The CV Doctor: CV For a Ph.D. in the Health Professions

At 12 pages in length, this CV for an associate professor of nursing details an impressive amount of academic and professional activity. She is interested in pursuing community-based research with children, youth, and families living in urban areas. However, she has buried her research-oriented qualifications on her CV. Its current organization makes it difficult to find the key information that supports her goal. Everything on her vita is treated as equally important, which is rarely the case given a specific job opportunity. The document should be reorganized and condensed to spotlight her main qualifications at a glance and invite further reading for more details. We would suggest she start her CV with a short statement about her current research, and then order her sections in this way: Academic Appointments, Education, Selected Teaching Experience, Publications and Presentations, Grants and Fellowships, Students Advised, Honors and Awards, Other Appointments, Professional Consultantships, Licensure and Certification, Professional Associations, Professional Service, University Service, and Other Professional Service. Usually, publications are listed at the end of a vita, but in this case we want to make sure that readers don't miss them because they've gotten bogged down in the other elements of her substantial experience.

-- Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick

Examples:

• CV for an A.B.D. in the humanities
• CV for an administrator
• CV for an M.F.A.
• CV for a Ph.D. with a prior professional career

Seven additional entries are listed.

Students6

Masters in Nursing Studies Four additional entries precede this one. Co-Chair (with Name), Name, Patterns of health care utilization in African American children with asthma, May 2002. Graduate Student Presentations/Publications Two entries are listed. Graduate Student Awards/Honors6 Five entries listing honors earned by the candidate's students are listed. Undergraduate Student Awards/Honors7 Three entries are listed. Undergraduate Students-Research Projects7 Two entries precede this one. Mentor, Name, Mission Possible: Parents and Kids Who Listen, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Fellow, University, City, August 2002-June 2003.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:8
Affiliation/Organization	Professional Activity/Role	Date(s)
Thirteen entries precede these.
United Way of Central State	Executive Women's Leadership Program	2001-2002
County Family Strengthening Coalition, City, State	Member, Health and Safety Committee Member, Family Strengthening Day Committee	2002
UNIVERSITY SERVICE:
University		Inclusive Dates
State University School of Nursing
Fifteen entries precede this one.
Faculty Affairs Committee		2003-2005
University at City
Faculty Council, Member-at-Large (Elected position)		1997-99; 2000-02; 2002-04
Two additional entries are listed.
State University-System9
University Graduate School Faculty, Associate Status		1999-2002
University Graduate School Faculty, Full Status		2003-present
OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:
Teaching Presentations
Eight presentations are listed.
Book Reviews for Publishing Company
Two reviews are listed.
Research Presentations10
Fifteen entries precede these.
Name, Name, Job Candidate, Name, Name, and Name. (2002, November). Racial Differences in the Relationship of Urban Stressors to Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among CSHCN. Poster presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
Job Candidate, Name, Name, and Name. (2003, April). Family, Health System, and Environmental Factors Related to Quality of Life in Children with Special Health Care Needs. Paper presented at the IUPUI Symposium Highlighting the Research of Minority Faculty, Indianapolis, IN.
Name, Name, Job Candidate, Name. (2003, June). Computer Use in Data Collection. Presentation at the Learning Communities Workshop, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Denver, CO.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS:11
Five entries precede these.
Job Candidate and Name. (2000-2002). Quality of Life in African American Children with ChronicConditions. $20,000 research supplement awarded from the Center for Enhancing Quality of Life in Chronic Illness, National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH P30NR05035, Name, PI). Role: Principal Investigator/Project Director.
Job Candidate, Name, and Name. (2000-2002). Racial Differences in Mental Health Access and Utilization in Children with Special Health Care Needs. $159,627 Minority Research Supplement funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHCQR#U01-HS10453, Name, PI). Role: Principal Investigator and Project Director for Supplement.
Name, Job Candidate. (2002-2005). Mission Possible: Parents and Kids Who Listen. $1,182,300 grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Name, Cross Site Project Director). Role: Cross-Site Co-Director.
Job Candidate. (2002-2005). Mission Possible: Parents and Kids Who Listen. $401,769 grant funded from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Role: Project Director (City Site).
PRINT AND ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS: (**Peer-Reviewed)
Teaching (Peer-Reviewed)
Six numbered publications from 1997-2001 are listed.
PRINT AND ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS: (**Peer-Reviewed)
Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activities (Peer-Reviewed)
Six numbered publications from 1996-2003 are listed.
Letters to the Editor
One entry.
Research Publications Under Review
Four entries are listed.

1.) Remove the "Curriculum Vitae" heading. It's unnecessary.

2.) The format used in the "Education" section (and in most of the earlier sections) is unattractive. It's unnecessary to use labels such as "undergraduate," "graduate," and "Post Doctoral." More importantly, the candidate has placed all of the key information near the end of the section. All of her entries (in this section and elsewhere) should be in reverse chronological order, with her more recent experiences listed first. In addition, she should provide some brief information about her doctoral degree and postdoctoral work, such as the title of her dissertation. The information about her education should be placed after the section detailing her academic appointments, given that she earned her graduate degree a decade ago.

3.) Throughout the CV, the candidate lists subheadings -- for example, "Institution and Location, Degree, Date." Delete them. They are unnecessary.

4.) Here, too, the list of positions held by the candidate should be in reverse chronological order. The format is unattractive, and very little information is actually conveyed.