Resume Tips for Healthcare Professionals
by Kim Isaacs
Healthcare has undergone significant changes in the past 20 years, and healthcare organizations are increasingly sensitive to cost control and productivity. Funding sources for both public and private healthcare organizations have cut back reimbursement and allowable expenses. Your resume must reflect an understanding of these changes and show evidence of skills, experience, a commitment to quality, and an ability to evaluate yourself, your peers, and your department. There are different ways to reflect your key selling points in your resume. What is important is creating the right document, written in the right way, to get you in that interview room.
Which Format Is Right for You?
Resume: A resume is preferred for healthcare professionals seeking a position in administrative or back-office operations. When seeking a management position, reverse chronological resumes are preferred, as your experience and skills can be evaluated vis-a-vis the organization’s own organization. Hospitals and agencies need qualified people in accounting, purchasing, plant operations and MIS; these departments are usually amenable to qualified applicants from fields other than healthcare.
Curriculum Vitae ("course of one’s life"): Primarily used by people in medical, academic, and scientific professions. The tone of the CV is understated modesty -- the professional should list all credentials, but not necessarily boast (as in a resume) about the achievements. Typical headings of a CV include education/degrees, internships, professional experience, awards and honours, publications (books, articles, reports, journals), speaking engagements, conferences, and professional affiliations. The length depends on the level of experience -- a CV for a new grad might be one page, whereas someone at the top of his or her profession might have multiple pages.
Getting Interviews
When describing your work history and accomplishments, use an abundance of buzzwords or keywords to get noticed:
Caseload: If you wish to stay in a similar healthcare field, elaborate on the type of caseload you’ve managed, including number of patients/clients served and the specific challenges your caseload presented.
Computer/Tech Skills: Include software and program expertise, especially if it is related to healthcare. Your technical skills can be listed in a separate Technical Summary section or within the context of another achievement. For example, "developed and implemented patient status/tracking system using MS Access."
Continuous Quality Initiatives (CQI): Quality improvement initiatives that highlight an understanding of systems and process analysis, problem identification, and qualitative oversight. Keep in mind that generic QI oversight is a normal and expected component of any professional.
Grant Writing/Fundraising: Money talks, and if you know the language well enough to develop new funding streams, recruiters notice.
Operating Revenue: Whether you are a clinician, line staff or administrator, the size of your budget influences the prestige and significance of your past work experiences. Be aware that an organization’s budgets are often available in the public record and can be verified.
Program/Service Development and Expansion: In today’s healthcare environment, you expand services or you don’t succeed. Speak to costs, revenue, patients served, and other quantifiable information.
Research/Publications: Are you keeping on the cutting edge of your industry? Employers are normally impressed by a distinguished list of publications. Avoid obscure or unrelated publishing credits.
Regulatory/Government Agencies: Include expertise in regulatory compliance and successes with city, provincial and federal agencies and programs, or work with organizations such as Héma-Quebec, Red Cross, Canadian Blood Services, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Medicare, OHIP etc.
Training: Confident public speaking and presence counts. Have you developed and/or implemented a training curriculum on subject matter in your profession?
Trans-Disciplinary/Interdisciplinary Teams: No man or woman is an island. Note your ability to work with different groups of professionals. Ideally, indicate a successful outcome that resulted from collaboration with others.