Tag: Nursing

How to Nail Your Nursing Resume and Interview?

In the last blog we covered how your online social media presence has become indispensable for your professional development. In this one, we will discuss how you can prepare for your dream job and leave a lasting impression on your interviewer with your resume and presentation skills. 

Your interviewer has piles of resumes to scan through and cannot devote more than two minutes per resume – so it is important that your application stands out and makes a good first impression.

Although there is no such thing as a perfect resume, the good news is that it is not very difficult to write a near-perfect resume if we follow some basic rules of maintaining clarity, brevity and formatting. 

This brings us to the things we should consider while preparing our CV. 

The basics of writing a CV
  • Contact Information: Ensure that the contact info you provide is up to date and completely accurate.‍
  • Format: Keep headlines large enough to draw attention, but not so large that it looks comical. Use a professional looking font, not anything cursive or containing a flourish. Be mindful of the space between words and sentences so that employers do not have to struggle with reading.
  • Education and Work History: Follow chronological order, and keep the details of your current or most recent employment at the top. Ensure that dates of employment and departure from jobs are accurate. Separate school and work experience for greater clarity. Start with education, and then move on to work timelines.
How to make your CV stand out
Resume
“Make sure your resume stands out, is visually appealing and concise.”
  • Start with an objective statement

Since a resume is meant to obtain an interview for the applicant, it must be able to offer a clear image of what the candidate has to offer and intends to accomplish. Communicate this with an object statement that  highlights your goals and your skills. 

Keep the statement concise, clear, use action words and quantifiable details. For example,

“Detail-oriented, highly-motivated nursing professional with 10+ years of experience treating critical care patients, leading staff training and counseling patients and their families seeks position with [insert organization] as a registered nurse manager.”

Remember to write a statement that you can strongly support with your educational qualifications and work history. 

  • Highlight experience and areas of expertise

Don’t just say that you have experience as a nurse. That is far too vague, and all your competitors have the exact same thing on their resumes. Instead, focus on providing specifics about the skills that you bring to the table. Don’t wait until the interview to talk about them. If necessary, create a separate document and list your abilities, which can range from blood draws, taking vitals, urgent care experience and more. 

“Be confident of your resume, and know what you’ve written in it at the back of your hand.”
  • Use keywords

Employers sometimes tend to scan resumes to look for certain terms. You might not know the exact terms they are looking for, but use the job description as a guide to gain an edge here. 

For example, if the job description includes specific requirements, let’s say, venipuncture, ACLS, chemotherapy, then include those keywords in your resume. 

Additionally, scour the employer’s website to understand their mission, vision, values and priorities. Try to use similar language in your resume and cover letter so that the employer can see that you are a great fit for both the position and the organization. 

  • Be brief

Think of your resume as an advertisement rather than a biography. In a world of increasingly lower attention spans, do not expect potential employers to scout through pages of extensive detail. Assume that employers have stacks of resumes to go through, and thus do not have the time to spare on any novel you might write in place of a CV. Create the resume with an elevator pitch mindset in place.

“In addition to a neat resume, you must present yourself professionally.”

Now that we know what a good CV entails, let’s look at what not to include in your resume:-

  • Ideally, the resume should not exceed two pages at most. If possible, confine it to a single page.
  • You should not repeat your activities, experiences, qualifications on your resume.
  • Don’t write your resume in paragraph formats, instead stick to bullet points.
  • Avoid using multiple fonts or font colors 
  • Do not write the date of the day you wrote the resume on.
  • Do not share any personal sensitive information other than your contact details.
  • Do not include your low grades, low GPAs, failures. Your resume is your place to shine!
  • Do not list physical characteristics (such as -height, weight, etc.)

Remember, a resume is only the first step to inching closer to your dream job. Let’s assume that the near-perfect resume you created has secured you an interview date with your employer. Now you must concentrate on meeting the expectations your interviewer has of you through your resume – and a good way to do that is by presenting yourself professionally. Dress well in an ironed formal attire, arrive on time, practice a firm handshake, and most importantly don’t forget to wear your smile. 

“Don’t forget to wear your smile – it can win you a great career!”
Preparing for nursing interviews
  • Shape your story: No matter the interview, its purpose is to understand your story. Employers try to get a sense of who you are, both as a prospective employee and a human being. Take the time to shape the image of yourself that you want to convey. This does not mean that you should make up stories about yourself. It means that you should have your thoughts in order so that you don’t stumble when answering basic questions like “What do you bring to the table in this organization?”
  • Do the research: Take the time to learn about the who, what and where of the organization you are applying to. If possible, reach out to people who work there or have worked there in the past. Ask them about their experiences, and get to know what your future employer wants in their employees.
  • Practice: Practice mock interviews with friends, family, peers. Use this list of interview questions nursing applicants are likely to be asked.
  • Prepare questions for your interviewer: Your interviewer wants someone with an inquisitive mind. The best way to depict this quality is to ask smart, relevant questions. Have these questions listed beforehand.
What questions can you ask your interviewer?

Let’s break this up into categories.

Company Culture

  • Can you define the work culture here?
  • What is the management style?
  • How do you like working here?
  • How do you provide feedback to your staff when they make a mistake or have an opportunity to improve? 

Work-related tasks

  • What qualities are you looking for in the nurses here?
  • What medical record systems and equipment will I be using?
  • What kind of orientation or training is provided?
  • Who will be my reporting manager?
  • Is there a mentorship program offered to nurses? Are there provisions for continued support?
  • What major challenges can I expect to face?
  • How are performance reviews structured here?
  • What are the shifts offered to nurses?
  • What is your overtime policy?
  • Do you have on-call requirements?
  • Do you have weekend rotation requirements?
  • Realistically, what are the hours I will be expected to work?

Professional Development:

  • Are there any opportunities for further education and learning?
  • Would I be supported in obtaining relevant certifications? 
  • Are there benefits available for professional certifications, tuition reimbursements, conference attendance, etc.?

The key to both a great resume and a captivating interview lies in forethought, preparation and clarity. Invest time and effort into research so that you can answer and ask questions with ease. Since it is important for a nurse to possess a sharp mind, an instinct towards taking quick action and the ability to take fast decisions, these qualities will have to be displayed in both the CV and the interview. Use the guidelines in this article to put your best professional food forward, and show employers the value you bring to the proverbial table.

“Written by Shreya Bost (Weloquent)”

Augmented and Virtual Reality in the field of Nursing Education

Introduction

One of the most exciting developments in virtual reality has been its rapid entry into medical education and healthcare. Researchers, doctors, and nurse educators are discovering innovative ways to leverage immersive technologies and transform both healthcare teaching and practice.

Financial as well as regulatory restrictions has burdened the nursing education, as a result of which, providing adequate training has become a challenging task for the nursing educators. Not only the patients, but the practitioners and the devices used are at a risk of harm and malfunction if the quality of training is not up to the mark.

Simulation-based training has been used and shown to be an effective tool in the fields other than medicine as the virtual reality provides a range of learning and training enhancing aspects.

The Problem

Various problems challenge the expected level of skill proficiency of nursing students who practice clinical skills with patient manikin simulators, and inside simulated learning environments labs. These challenges include, but are not limited to,

  • limited availability of nurse faculty to provide instruction and repetitive practice needed for nursing student’s opportunities to practice outside nursing laboratories regular hours of operations.
  • The capability of nurse faculty to address individual learning needs of nursing students during each practice session
  • Instructional and evaluation variability among nurse faculty.

VR Technology can address all the above mentioned challenges and enhance the ability of faculty to sometimes quantifiably evaluate, student-learning performance. Augmented Reality (AR) and simulation are technology interventions modalities that can be integrated into nursing curriculum to help nursing student achieve and improve clinical skill proficiency.

Advantages of AR /VR application for Nursing Education

There are many advantages to using virtual reality in nurse training. Nurses can build familiarity with technology in a controlled environment, and learn by “doing,” rather than “seeing.”

  • Simulation helps develop competences for professional practice. Students who have the opportunity to develop clinical practices in a simulated environment report an increase in confidence, as they were able to transfer significantly the knowledge learned in the classroom to the simulated environment. Studies have reported improvements in the areas of critical thinking, confidence and/or knowledge/skills after participating in the simulation.
  • Simulation provides a rich learning opportunity for students to integrate theory with practice while making real-time clinical decisions in an environment that poses no risk to patients. HFS is one such example that provides students with a safe environment to learn and make mistakes without compromising patient safety.
  • Simulation can standardize clinical experiences in an environment with often unequal clinical learning opportunities. The use of High-Fidelity Simulation (HFS) in health care education has emerged as a possible solution to address limited clinical experiences.. Research studies have shown HFS to be beneficial in acquiring new knowledge in many clinical areas, including Medical-surgical, advanced cardiac life support, and acute myocardial infarction treatment.
  • Human patient simulation-based clinical nursing education has the potential to promote transformative learning and lead to a metamorphosis of students’ preconceived meaning schemes. It allows students to engage in social interactions and enhance their psychomotor skills in a patient safe environment, which helps most students relax and increases their confidence in performing clinical skills during a simulated clinical experience.

Current Implementation of AR/VR in nursing and medical education

1. The 2019 International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Conference was held in Phoenix Arizona with the Hayden Vanguard Lectureship by Bradley Chesham.

The INACSL meeting is a leading forum for nursing simulation aficionados, researchers, and vendors providing the ideal environment to gain and disseminate current, state-of-the-art knowledge in the areas of skills/simulation operations and applications in an evidenced-based venue.

The Hayden Vanguard Lectureship recognizes innovation in Nursing Simulation. Bundle of Rays focuses on “clinical skills and health-based training” utilizing virtual reality to teach anatomy and physiology, combined with simulation technology to link imaging to patient assessment. Designed by nurses, these training programs focus on patient safety, quality assessment skills and escalation of clinical deterioration. All of this is done in small class sizes at dynamic venues, conceptualizing the future of healthcare education.

Showcasing Augmented Reality (AR) in real-time, Brad shared how he could pick up a digital beating heart on his desk, bringing digital animation into a real background. Combining these technologies allows educators to have multi-user sessions across mediums to teach countless learners at the same time, even if they are located at different locations around the world. Brad shared that through his startup Bundle of Rays, to provide education for multiple learners at the same time even though they are spread across a wide geographic region.

2. Another excellent example of implementation of VR in Nursing education is A VR game that allows nursing students to practice urinary catheter insertion — what Kardong-Edgren (Suzan Kardong-Edgren, a professor at the School of Nursing and Health Science at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania) called “a perfect marriage of nursing skills and software development”. Nursing students wearing Oculus Rift headgear and interactive gloves, called haptics, practice cleaning their hands and inserting a catheter into a patient’s bladder. In a study published in the March 2018 issue of Clinical Simulation in Nursing, Ellertson, Kardong-Edgren and Ann Butt of College of Nursing at University of Utah, report that the VR-trained students had the same pass rate as students who practiced the traditional way, on manikins, and that the VR students said they enjoyed the learning experience more.

virtual reality game

        A nursing student practicing catheterization procedures with a VR game developed by Boise State University and Robert Morris University. (Photo: Boise State University)

Catheterization was a good candidate for VR training, because it is a procedure that is difficult to learn and dangerous to patients if done incorrectly

Normally, nursing students have to practice urinary catheterization 30 to 50 times before they can do it on human beings. Many universities, however, don’t have enough medical simulation facilities and students are often not interested in repeating the same procedure over and over, Ellertson said.

“The underlying goal of the training is going to remain the same, but the shift is that we want students to practice more,” said Ellertson, who led a team of eight software developers to design, test, and then improve the VR game.

Kardong-Edgren and her team of researchers tested 20 nursing school students, who had practiced urinary catheterization on manikins. Lab assistants taught the students how to synchronize and calibrate the VR gear to their own movements, and then asked the students to perform the procedure. After an initial 15-minute orientation, students were instructed to use as little or as much of the remaining hour allotted to practice catheter insertion.

In the virtual world, the student goes from one corner of the room to another to find a tray where the sterile package lies. Then they need to wash their hands, don clean gloves, pick up the catheter package, and bring it to the patient. After cleaning the patient’s bottom, they need to correctly open the package, and insert the sterile catheter. To emphasize the importance of proper sterile technique, a green cloud of small falling particles appears on the screen if students did not wear their gloves properly.

The possibilities for using virtual reality in nursing are endless.

virtual reality result

Medical professionals will be monitoring the student’s practice on computers, where they can see the student’s vision on the left and real-time video of them on the right. (Photo: Boise State University)

Two weeks later, the students who underwent VR training for that hour did the same procedure on manikins. Professors compared their performance with that of nursing students who had only worked with manikins. Results showed that the VR-trained students not only had the same pass rate as the manikin-only group, but they also rated the VR training experience as “fun, engaging,” and they noted that it made them “lose track of time.”

A Novel Multiplayer Screen-Based Simulation Experience for African Learners Improved Confidence in Management of Postpartum Hemorrhage.

Introduction:

Postpartum hemorrhage affects approximately thirteen million women every year and remains a leading cause of maternal mortality in Asia and Africa. Mannequin-based simulation is the most common way for practicing care of critical patients but has its challenges when it comes to global health in developing countries.
A novel multiplayer screen-based simulation is developed in virtual world to practice team coordination with PPH cases. It was hypothesized that such a screen-based simulation may enhance the learner’s confidence and ability to manage critical PPH cases. The same was implemented in Mulago, Uganda.

3D virtual reality game

Screen-shot of 3DiTeams—postpartum hemorrhage—multiplayer screen-based simulation. Each character is controlled by a unique individual using a computer, mouse, and voice-over-IP headset.

Methods:

  • Study Design : pre- and a post-intervention survey.
  • Sample size : 48 interprofessional subjects
  • One of 9, 1 Hour simulation sessions in PPH software
  • The subjects were tested on 15 self-assessment question, before and after the intervention. And was designed to probe the areas of learning as defined by Bloom and Krathwohl: affective, cognitive, and psychomotor.

Results:

The confidence scores in each category of Bloom’s Taxonomy : affective, cognitive and psychomotor as well as combined score of all three increased significantly following the simulation experience.

Conclusion:

The study provides a preliminary evidence that multiplayer screen-based simulation represents a scalable, distributable form of learning. The same can be used effectively in global health education and training.

Award Winning AR Training and Simulation

Virtual Reality Airway Learning Lab, a program that uses cutting edge virtual reality technology in clinical education.

It was honored to win the Best in Show award at the annual International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare in 2018 in partnership with Adtalem Global Education (NYSE: ATGE), a leading global education provider. (Dr Eric B Bauman and Dr Nick Slamon)

Acadicus simplifies and democratizes the educational learning curve associated with VR training, allowing for cost effective scenario creation by faculty and instructional staff. Stakeholders are able to create authentic environments that may not otherwise be available to students… this helps solve the bricks-and-mortar, time-and-place challenges associated with traditional simulation laboratories.

The 3D recording feature within the Acadicus environment is a powerful way for faculty and staff to create and capture their own instructional content. The multi-user feature allows for remote learners to collaborate in real-time in authentic spaces that promote environmental fidelity in ways that encourage the suspension of disbelief and promote psychological fidelity.

Applied as part of a layered learning approach, Acadicus promotes learner engagement and creates sticky learning experiences that often rival or exceed real-life learning experiences, effectively driving learners toward curriculum objectives and outcomes.”

Introduction to various airway instruments and how they’re used. Overview of steps and technique in airway management

References:

1. Shinnick MA, Woo M, Horwich TB, Steadman R. Debriefing: The most important component in simulation? Clinical Simulation in Nursing. 2011;7(3):105-11.

2. Jeffries PR. Getting in S.T.E.P. with simulations: Simulations take educator preparation. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2008;29(2):70-3.

3. Alinier G, Hunt B, Gordon R, Harwood C. Effectiveness of intermediatefidelity simulation training technology in undergraduate nursing education. J Adv Nurs. 2006;54(3):359-69.

4. Birch L, Jones N, Doyle PM, Green P, McLaughlin A, Champney C, et al. Obstetric skills drills: evaluation of teaching methods. Nurse Educ Today. 2007;27(8), 915-22.

5. Elfrink VL, Kirkpatrick B, Nininger J, Schubert C. Using learning outcomes to inform teaching practices in human patient simulation. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2010;31(2):97-100.

6. Hoadley TA. Learning advanced cardiac life support: a comparison study of the effects of low- and high-fidelity simulation. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2009;30(2):91-5.

7. National league for nursing. Society for Simulation in Healthcare 2014. A Vision for Teaching with Simulation A Living Document from the National League for Nursing NLN Board of Governors. 2015.

8. Birkhoff SD, Donner C. Enhancing pediatric clinical competency with high- fidelity simulation. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2010;41(9):418-23.

9. National League for Nursing. Main obstacle to expanding capacity by program type. 2014.

10. Brannan JD, White A, Bezanson JL. Simulator effects on cognitive skills and confidence levels. J Nurs Educ. 2008;47(11):495-500.

11. Parker B, Myrick F. Transformative learning as a context for human patient simulation. J Nurs Educ. 2010;49(6):326-32.

12. https://arvrjourney.com/nursing-students-are-learning-medical-techniques-with-vr-fd4c5a8d642d

13. https://www.healthysimulation.com/inacsl/

14. https://acadicus.com/

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