Medical Resume

About This Resume

Clinics, urgent care centers and doctors' offices hire patient-care staff all year, and the person reading your resume is often a practice manager who also covers the front desk when someone calls in sick. New graduates and experienced assistants face the same test there: the page has to show quickly that you hold the right certification and can handle the clinical tasks the job lists. Credentials come first.

After certifications, managers look for clinical skills they can check off against the posting, such as vital signs, injections, blood draws, EKGs and the health record system they use. They also want the pace of the job in concrete form. Patient volume is worth a number. A line such as "Roomed 30 to 35 patients a day for four providers" tells a manager you can keep up on a full day, and a second language you use with patients deserves a line of its own.

What to Include

• Your certification with its initials and year, such as CMA or RMA, plus your BLS or CPR status
• Clinical skills in plain terms: vital signs, injections, blood draws, EKGs, wound care and specimen handling
• The electronic health record systems you have used, named the way the posting names them
• Specialties and settings, such as family practice, pediatrics, urgent care or cardiology
• Patient volume, such as patients roomed per day or the number of providers you support
• Front-office skills if the job mixes both, such as scheduling, insurance checks and prior authorizations
• Externship hours for new graduates, with the type of clinic and the tasks you performed

Medical Resume Sample

Tips for Your Medical Resume

• Put your certification right after your name as well as in its own section, as in "Yolanda Oyelaran, CMA," so a manager sees it before anything else.
• Explain a skill in plain words if the posting might use a different term. Rooming, for example, means bringing a patient back, taking vitals and history, and getting them ready for the provider.
• List the specialties you have worked in. A cardiology practice will read "prepared patients for stress tests and fitted heart monitors" as a sign you need less training.
• Keep patient details out. Describe volume and tasks, and never mention a patient's name, condition or story, even without a name attached.
• If you are a new graduate, put your externship first under experience and write it like a job, with the clinic type, hours and tasks.
• Keep your BLS or CPR card current and list the renewal date, since an expired card can hold up an offer.
• Name each language along with how you use it at work, such as "Spanish, patient intake and discharge instructions." Clinics with many Spanish-speaking patients often look for exactly that line.