02 Dec How to Optimise Your Healthcare CV
A well-written healthcare CV can be the difference between being chosen for a job and not. Often, they’re the first impression an employer gets of you before an interview–a well-structured CV shows professionalism and attention to detail, both of which are crucial in healthcare work. With a great CV, you’ll stand out, show off your skills, and track your professional growth. Moreover, well-written CVs can aid in the compliance process, especially for international healthcare workers.
Let’s discuss how to write a great healthcare CV! We’ll outline preferred CV contents, how to structure your CV, and what metrics to include to demonstrate your efficacy as a healthcare worker.
How to Write a Great Healthcare CV
To write a great healthcare CV, focus on underscoring your experience, technical proficiency, education, skills, professional affiliations, volunteer work, and references–all things you need to become an agency worker in the UK.
Contact Information
Contact information is one of the most important parts of your CV. Make sure you include your phone number with a country code and a professional email address. You can use a personal one, but it should include your full name. It shouldn’t be something like puppylover32@gmail.com–this is not professional. Be sure to include a summary of your role, such as general nurse, support/care worker, or healthcare assistant.
For example:
John Doe
Healthcare Assistant
+44 234 4567 891
johndoe@gmail.com
Experience
When including your experience, be sure to include your job title, how long you worked there, the company you worked for, what you did there, and if possible, a reference with their contact details.
For instance:
Healthcare Assistant at NHS Trust
January 2022 to July 2024
- Helped patients with personal care
- Assisted nurses with care
- Administered medication
- Took vital signs
And more.
Reference:
Jane Doe
+44 234 4567 891
jane@nhstrust.uk
To make your experience stand out more, include metrics such as patient satisfaction, discharge time, and medication errors.
Technical Proficiency
This section of your CV showcases the technical skills you’ve acquired. These could include experience with record-keeping systems, admissions systems, electronic health records systems, charting, vital sign recording, wound care, emergency medicine, and more.
Education and Skills
Education, particularly technical certification, is also especially important on your CV. When adding your education, structure it as follows:
Degree or certificate
Date to date
Instituition
Short description of degree. “I learnt XYZ and specialised in XYZ”
If you were a top achiever, mention this, too.
Number one in class of 2024
Average mark: 90%
Professional Affiliations
Professional affiliations show off causes that you care about. You might add unions that you’re part of or healthcare initiatives you’ve taken part in.
Royal College of Nursing Union
NHS Trust Diversity and Inclusion Facilitator
How to Structure Your CV
When structuring your CV, ensure it’s free of too many frilly details, clear, and concise. It should be no more than one or two pages long. Use a sans serif font and align your content. Google Docs and Canva have great CV templates that are simple and clean. Lastly, be sure to include a professional headshot (head and shoulders).
Example CV
Here is an example of the content healthcare recruiters like to see on CVs. This is for an HCA.
John Doe
Healthcare Assistant
+44 234 4567 891
johndoe@gmail.com
Experience
Healthcare Assistant at NHS Trust
General Ward
January 2022 to July 2024
- Helped patients with personal care
- Assisted nurses with care
- Administered medication
- Recorded vital signs
Average discharge time of 2 days
Reference:
Jane Doe
+44 1011 1213 145
jane@nhstrust.uk
Skills and Proficiencies
- Recording vital signs
- Administering oral and intravenous medication
- Personal care
- Following plans of care
Education
General Certificate of Secondary Education
London Secondary School
Subjects: English, Mathematics, French, Latin, Biology, Physics, Chemistry
Second in class of 2021. Average mark: 80%
Professional Affiliations
UNISON National member
January 2022 to present
This CV is clear and concise. It includes key information that shows off John’s proficiencies, education, and achievements.
If you would like help with optimising your healthcare CV, contact Proximity Healthcare. Our consultants collectively have more than 30 years of experience helping candidates to prepare for jobs, polish their CVs, and interview professionally.