Optimizing Your Resume and Showcasing Your Value in an Evolving IP Job Market

Optimizing your IP resume and Showcasing your value

(AI image courtesy of authors)

In today's dynamic health care landscape, characterized by both unprecedented challenges and evolving opportunities, the role of infection preventionists (IPs) is more critical than ever. While IPs are vital in safeguarding patient safety and elevating health care quality, their profound influence, particularly their financial contribution, often goes unrecognized. This undervaluation comes at a time when hospitals nationwide are implementing significant cost-cutting measures, including layoffs and hiring freezes.

Despite these immediate cutbacks and a general slowdown in the overall job market, the IP job market remains active as IPs seek new opportunities, transition into retirement, or pursue other employment. This creates a mixed picture for IPs, ranging from those impacted by hospital layoffs to those pursuing their next professional chapter.

In this evolving job market, where financial pressures increasingly shape healthcare organizational decisions, IPs must redefine their professional narrative. To truly advance your career and be recognized as a revenue generator—not merely a cost center—your resume must transcend a basic list of duties. It needs to articulate your tangible achievements and create a compelling argument for what you personally bring to the IP role and why you are the best candidate for the position.

This article will delve into crafting a resume that goes beyond basic responsibilities, empowering you to tell a compelling story of how you've positively influenced patient outcomes and the organization's bottom line.

Demonstrating Measurable Value: Beyond Routine Responsibilities

Your resume is your professional marketing document. To truly stand out, it should tell a compelling story about how your efforts have positively influenced patient outcomes and the organization's financial health. This requires actively quantifying your accomplishments whenever possible, shifting focus from tasks to measurable results. It's crucial not just to state your responsibilities, but also to demonstrate your effectiveness, using bullet points to highlight achievements and directly linking them to positive organizational results. Tying these outcomes to financial savings is a significant advantage, directly demonstrating your contribution to the bottom line. This concrete data truly distinguishes your resume.

For IPs, quantifiable impact can manifest in various crucial ways:

• Reducing health care-associated infections (HAIs): Be specific about the type of HAI (eg, central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), Clostridioides difficile, surgical site infections, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and precisely state the Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR), rate, or number of reductions achieved. This directly demonstrates improved patient safety and quality of care.
• Driving Cost Savings: Translate initiatives that led to fewer readmissions, shorter lengths of stay, or reduced supply costs into clear dollar figures, showcasing your financial contribution.
• Enhancing Patient Safety Metrics: Highlight how your work contributed to improvements in broader patient safety indicators, such as achieving better Leapfrog Safety Grades or Magnet designation for your facility. If your organization does not participate in these specific programs, detail your direct involvement in hospital accreditation surveys or preparedness for entities like The Joint Commission (TJC), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP), or Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
• Successful Program Implementation: Describe your leadership in developing and implementing initiatives that significantly improved infection prevention practices. For each, clearly articulate the project's scope, the challenges you addressed, and the measurable positive outcomes achieved. Relevant examples include enhanced clinical education modules, initiatives to boost nursing compliance on patient care indicators (e.g., patient bathing, device line bundle adherence), improved hand hygiene compliance, or the successful integration of new patient equipment.

Constructing a Powerful Business Case

Every achievement you list should implicitly or explicitly answer a fundamental question for potential employers: "How did this benefit the organization?" This is the essence of building a powerful business case for the IP role. You're not just preventing infections; you're safeguarding the organization's financial health, reputation, and operational efficiency.

The table below illustrates how to transform routine responsibilities into powerful, quantifiable achievements that build a strong business case (Table 1):

Table 1: The IP's Business Case: Quantifying Impact for a Stronger Resume

(Credit: Brayden Unger)

What Makes an IP Resume "Jump Off the Page"?

To optimize your resume for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and ensure it highlights your value, heed the advice of Jonnie Jacobs, executive infection control recruiter with Clutch Recruitment. While not all organizations use ATS as the primary filter for specialized IP roles, tailoring your resume with relevant keywords is crucial, as ATS uses algorithms to screen applicants based on criteria set by hiring teams. A well-crafted resume that highlights your value is essential for getting noticed.

Consult the "Health System's ATS Keywords and Phrases" infographic for critical terms to include (Table 2). This visual resource provides essential language across categories that will help your resume stand out to both ATS and human reviewers:

Table 2: Searching With Purpose: Health System's ATS Keywords and Phrases

(Credit: Brayden Unger)

To optimize your resume for ATS and ensure it highlights your impact, consult the "Health System's ATS Keywords and Phrases" infographic. This resource provides critical terms across key categories.

In addition to targeted keywords, Jonnie Jacobs emphasizes the following:

• Go beyond the title: include scope of work: Job titles alone often fail to capture the full scope of an individual's responsibilities and impact. For instance, a "Director" at a small 25-bed hospital may have a vastly different operational experience than a "Senior Infection Preventionist" overseeing a team at a 500-bed facility. To accurately convey the breadth and depth of your experience, each entry on your resume must detail the full scope of your responsibilities and the environment in which you operated. This provides hiring managers with essential context to understand your capabilities (Table 3).

Table 3: Experiences: When Listing your experience include specific details

(Credit: Brayden Unger)

This detailed approach strengthens your professional narrative and highlights your true qualifications, especially if transitioning roles or organizational sizes.

• List Your Responsibilities Clearly, But Concisely: While outcomes are paramount, a concise overview of your key responsibilities is still important, offering a quick snapshot of your day-to-day functions. For example: "IP program coordination, surveillance, state and NHSN reporting, risk reduction, outbreak control, education, construction, and project management." This ensures all fundamental aspects of the IP role you managed are evident.
• Connect with a Specialized Recruiter: If you are new to the job market, contemplating a career transition, or seeking guidance on organizations that align with your experience, consider connecting with a recruiter specializing in infection control recruitment. These specialized recruiters offer invaluable resources because they:

Collaborate with organizations actively recruiting for IP roles that match your background and experience.

• Provide insights into internal hiring processes and offer guidance, effectively presenting your experience to specific hiring managers.
• Offer intelligence on local opportunities and assist with resume review and updates.
• Facilitate direct resume submission to hiring managers with experience in infection prevention, thereby bypassing potential human resource bottlenecks.
• Are dedicated to ensuring a strong alignment between organizational leadership requirements and individual candidate aspirations
• Consider reaching out and connecting with them for insights on how to leverage their expertise in your job search.

Thriving in a Shifting Landscape

The current climate for IPs, while presenting undeniable challenges like hiring freezes and layoffs, is also a powerful catalyst for strategic growth and new opportunities. Understanding these trends is key to navigating the landscape successfully. If you or an IP you know is experiencing job market turbulence, please know that you are not alone; a strong, supportive community of IPs and specialized recruiters is available to offer guidance and support.

In addition to improving your resume, there are specific actions you can take to enhance your marketability and better navigate this evolving landscape. Proactively investing in your professional network—leveraging peer support and organizations like the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)—will provide invaluable insights into emerging roles and in-demand skills.

Critically, by refining your resume to quantify your impact and powerfully highlight your unique value, you will demonstrate your direct contribution to an organization's success. Finally, by broadening your job search and focusing on how you can leverage your expertise beyond the title, you'll discover new avenues where your expertise is

highly valued. The IP community is incredibly resilient, and by taking these actionable steps, you can enhance your marketability, confidently seize new opportunities, and successfully thrive in this evolving landscape.

Please see a resume template for Jane Doe to help you put this all together to showcase your value.

References:

1. The Leapfrog Group. Joint Statement from Devin Jopp, APIC and Leah Binder, The Leapfrog Group on Sustaining Investment in Patient Safety and Infection Prevention. Published May 28, 2025. Accessed July 25, 2025. https://www.leapfroggroup.org/news-events/joint-statement-devin-jopp-apic-and-leah-binder-leapfrog-group-sustaining-investment
2. Codon A. Hospital layoffs spike as threat of Medicaid cuts nears. Becker Hospital Review. Published June 5, 2025. Accessed July 25, 2025. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospital-layoffs-spike-as-threat-of-medicaid-cuts-nears/

Additional Resources:

APIC HAI Calculator Tools: Calculate the impact of your facility’s HAIs (2025). Retrieved from https://haitools.apic.org/