There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a surgical nurse. For example, did you know that they make an average of $32.37 an hour? That's $67,332 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 371,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many surgical nurses have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed physical stamina, compassion and critical-thinking skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a surgical nurse, we found that a lot of resumes listed 18.5% of surgical nurses included rn, while 12.4% of resumes included bls, and 10.3% of resumes included patient care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the surgical nurse job title. But what industry to start with? Most surgical nurses actually find jobs in the health care and professional industries.
If you're interested in becoming a surgical nurse, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.0% of surgical nurses have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.8% of surgical nurses have master's degrees. Even though most surgical nurses have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a surgical nurse. When we researched the most common majors for a surgical nurse, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on surgical nurse resumes include master's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a surgical nurse. In fact, many surgical nurse jobs require experience in a role such as staff nurse. Meanwhile, many surgical nurses also have previous career experience in roles such as registered nurse or nurse.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a surgical nurse can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as registered nurse, progress to a title such as registered nurse supervisor and then eventually end up with the title assistant director of nursing.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Surgical Nurse. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Surgical Nurse Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Surgical Nurse resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationDurham, NC
Philadelphia, PA
New Haven, CT
Ann Arbor, MI
Washington, DC
Los Angeles, CA
Charlottesville, VA
Chapel Hill, NC
New York, NY
Arlington, VA
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.5% of surgical nurses listed rn on their resume, but soft skills such as physical stamina and compassion are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a surgical nurse. The best states for people in this position are California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Maryland. Surgical nurses make the most in California with an average salary of $89,689. Whereas in Hawaii and Massachusetts, they would average $84,743 and $75,561, respectively. While surgical nurses would only make an average of $74,622 in Maryland, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Vermont
$72,109
Avg. Salary
2. Hawaii
$84,744
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$72,762
Avg. Salary