Do Nursing Resumes Need Cover Letters

The topic of cover letters is a controversial one in recruiting. Many people who give career advice are divided over cover letters and if they are needed.

The truth is that it depends on the job. Some companies do require cover letters, but for the most part, cover letters are not needed.

If you’re interested in learning more about cover letters and the like, then I suggest you read this article.

But, because you’re reading this one, I assume that you are most interested in learning about nursing resumes and whether or not nurses need to have a cover letter on their resume.

As with many questions regarding resumes and career options, it depends. Some nurses would benefit from having a cover letter, while for others it would be a waste of time.

What Type of Nurses Need Cover Letters?

Not all nurses need to have cover letters. This is something nurses who have been in the field now. After you’ve worked a couple of years as a nurse, you in fact won’t have to spend much time on your resume. Nurses are heavily recruited, and their resume is of very little importance.

What’s paramount when finding nursing work is that you have a degree (a Registered Nurse license, for instance) and some experience working at a hospital.

The only kind of nurses who might ever need a cover letter are nurses who just graduated from nursing school.

Even new graduate nurses are highly recruited and do not face the daunting job market like professionals and other people. To put it quite matter of factly, a nurse who graduates from nursing school is guaranteed a job and will not have to put much effort into it.

The only exception is if a new graduate nurse is attempting to apply for a highly coveted nursing program. In these cases, the hospital does sometimes require a cover letter.

In fact, anyone who is aplpying to work at a hospital would be advised to have a cover letter ready.

The reason why hospitals require cover letters from nurses, is that they want to weed out the nurses who are lazy, non-productive, unpredictable, and basically the low performers.

Unfortunately, the nursing field attracts many people who are not professional.  People who are seeking high paying roles, and a guaranteed job know that nursing affords this. Instead of going to college and graduating with a degree in marketing and competing with hundreds of other smart and hungry students for a job that pays 50k a year….nurses are wise to the fact that nursing school guarantees them a job with little effort  (most nurses don’t even have to interview once they have two years of experience) and enormous salaries – In cities like NY, LA, Chicago, and other large cities nurses make 100k and up right out of nursing school.

Because of this, unfortunately there are a lot of people who are not motivated and professional. They see quick and easy money. These are not the nurses that hospitals want to hire and so they do require cover letters.

The hospital administrators want to weed out the nurses who aren’t motivated and are not going to be helpful or who won’t be able to work in a high paced environment.

So, nurses who are graduating from programs and have done their clinicals in hospitals are advised to create cover letters for when it comes time for them to apply to hospital openings.

What Should You Put on a Nursing Resume?

For all intents and purposes, the only thing that’s needed for a nursing resume is the title of Registered Nurse and your contact information.

However, this is a tactic seen most often on long term travel per diem nurses or nurses who work in the home assessment field for Medicaid or non-profits who are run on government funds and school nurses.

Nurses who are looking to work in hospitals (which is where the highest pay is) are advised to list their complete skill set.

A nice little secret (which all the nurses reading this know) is that nurses have their resumes written for them. Most nursing schools will have a class devoted to resume writing and will show nursing students how to copy and paste experiences into their own resume.

The essentials for the nursing resume are:

–Nursing Degree

-Nursing License             

-Contact Information

A cover letter, if you choose to write it, should be directed to the company you are sending it to. There is no point in sending out a resume with a cover letter attached if it’s for a hospital that didn’t ask for it.
Also, if you send a resume with a cover letter to a job and your cover letter is specific about a different job, then the hiring team will assume that you are not a diligent nurse and pass over you.

If you are a new nurse, and you’re looking to get your foot in the door somewhere fast, then working with a temp agency is the best approach. Nurse recrutiers at temp agencies are more skilled and sophisticated than hospital HR employees. If the nurse recruiter sees that you are a responsible and communicative nurse, they will be able to place you somewhere quickly.

It’s one of the cases where it’s better to use a recruiter than apply directly. They might even be able to land you a contract assignment at a hospital. This experience can then be used to bolster your nursing resume and land you a permanant union role.

New Grads vs Experienced Nurses

Once a nurse has graduated and landed their first job, cover letters  are almost never needed. The nursing field is one where the demand is so high for nurses (due to government regulations for hospitals, and insurance reimbursements) that hospitals will hire any qualified nurse.

Nurse to patient ratios have become so bad out of proportion that hospital administrators are forced to hire per diem nurses to cover shifts.

New graduate nurses do not have the luxury of getting immediate work in  hospitals. They are going to have to find clinic work, non-profit work, or schools. Those are the easiest roles for new graduate nurses to get. Along with private sector vaccination roles.

New nurses, if they are applying for a highly coveted role—such at a hospital where they will make 100k+ union benefits—then they might be motivated to submit a cover letter.

The hope there is that they will demonstrate that they are a responsible nurse and not one who will no-show for work, or take the job and then try and work a per diem elsewhere and cause trouble for the hospital nurse scheduler.

Per Diem vs Hospital vs Clinic

The only time a nurse would be required to have a cover letter is if they are a new grad nurse and if they are applying to work at a hospital. It’s that simple.

No other nursing job requires cover letters. All that a nurse would need when applying for a job is a resume that states that they have a nursing license, as well as the appropriate credentials that come along with being a nurse.

Nurses who work Per Diem roles never need cover letters. The per diem role for a nurse is simply a part time work assignment that pays them an hourly rate.

Cover letters are reserved for full time roles with union benefits. Because union protection is so strong, they often require cover letters and more extensive vetting because they do not want to hire and bring on nurses who are lazy, dishonest, unskilled, or simply have poor morale.

Nurse Cover Letters for Career Change To White Collar Professional Work

Nurses who want to move into another field often wonder how to build a resume. Is a cover letter going to help moving from nursing into a corporate setting?

No. And the fact is that unless the nurse is going to work in the hospital administration sector, or in a government role, there is very little movement into non-nursing roles.

The truth is that a corporate firm that deals in non-medical, non-governmental work will never hire a nurse. A public relations firm, a marketing firm, a financial firm, a publishing firm, a entertainment company, etc… these companies want people who have gone to college not nursing school and have worked in a professional corporate setting.

Nurses are seen as medical workers who would be completely out of place in a business setting. In the same say that a person who spent years as a marketing executive would never be hired as a nurse.

The cover letter would simply be discarded.

The best path for a nurse who is looking to switch out of nursing and into a different career would be to move into hospital administration or a government role that is tangentially related to healthcare.