Medical work experience/certifications on CV

[RN2MD from Texas]

I will be taking my Step 1 in July and am starting to work on my CV. I am currently a student at SGU in Grenada, which I know it becomes a bit more competitive when going for an Emergency Residency. I just want to present my qualities as best as I can. My past experience is an Emergency Dept RN. I was wondering how I should address this on my CV. I also have a few certifications. I do not want to put too much information as to give off the feeling of being untrainable and not ready to learn. I also want to stand out with any clinical experience I do have. The following is my work experience, certifications and some other education. Any advice on what I should not include, change, or add in? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Work Experience:
Full Time
United Surgical Partners Inc., Dallas, TX Feb 2013 – July 2015 ED - RN
Baylor Irving Medical Center, Irving, TX Jan 2012 – Feb 2013 ED - RN
Baylor Irving Medical Center, Irving, TX May 2011 – Dec2011 ED Nurse Tech

PRN
United Surgical Partners Inc., Dallas, TX Dec 2015 – Present ED - RN
Medical Center of McKinney, McKinney, TX Oct 2013 – July 2015 ED - RN
UT Southwestern – Zale Lipshy, Dallas, TX May 2010 – July 2011 - Patient Care Tech

License:
Registered Nurse

Certifications:
ACLS
PALS
Certified Emergency Nurse
Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse

Further Education?
Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses
Trauma Nursing Core Course
Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course

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[wholeheartedly]

I'm not really qualified to say, maybe @QofQuimica has some thoughts?

 

[QofQuimica]

You are worrying about the wrong things here, and particularly since you are an IMG. That is a huge disadvantage when it comes to residency apps even if the rest of your app is stellar. I would suggest that you focus your efforts on scoring as high on Step 1 as possible, and then on doing as well in your third year clerkships as possible. If you have time to get involved in some type of ER project or research (even if it's just publishing a case report), that's worth doing too. These three things will do far more for your app than listing out your certifications, which won't be a big deal to PDs (any clinical residency program, even IM or peds, will start out with having everyone who needs it doing BLS/ACLS/PALS during orientation prior to intern year).

Regarding your nursing experience, that is going to be extremely valuable for your clinical perspective/knowledge, and it should absolutely be discussed in your PS for residency if relevant for why you're going into EM. But you're not applying for a nursing job when you apply for residency, and the focus of your residency app should be on what you've done/are doing in medicine, NOT on your nursing past.

Emergency Medicine also requires a special LOR called a SLOR, so you absolutely must complete at least one away rotation in EM prior to applying for residency so you can get the SLOR. Most medical students do two or three of these "sub-internship" rotations in their specialty of interest, and especially since you are an IMG, I would advise you to strongly consider doing at least two EM rotations as early in your fourth year as possible. Other useful electives to consider would be in subspecialties of EM that interest you (if you're thinking of doing peds EM, you can do a peds EM, PICU, or med tox elective, for example). See the EM forum for more info on applying to an EM residency in general and on obtaining SLORs specifically.