Clinical rotations are great because medical students get to shadow physicians and residents at teaching hospitals.
They also gain valuable hands-on experience.
The problem is that every student has to do clinical rotations, so it is important to make your experience stand out on your resume.
Emphasize clinical rotations in a way that shows you received essential training that prepared you to start serious clinical work, especially if you are newly graduated.
Listing clinical rotations is important, but where do you add your experience?
If you don’t have other clinical work experience, you can create a ‘Clinical Rotations’ section and add your rotation experience there. If you have done other clinical work, add your rotations in the ‘Work Experience’ section.
Clinical rotations are similar to internships or externships so they follow the same format.
If you are a recent graduate, it is best to prioritize clinical rotations over other less relevant work experience.
After your professional summary, add a ‘Clinical Rotations’ section and then underneath it, the ‘Work Experience’ portion.
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Professional Summary
An organised, driven, hardworking medical student with an excellent educational record, passion for health and wellbeing and extensive experience in hospital settings. Dedicated professional interest primarily in Pediatrics.
Clinical Rotations
ABC Medical Clinic
Houston, Texas | Pediatrics Unit | Sep 2020 – December 2021
XYZ Hospital
Houston, Texas | Surgical Unit | June 2020 – August 2020
XYZ Hospital
Houston, Texas | ICU | Feb 2020 – May 2020
Work Experience
Receptionist
ABC Medical Clinic
Houston, Texas | October 2019 – January 2020
Whether you list clinical rotations separately or along with your other work experiences, there are certain ways that are the best approach – here they are!
Add only 2 or 3 of the most relevant rotations. Include the hours worked, location and unit. Don’t list skills, and only add a short summary if you have room on your resume. Add one or two major achievements to stand out from other applicants.
Students doing clinical rotations will train with many different physicians and medical departments.
Therefore, it is not necessary to add all of them to your resume.
Pick out the ones that correlate to what the job description is asking for and only add those.
The number of hours of clinical rotations you did is an indicator to a hiring official of how much experience you gained.
The unit specifies what part of the hospital you worked in.
It also gives the recruiter an idea of what responsibilities that the rotation entailed without you having to write them.
It is important to mention the location of each clinical rotation, especially if you are applying to a local hospital, as they are aware of the others and their specialities.
It is evident enough what types of skills you may have gained from each clinical rotation as the recruiters will have hired previous applicants with the same experience.
Moreover, medical students more or less have the same skills already from their education, so listing skills would be pointless.
You can write one or two sentences summarizing your work if you had no prior clinical experience and want to add details.
Only do so if your resume is not crowded.
Make sure to only mention the most valuable part of your experience according to what the recruiter is looking for and might find impressive.
Otherwise, unlike with internships or volunteer experiences, it is not necessary to add bullet points.
Unless it is absolutely relevant to the job description, just add the date and hours worked.
Whether you decide to add a mini summary for each clinical rotation or not, make sure to add achievements.
Since all medical students have to do clinical rotations, it is essential to find a way to differentiate yourself from others.
Think of something you accomplished that was very important or helped you gain valuable knowledge and add that.
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Professional Summary
Nursing graduate with more than 3 years of hands-on patient recovery assistance in various hospital units. Possess knowledge and experience of hospital policies and patient care principles.
Clinical Rotations
Critical Care
Ace Hospital
Louisiana, Texas | ICU | Feb 2021 – March 2021 | 80 hours completed
Role Transition
Ace Hospital
Louisiana, Texas | ICU | Nov 2020 – Jan 2021 | 95 hours completed
Patient Recovery Assistance
Delta Hospital
Louisiana, Texas | Recovery Unit | Aug 2020 – Oct 2020 | 75 hours completed
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Professional Summary
Aspiring Emergency Room doctor with over 250 hours of emergency care experience which provided extensive knowledge of quick diagnosis and treatment techniques.
Clinical Rotations
Emergency Medicine
ABC Hospital
Miami, Florida| ER | Jan 2021 – May 2021
Surgery Assistance
ABC Hospital
Miami, Florida| Surgical Unit | Sep 2020 – Dec 2020
Physician Assistance
ABC Hospital
Miami, Florida| ICU | Mar 2020 – Aug 2020
Clinical experience differs slightly from clinical rotations as it is hands-on work outside of a school setting as opposed to school mandated shadowing experiences or working experiences. Volunteer experiences and paid clinical work both fit this category.
Any professional jobs in the medical field which are not assigned by a school count as clinical experience.
Many students take up this kind of work during summers, or part-time on weekends.
These jobs are typically entry-level jobs for newly graduated students or students still in school.
Working as a nurse’s aide, an emergency medical technician, or as a hospital clerical worker are examples of clinical experience.
Clinical experience should be included in the work experience section. It should be listed as a job with dates of work and responsibilities. The responsibilities of the job should be listed using bullet points and short sentences with only the most relevant skills and responsibilities included.
Clinical experiences are regular jobs, so they should be included in the experience section of a resume.
If you also have clinical rotation experience in this section, you should list both types of experience together in reverse chronological order. You can also include it in the summary section.
Unlike clinical rotations which every medical student is required to complete, clinical experiences show drive and passion outside of the classroom.
Mentioning it in the summary section can help this information stand out, as well as listing it as a regular job in the experience section.
Any job or volunteer work should be placed in the experience section of a resume.
If you have too many jobs and experiences to include, then stick to the ones which you were at the longest, or the ones which are most relevant to the job you are seeking.
List the most relevant clinical experiences in the professional experience section on the resume.
This information should be listed using the name of the business, the dates you worked, and 2-3 bullet points listing your most impressive and relevant responsibilities.
To avoid redundancy, you should not include the words “clinical experience” in this section as the job title and company name already imply that it is clinical experience.
This experience can and should be included in the summary section and the experience sections so long as it is relevant.
An example of including the clinical experience of being a Nurse’s aide is as follows:
A driven and passionate medical student seeking experience as an emergency medical technician. Has 1.5 years experience as a nurse’s aide, and has completed 1 year of clinical rotations at ABC Medical Clinic.
Work Experience
Nurse’s Aide
XYZ Hospital
Cleveland, Ohio | January 2020 – September 2021
As you can see, clinical experiences should be listed in the exact same way as one would list any other job in the professional experience section.
In the summary section, it is not listed as a “clinical experience” but rather as the job title.
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