Discharge Planner Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Discharge Planner resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Discharge planning is a crucial part of the patient experience. It involves coordinating the logistics of getting patients ready to leave the hospital after a procedure or diagnosis.
As a discharge planner, you’ll work with doctors, nurses, social workers, insurance agents, and other medical staff to ensure that patients have everything they need before they go home. You’ll also coordinate the transfer of medical records and other important documents, coordinate transportation arrangements like ambulances or wheelchair vans, and help patients and their families understand what to expect once they’re out of the hospital.
Here are some tips and an example to help you write an awesome discharge planner resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write a Discharge Planner Resume
Here’s how to write a discharge planner resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most common way to showcase your experience on a resume, but they don’t have to be boring or generic. You can use them to tell a story about your work experience and the impact you’ve had on the organization.
For example, rather than saying you “managed discharge planning for 20+ hospitals,” you could say you “managed discharge planning for 20+ hospitals, resulting in a 15% decrease in patient readmissions over six-month period.”
The second bullet point paints a clear picture of what you did and the results of your work. It also provides a specific number to demonstrate the scale of the project.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply for a discharge planner role, your resume will likely be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This software looks for specific terms related to discharge planning, like “discharge summary” or “medical records.” If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right terms, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
To increase your chances of getting an interview, use this list of common discharge planner keywords as a starting point to help you identify the skills and experience you need to highlight on your resume:
- Discharge Planning
- Nursing
- Patient Safety
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
- Healthcare
- Acute Care
- Hospitals
- Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
- Patient Education
- Healthcare Management
- Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
- Inpatient Care
- Healthcare Information Technology (HIT)
- Medicine
- Medication Administration
- Vital Signs
- Critical Care Nursing
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
- Patient Advocacy
- Patient Education Programs
- Home Care
- Acute Renal Failure
- Dialysis
- Diabetes
- Clinical Research
- Hospice Care
- Nephrology
- Dialysis Access
- End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
- Chronic Kidney Disease
Showcase Your Technical Skills
Discharge planners use technology to manage patient care and track progress, so they need to be proficient in a variety of programs. Some common programs that discharge planners use include Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint), electronic health records (EHR) software, and patient care management software. Additionally, discharge planners need to be familiar with government regulations related to patient care.
Remember The Basics
As you write your resume, it’s important to keep a few basic rules in mind.
Make It Easy to Scan
There are a few things you can do to make your resume easier to read and understand quickly. Aligning everything to the left, using a standard font type and size, and keeping bullets under 2 lines will help make your resume more skimmable. You should also try to leave some white space on the page to help the recruiter easily scan through your information.
Be Concise
When writing a resume, you want to be concise and get your point across quickly. A one-page resume is ideal for recent graduates and those with less than 10 years of experience. For those with more experience, a two-page resume is more appropriate. You can remove irrelevant information, drop references, and remove filler words to save space on your resume. Font type and size, margins, and line spacing can also be tweaked to make your resume more compact.
Check Your Work
Proofreading your resume is important in order to make sure it looks professional and error-free. Spell checking is a must, as are punctuation and grammar checks. It is also helpful to have someone else proofread your resume for you, as they may catch mistakes that you have missed. Beware of easily confused words, and make sure that your tense is consistent throughout the resume.
Use a Summary
Including a resume summary statement can be a great way to introduce yourself to a potential employer and highlight the skills and experiences that make you the best candidate for the job. By succinctly stating who you are, what you do, and what you’re looking for, you can give the recruiter a clear idea of what you have to offer and how you can contribute to their team. When drafting your summary, be sure to focus on your most relevant skills and experiences, and make it clear how you can put your skills to use in the role you’re applying for.