INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Travel Nurse 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 Travel Nurse 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 Travel Nurse job market is wide open for candidates.
Top travel nurse sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
A travel nurse resume experience section to be proud of
Writing a strong experience section for your travel nurse resume:
- List your previous jobs in chronological or reverse-chronological format;
- Use no more than 4-6 bullets per position;
- Mention only relevant work experience;
- Describe the tasks you were responsible for and how you managed to exceed expectations;
- Show you’re able to take charge by choosing action verbs over buzzwords.
Looking for real-life examples of what a strong experience section looks like? Check out our suggestions below!
- Provided first class medial care, travel counseling and education to over 500 clients traveling abroad to ensure they have a safe and healthy trip.
- Recruited two additional travel nurses, overseeing their education and training ensuring they provide expert travel advice for our clients.
- A member of the clinic leadership team involved in managing the clinical and administrative performance of the interdisciplinary care team and clinic.
- Ensures care team follows center-specific policies, protocols, and procedures while maintaining service level expectations, customer service and compliance standards.
- Most 'weeks booked' during initial 6 month on-boarding
- Leveraged excellent communication skills to build lasting rapport with Travel RNs
- Core Values Award - Rookie of the Year
- Provide compassionate care for the critically ill patients and families
- Coordinate care for the critically ill between doctors and interdisciplinary team
- Management of equipment for critically ill patients ( Ventilators, Bipap, CRRT, Intra Aortic balloon pump)
- Consistently achieved over 100% of sales quota as a Recruiter
- Executed a minimum of 70 daily outreaches to prospective candidates
- Successfully placed candidates in top ranked facilities
- Achieved growing my business within the company and created a lasting trust with clients
- Supervised orderlies, nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses
- Designed 50+ strategies customized to patient and family overall health
- Provided general competency courses for 300 staff in the department of pediatrics
- Taught healthy interventions and restraint courses 2 times per week to over 100+ health practitioners
- Led a team of 5 medical workers for audit programs to ensure all staff meet safety standards
- Helped 50+ family members by giving health education
- Provided direct patient care to 500+ kids suffering from autoimmune diseases
- Conducted individualized patient assessments and performed medical procedures to 500+ patients
- Acted as consultant regarding treatment of chronic diseases regarding 100+ patients
- Organized and prioritized care for 3-4 acutely ill patients each shift
- Managed care of 22 personal care home residents
- Managed care of 10+ hospital patients
- Monitored 100+ patients' fluid intake as well as output to detect problems
PRO TIP
Make sure to relate your experience to your job description, but never lie. That’s not tolerated and will show up in the face-to-face interview later on.
Action Verbs for Your Travel Nurse Resume
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Taking Control of Your Travel Nurse Resume’s Skills Section
A skills section that shows what you're capable of includes:
- Keywords from the job advert to help you pass ATS;
- Both hard and soft skills, incl. technical skills and people skills;
- Skills that are relevant to the position you’re applying for;
- No more than 15 skills – to keep your resume readable.
Top skills for your travel nurse resume
Healthcare
Nursing
Patient Care
Surgical
NIHSS
ACLS
BLS
FNP-BC
Acute Care
Communication
Compassion
Patience
Flexibility, adaptability, and emotional stability
Proactive, ethical, and responsible nature
Honesty
Team-player
Strong work ethic
Time management
PRO TIP
When describing your experience, don’t go too far from its terminology. Recruiters use ATS systems to filter resumes based on them having certain keywords, so make sure you use at least a few keywords mentioned in the job description.
Travel nurse resume header: tips, red flags, and best practices
Checklist for your travel 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 Travel 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.
A travel nurse resume summary that spotlights your achievements
Checklist: A strong travel nurse resume summary.
- Use adjectives that highlight the character traits you’re most proud of;
- Mention 1-2 of your biggest achievements;
- Add keywords from the job advert to increase your chances of passing ATS;
- Keep the recruiter’s attention by going for short sentences.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
Highlight specific past projects that you’re most proud of in your summary. It sets an excellent tone for the rest of your resume. You can talk about all of your former jobs in your work experience section later on.
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Creating an impressive education section for your travel nurse resume
The education section: checklist
- List your degrees in reverse-chronological order;
- Include your degree subject, place of study, name of institution, and year of graduation;
- Add a line or two about your relevant certifications;
- Mention some classes and projects that have helped you gain additional skills.
Top Certifications for Your Travel Nurse Resume
How to get a job working from home as a healthcare recruiter
New recruiters are WANTED! Find out how to get a job in the growing healthcare staffing industry.
Maths For Nurses
Pass your drug calculations test with ease
39 Travel Tips to Make Your Travel More Enjoyable - 1 Hour
Travel Tips To Help You Enjoy All Your Business and Personal Travel and Vacations - Practical and Usable Travel Tips
Nursing Professionals Get Motivated! Motivation For Nurses
A Month Of Encouragement For Nurses and Those In Nursing School Taking Nursing Courses
How to Travel Around the World on a Budget
The Most Complete and Updated Travel Course! Get the Best Travel Tips to Plan your World Trip without breaking the bank!
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PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Travel 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.
A professional format for your travel nurse resume
There are some aspects worth taking into consideration when choosing the format of your Travel Nurse resume. These include the position and company you’re applying for, your total years of experience, whether you’ve been through some employment gaps, and so on.
Generally speaking, there are three basic resume formats for you to choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
The reverse-chronological resume format is just that: all your jobs listed in a reverse-chronological way, starting from the most recent and moving backward. It’s great for highly experienced professionals with over 10 years in the industry behind their backs. The reason for this: it’s almost entirely focused on experience and achievements.
The functional skills-based resume format, on the other hand, is just the opposite. It’s based on your skills, personality, and expertise. It highlights what you’re capable of even when you don’t have sufficient work experience. This makes it great for students, recent graduates, or people with larger career gaps.
If neither of these sounds like you, go for the combination resume format. It’s a combination of the best characteristics of other formats, which makes it great for showcasing different aspects of your career and education. It also gives you plenty of options to choose from – in terms of colors, structure, and sections.
Check out our additional tips on perfecting your Travel Nurse resume’s style and layout:
- Choose traditional 1-inch resume margins;
- Go for a serif or sans serif resume font that’s easy to read yet looks professional (e.g. Arial, Verdana, or Calibri);
- Keep your Travel Nurse resume short: one-page template are preferable, but if you have over 10 years of experience, you can also go for a two-page format;
- Save your resume as PDF and choose a suitable name, e.g. NameSurnameResume;
Tired of looking for ways to make your resume stand out? Read this article!
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PRO TIP
If you feel that you don’t have high chances in a particular company, due to lack of relevant experience, then you can still consider using a creative layout. That might help you get noticed and invited for an interview, as most of the other applicants will have boring resume designs.
Additional sections for your travel nurse resume
After drafting the required sections of your Travel Nurse resume, it’s now time to move to something a bit more fun. There are a number of sections you can add to your resume depending on the company, the position, and how you’re feeling in general:
Adding the right kind of creativity to your travel nurse resume
It is through creativity that we express ourselves. And trust us, it’s important to show at least a bit of your personality if you want to leave a strong first impression.
But what are the ways to add creativity to your Travel Nurse resume? Well, you can either go for a colorful and engaging template, or you could add some out-of-the-box sections, such as ‘life philosophy’ or ‘what my typical day looks like’.
It’s up to you! Just make sure that the level of creativity matches the position, the company, and the industry you’re applying for.
What makes a great travel 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.
