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Operating Room Nurse Resume Examples (Resume Writing Steps & Tips)
You'll learn:
Operating room nurses, also called perioperative nurses, are registered nurses who provide care for patients before, during, and after operations. They are also responsible for keeping the operating room sterile at all times and assisting surgeons with surgical instruments and equipment inside operating suites. Operating room nurses commonly work at hospitals or other medical facilities.
If you want to take a step into the field, prove your qualifications with a strong operating room nurse resume. It should demonstrate skills and relevant work experience such as preparing lab specimens, assessing a patient's condition pre-operation and ongoing through surgery, and ensuring that everything is available for the surgery.
5 steps to draw up a killer operating nurse resume
Step 1: Grab the employer's attention with an on-point resume headline.
A resume headline can be a title of your operating room charge nurse resume or a short statement introducing yourself. A well-branded and intriguing resume headline has a higher tendency to impress hiring managers.
✅ Recommendation: Such a resume headline like that should include your major profession/role, level of experience, and core competencies. Remember - keep it brief and on-point within one sentence!
Examples of operating nurse resume headlines:
- Practical Operating Room Nurse with 10 years of professional experience in the Department of School Nurse Pre-Admission Urgent Care.
- Dedicated Operating Room Nurse with solid clinical utilization review and considerable case management experience.
- Operating Room Nurse with 8+ years of experience working in medical surge units and operating rooms.
Step 2: Compile a strong OR nurse resume summary.
A resume summary, also known as a personal statement, is where employers can get a quick idea of your skills, competencies, and achievements. Thus, a well-written summary statement can impress them better and motivate them to go over your OR nurse resume.
Examples of a professional operating room nurse resume summary:
- Detail-oriented Operating Room Nurse with extensive experience and full responsibility for the overall NBC deployment readiness for Intepact Hospital. Highly specialized in performing specialized duties in all phases of the operative process with exceptional organizational and interpersonal skills. Awarded as the Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Officer in 2020.
- Meticulous Operating Room Nurse possessing 7 years of experience in assessing, planning, implementing, evaluating, and coordinating the total care of patients. Key skills include broad knowledge of aseptic and sterile techniques, a solid understanding of patient safety and precautions, and outstanding organizational ability.
- Certified Operating Room Nurse with a proven ability to circulate in a 6-room surgery department. Responsible for providing age and culturally appropriate care, comfort, and assistance to preoperative patients. A great team player with exceptional communication skills and strong self-motivation.
Step 3: Sprinkle your resume with operating room nurse skills.
Here’s how to identify relevant skills for an operating room nurse:
- List all your OR nurse skills (including soft skills & hard skills)
- Review the circulating nurse job descriptions to identify what skills are required
- Prioritize the skills that are on both lists
- Format the skills section wisely, based on your choice of the resume format (Check this resume skills writing guide for further information!)
Check below for outstanding skills for OR nurse resumes:
| ✍🏻 Soft skills | ✍🏻 Hard skills |
| Time management Interpersonal skills Teamwork Self-motivated Decision making | Operating room support Equipment use expertise Pre-operative assessments Post-op care knowledge Emergency response |
Step 4: Tailor the operating room nurse resume to a specific job.
It's actually simple to guide the employer to the conclusion that you are the right fit!
Tailor your circulating nurse resume by picking relevant responsibilities from the operating room nurse job descriptions and integrate them into your resume content. This way, you can position yourself towards the specific vacancy in the best way to impress the hiring manager.
👍 The rule of thumb is inserting keywords from the description of the operating nurse job you're applying for.
Step 5: Showcase relevant certifications or licenses.
You will need a license or certification to work as an operating room nurse so don't miss out on showcasing your certificates, such as:
- Registered Nurse (RN)
- CNOR Certified
- Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Certification
📝 Reminder: It’s best to list your professional certifications and licenses in a separate section from your education or work experience.
What will be the right operating room nurse resume format?
Depending on your professional situation, you should adopt a compatible OR nurse resume format that best represents yourself.
You can consider one among the three most common types of resume format shown below:
Chronological resume format
🔎 What's this?
- Work experience is listed in a reversed order, starting with the most recent job.
- Most commonly used format.
- Easy to read and review.
👍 Who should use it?
Job seekers with vast work experience in the field
Functional resume format
🔎 What's this?
- Deemphasize employment history while putting the candidate's skills front and center.
- The skills section should be described in detail, not just short bullet points.
👍 Who should use it?
- Career changers
- Fresh graduates
- Entry-level job seekers
Hybrid resume format
🔎 What's this?
- A blend of the chronological and functional resume.
- Start with the skills sections, followed by demonstrating the candidate's work experience and achievements.
👍 Who should use it?
Job seekers who:
- Have limited work experience in the field
- Are reentering the workforce
- Going to switch careers
✍🏻 Pro tip: Whichever type of operation theatre nurse resume format you choose, tailor the resume to the targeted job and keep it within 1 page.
Create a professional operating room nurse resume template
Ready to write a resume for an operating room nurse job?
Let's check out two popular tools that provide job seekers like you with hundreds of built-in resume templates.
1. Microsoft Word
How: Choose a template and simply drop the text.
Tips:
- Follow the standard structure (Profile, Personal Statement, Skills, Work Experience, Education, Others)
- Insert job-related keywords to the operating room nurse resume
- Apply standard font, spacing, margins, etc.
- Save it as an operating room nurse resume PDF file
2. Online Resume Builders
How: Most online resume builders like Cake allow you to create an account for free. You can upgrade your plan to use premium features. Among plenty of built-in resume templates, you can select one and customize the content to make your operating room nurse resume unique.
Tips:
Go over tutorial articles on Cake to learn useful tips for writing a resume
No matter if you're a seasoned professional or a fresher, you can create a powerful operating room nurse resume using Cake. Download free operating room nurse resume PDF and get the dream job with ease!
Top 10 Dos & Don'ts when writing an operating room nurse resume
Dos:
✅ Highlight your educational background as healthcare jobs require a specific graduate major and training. That way, your OR nurse resume won’t get shortlisted without a proper education section.
✅ Bring numbers to the table, especially in the work experience section. The employer expects to see something practical, compelling, and convincing.
Example: “Managed health histories, physicals, ECGs, and lab draws for 10-13 patients daily.”
✅ Create an operating room nurse resume that beats the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) - a software used for collecting and scanning eligible job applications. Golden rules are optimizing keywords from the job post and avoiding tables or graphs.
✅ Keep the formatting of your OR nurse resume consistent.
That's why online resume builders like Cake are now taking over traditional tools like Word. Built-in resume templates makes it so much easier to adjust the formatting.
✅ Adopt action/power verbs, preferably keywords from the job ad that you're applying for, to give your OR nurse resume a boost.
Example: prepare, assist, collaborate, examine, conduct, provide, care, etc.
Don’ts:
🙅 Mistake a resume with a CV. An operating room nurse resume often focuses on nursing work experience and skills, whereas a CV lists out comprehensive details about the candidate, including both professional and academic achievements.
🙅 Draft an old-style resume objective statement that looks like: “Seeking the ABC position at XYZ company". The employer can't see your career goals and desire for the job in such a generic statement.
Example of a winning operating room nurse resume objective:
“Eager to join McKay Hospital to effectively support the hospital staff and provide the patients with impeccable care.”
🙅 Disclose confidential information about former patients or employers since that would be unprofessional. Also, you can get into trouble regarding legal issues.
🙅 Include unnecessary personal details in your operating room circulating nurse resume, such as height/weight, Social Security Number, political affiliation, religion, etc. That might even lead to discrimination.
🙅 Submit your operating room nurse resume as a Word doc.
The employer may encounter formatting issues while opening it with different devices.
Operating Room Nurse Resume Sample
Miley Thompson
Operating Room Nurse performed specialized duties in all phases of the operative process
Phone: (712)-171-9875
Email: [email protected]
Professional Summary
Dedicated Operating Room Nurse with 8 years of experience in operating room support. Adept at providing age and culturally appropriate care, comfort and support to preoperative patients. Proven track record for medical procedure competency and adapting quickly to complications while advocating for patient needs.
Work Experience
Operating Nurse
Lakeview Regional Medical Center, LA
8/2016 - 2/2021
- Prepared surgical suite according to surgery and surgeon preference, especially assisted in operative procedures.
- Assisted the surgical team to ensure stringent quality standards and safety precautions for the patients.
- Planned and executed corrective actions upon adverse information from monitoring equipment.
- Compiled and managed patient safety data, reviewed labs, and updated charts using the CERNER and SIS Computer Systems.
- Trained and supervised 35+ incoming nursing staff, students and LPN/PCA staff.
Operating Nurse
Ochsner University Hospital & Clinics, LA
12/2013 - 5/2016
- Administered emergency care to up to 10 patients daily.
- Assisted in the planning of surgery schedules and the preparation and care of patients undergoing surgical intervention.
- Assured the cleanliness and sterility of the surgical area before, during, and after the surgery, adhering to AORN standards of perioperative practice.
- Constantly monitored, analyzed, and reported the performance of clinical activities.
Education
B.S. in Nursing
Louisiana state university, LA
Class of 2010
Skills
| Soft skills | Hard skills |
| Compassionate care Collaboration Adaptability Multitasking Problem-solving | General OR knowledge Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Laparoscopic general surgeries Isolation precautions Infection prevention |
Certifications
Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) Certification
--- Originally written by May Luong ---
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