical nurse resume
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Medical surgical nurse resume skills section to impress recruiters
Checklist for a perfect medical surgical nurse resume skills section:
- Make sure to include most if not all essential skills for the job;
- Check the job description and add some keywords to pass ATS;
- List both hard and technical skills;
- When it comes to soft skills – elaborate on them in other sections of your resume (e.g. the experience section).
Top skills for your medical surgical nurse resume
Excel
CPR
Bilingual
Cannulation
BSL
Scout/Scrub
Patient care
ACLS
Customer service
Communication
Compassion
Patience
Flexibility, adaptability, and emotional stability
Proactive, ethical, and responsible nature
Honesty
Team-player
Strong work ethic
Time management
PRO TIP
Don’t feel obliged to spend a separate section for your soft skills - you can weave them throughout your job experience or career summary. But, don’t just write empty words - back them with examples.
Medical Surgical Nurse Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
Checklist for your medical surgical nurse resume header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your Medical Surgical Nurse resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
Writing an effective medical surgical nurse resume summary
Impressive medical surgical nurse resume summary checklist:
- Point out the achievements that make you a valuable applicant;
- Mention the total years of experience you have;
- Highlight the things you believe make you the best fit for the position;
- Keep it short: aim at having no more than 3-5 sentences.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
Read the job description carefully and understand what the hiring company is exactly looking for. After that, write your summary accordingly while highlighting your potential and ability to be the best at that job.
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Drawing the attention to your medical surgical nurse resume education section
Crafting a job-winning education section.
- Use the reverse-chronological format when listing your degrees;
- Tailor the classes you’ve taken to the position you’re applying for if you’re an entry-level candidate;
- Mention the awards and honors you’ve received;
- Add your certifications (but only those relevant to the position).
Top Certifications for Your Medical Surgical Nurse Resume
Medical Surgical Nursing Practice Test 1
Prepare for the Medical Surgical Nursing Certification with live practice tests in your laptop/mobile
Medical Terminology
Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words
Learn Basic Surgical Skills
Step by step procedures for the important surgical skills to be possessed by medical students and professionals
Medical Terminology and Medical Abbreviations 2021
Medical Terminologies,Medical suffixes,Medical prefixes,Medical compounded words and Human systems medical terms.
Deep Learning with PyTorch for Medical Image Analysis
Learn how to use Pytorch-Lightning to solve real world medical imaging tasks!
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PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Medical Surgical Nurse. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Choosing the best format for your medical surgical nurse resume
The content of your Medical Surgical Nurse resume is what will get you hired, right?
But even when your content’s amazing and you’re a true over-achiever, recruiters might not think you’re a good fit if your resume looks messy or is not formatted the right way.
In general, there are three basic resume formats we advise you to stick with:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
Deciding which one to use depends on your experience, the industry, and the company. In short — you need to know what your applicant profile is.
For instance, reverse-chronological resumes are great for people with over 10 years of experience and no employment gaps. Here, you need to list all your relevant experience in a reverse-chronological format, starting from the most recent and going back to less recent positions.
Functional skills-based resumes, on the other hand, are great for entry-level applicants, graduate students, or people who have different kinds of experience. It focuses on skills, education, and character traits, rather than experience.
If none of these work for you, and you dream of adopting a more creative approach that makes a difference, the combination (or hybrid) resume format is exactly what you’re looking for. It allows you to focus on both your experience and your skills, making it a ‘best of both worlds’ format. It’s also suitable for those who want to spice things up by adding different creative sections (e.g. ‘life philosophy’ or ‘what my day looks like’).
Here are some additional tips on perfecting your resume layout and style:
- Go for a traditional resume font sized 12p;
- Use standard 1-inch resume margins for increased readability;
- Make sure your resume fits on a one-page template. In case you’ve got 10 years of experience or more, your resume’s length can reach two pages;
- Avoid unwanted editing and plagiarism – save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiters.
Want to take it a step further? Learn how to make your resume stand out without relying too much on creativity.
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PRO TIP
Test your draft Medical Surgical Nurse resume by sending it out to peers and mentors in your circles. Ask them to review it as if they are hiring you for a project and implement the feedback afterwards.
Want to include something more to your medical surgical nurse resume?
So you’ve already listed details about your education, experience, and skills. You’ve also crafted an amazing summary.
But now you feel a creative urge to showcase your personality and not just your expertise.
We’ve got you! Thanks to our modern templates, you can now include a chart of what your typical day looks like or even a word or two about your life philosophy. All this without sacrificing your Medical Surgical Nurse resume’s professional feel.
Some non-traditional sections for your resume include:
Making your medical surgical nurse resume stand out
You want to make a strong first impression to all recruiters that get a hold of your resume. Sure you do! But how?
Well, the easiest way to stand out is by adding a bit of creativity to your Medical Surgical Nurse resume. You could do this by going for a colorful layout or adding a creative section or two. It all depends on the industry and the position you’re applying for!
For instance, a position in design would allow for a more colorful resume, while a position in finance would probably not.
What makes a great medical surgical nurse resume: key takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
