Not Marketing Quality Patient Care or Personalizing Care Approach:
I write resume for nurses and I often ask them to tell me what qualifies them over other nurses so that I may “market” their professional value. What separates an everyday nurse (which is still an angel in my eyes) from a nurse who is exceptional (God like)? :- )
Differentiating personalized skills: Someone who demonstrates she / he cares, pays close attention to patient needs, and goes the extra mile to execute basic patient care (even when they are a more advanced critical care nurse) with genuine concern and diligence. Often, nurses I have worked with are focused on listing advanced certifications, complex and critical-care skills, naming all sorts of drips, clinical skills, etc. While listing credentials and trained skills is a must, what will set them apart from others who can list the same credentials is their patient focus and approach to the delivery of care plans / therapies.
Imagine just listing medications, certifications, job duties only! My response when a resume lacks that personal touch is, “ok, tell me about your patient rapport building and individualized patient care skills? What would your patients say about you? How about your basic nursing care skills?” Don’t think basic care is that important? Take a look at this post: http://www.impactednurse.com/?p=539.
Even when you are a more advanced nurse, basic patient care, bedside care, rapport building, team work, and how kind you are with your therapeutic communications, and attentiveness to patients individualized needs…still counts! It counts to your patients; it counts to the bottom-line goals of your unit, counts to your new employer and certainly counts to you! That is why you are a nurse in the first place, remember?
Rosa E. Vargas