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For a 23 year old who works full time, is it possible to fit in some health care experience round a 40 hour working week?!

Plan to apply for an Access to Medicine course for next year's intake and stressing about whether I can get enough experience to be seriously considered!
I hope to apply to Med Schools this year, for 2013 undergraduate entry, and while I am hopeful my grades will meet requirements I am worried about my lack of work experience!

I have a week placement in a hospital, and I visit primary schools weekly to teach them science subjects. I hope to get a voluntary job at a charity shop during summer.

I realize this amount of work experience isn't enough, do I stand a chance of getting in to medicine school?

And do I have enough time to get more?

I'm very worried!

Nb; I also don't do any extra-curricular activities! Does my teaching in primary schools count as one as it is voluntary and not an actual work placement?
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5822
It's not about how much you do. It's about how much you can reflect(bull****) about it.
When it comes to (relevent) rambling I am pretty good. So if I can draw out all the different kinds of aspects they want me to have will I be okay? Even if my ramble comes from a weeks experience as opposed to a year or several months?
Original post by Sarcastic_Sazza
I hope to apply to Med Schools this year, for 2013 undergraduate entry, and while I am hopeful my grades will meet requirements I am worried about my lack of work experience!

I have a week placement in a hospital, and I visit primary schools weekly to teach them science subjects. I hope to get a voluntary job at a charity shop during summer.

I realize this amount of work experience isn't enough, do I stand a chance of getting in to medicine school?

And do I have enough time to get more?

I'm very worried!

Nb; I also don't do any extra-curricular activities! Does my teaching in primary schools count as one as it is voluntary and not an actual work placement?


This is fine. Many people don't have more than a week or so in a hospital as it means you have to miss school to do it properly. I'd count your school work as volunteering. And as Phryx said, it's not how much, but what you learnt from it.
I only had a week's work experience but I covered a wide variety of things in this time so had a lot to talk about. It doesn't matter if you have done a week or a year if you haven't learnt from it. Just remember to reflect on everything that you saw. You can also talk about other things that you have done which use the same qualities as doctors need if you feel you are short on experience.
Thankyou! I hear about people who work for months/years in a whole range of places and I feel extremely worried because I realise I don't have nearly enough.

You've put my mind at peace for now :smile:
I will try to get a week at a local GP's hopefully either before we break up for or during the summer holidays. I have applied to many hospice's etc but unfortunately they require morning placements which I can't do due to college and their weekends are unavailable!

Thankyou very much for you're advice! Sometimes I have science classes with deaf children at the primary school. Could that count as disabled?
Original post by Sarcastic_Sazza
I will try to get a week at a local GP's hopefully either before we break up for or during the summer holidays. I have applied to many hospice's etc but unfortunately they require morning placements which I can't do due to college and their weekends are unavailable!
Thankyou very much for you're advice! Sometimes I have science classes with deaf children at the primary school. Could that count as disabled?


Working with deaf children definitely counts! :smile: And as always it's quality over quantity! Being able to show what you've learnt to the admissions team during an interview and your personal statement is the key factor of getting in med school, that's of course if you meet their academic requirements :smile:
Original post by zhang599
Working with deaf children definitely counts! :smile: And as always it's quality over quantity! Being able to show what you've learnt to the admissions team during an interview and your personal statement is the key factor of getting in med school, that's of course if you meet their academic requirements :smile:


Thankyou! Hopefully, with a couple of resits here and there I should get my A's and possibly a B (though I'm hoping it's an A!)

What kind of experiences/learning points to they love you to mention in a personal statement?
didnt see this sticky!

I figured you medics would be good people to ask about this.

Looking to do work experience in my local hospital's lab (pathology lab?)

how do i go about doing this? the website mentions 'finding a sponsor' etc

really grateful if anyone has any ideas
Hmm got a hard decision. Ive been offered a voluntry placement at a demensia care home 5 hours a week. But I already do 3 hours in a hospice, Do you guys think doing both would be worth it to my application at all?
Would it look good on my application showing double commitment?

hmmm hard decision
Original post by Sarcastic_Sazza
Thankyou! Hopefully, with a couple of resits here and there I should get my A's and possibly a B (though I'm hoping it's an A!)
What kind of experiences/learning points to they love you to mention in a personal statement?

Not too sure if I'm honest :P I would say you should show examples of good leadership, teamwork, communication and dedication in your personal statement. It's also good to have a structure to your PS so it's easy to read. Try your best not to use clichΓ©s such as "I want to do medicine cause I like helping people". I found looking at examples helped quite a bit and gave me an idea on how to write it :smile: I'll happy to send you mine if you wish!

Original post by Leigh303
didnt see this sticky!...
...really grateful if anyone has any ideas

I would say the best option is to contact them directly so e-mail them about it or even phone them up! :smile:

Original post by Richyp22
Hmm got a hard decision. Ive been offered a voluntry placement at a demensia care home 5 hours a week. But I already do 3 hours in a hospice, Do you guys think doing both would be worth it to my application at all?
Would it look good on my application showing double commitment?
hmmm hard decision

I think doing 8 hours of volunteering a week is quite a lot, especially if you're going to be doing it for a long period of time. If you think you can handle it then sure go for it but personally I would choose only one of the two: You can carry on the hospice work and show a long term commitment or you can only do the dementia care home placement so you can have 2 voluntary placements to write about/talk about :smile:
Original post by zhang599
Not too sure if I'm honest :P I would say you should show examples of good leadership, teamwork, communication and dedication in your personal statement. It's also good to have a structure to your PS so it's easy to read. Try your best not to use clichΓ©s such as "I want to do medicine cause I like helping people". I found looking at examples helped quite a bit and gave me an idea on how to write it :smile: I'll happy to send you mine if you wish!


That would be incredibly helpful! Thankyou so much :smile:
Reply 5834
Do you think that volunteer work for the British Red Cross (as a emergency response volunteer) is as good as working in a care home? I do volunteer work at a charity shop on weekdays, but think I need to do something different on the weekends to make me stand out more and try to do something different.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5835
Do you think that volunteer work for the British Red Cross (as a emergency response volunteer) is as good as working in a care home? I do volunteer work at a charity shop on weekdays, but think I need to do something different on the weekends to make me stand out more and to try out different stuff.
Reply 5836
Original post by seuqaj
Do you think that volunteer work for the British Red Cross (as a emergency response volunteer) is as good as working in a care home? I do volunteer work at a charity shop on weekdays, but think I need to do something different on the weekends to make me stand out more and to try out different stuff.


You would probably need to find some caring work experience as well as the red cross stuff.
Original post by Beska
You would probably need to find some caring work experience as well as the red cross stuff.


Hmm got a hard decision. Ive been offered a voluntry placement at a demensia care home 5 hours a week. But I already do 3 hours in a hospice, Do you guys think doing both would be worth it to my application at all?
Would it look good on my application showing double commitment?

hmmm hard decision

You seem to know your stuff?
Reply 5838
Original post by Richyp22


Hmm got a hard decision. Ive been offered a voluntry placement at a demensia care home 5 hours a week. But I already do 3 hours in a hospice, Do you guys think doing both would be worth it to my application at all?
Would it look good on my application showing double commitment?

hmmm hard decision

You seem to know your stuff?


It's less about what it shows and more about what skills you develop out of it. Can you really stand to devote 8 hours a week alongside your studies and other extracurriculars? If you can, and you find it useful, then do it. Otherwise don't. The hospice work, as long as you've learnt relevant things from it, is good enough.
Original post by -Neuro-
[...] I'm also aware of how universities, especially Edinburgh, where I hope to go to look at three categories: diseased, disabled and disadvantaged. Would this work experience fit these three categories?[...]


Do you have a source for this?

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