The Student Room Group

Volunteer work for applying to medicine

A lot of universities want volunteering in a health care environment eg a hospice or care home. I am a St. John ambulance cadet, do you think this counts? Should probably mention that I have a work experience in various health care roles at home in Northern Ireland (doctor, nurse, midwife) and did 2 weeks in a hospital in Malawi (Africa)
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 1
Yeah volunteering for St. John does count as I'm also volunteer for St. John as a first aider and I'll be starting medicine this September but I think it would be better if you can volunteer in a care home or hospital or even a hospital placement because it will give you good experience which you can use to talk about during interviews and to write personal statement
Reply 2
Original post by LS18
Yeah volunteering for St. John does count as I'm also volunteer for St. John as a first aider and I'll be starting medicine this September but I think it would be better if you can volunteer in a care home or hospital or even a hospital placement because it will give you good experience which you can use to talk about during interviews and to write personal statement

Thank you! I do have a lot of other work experience including 2 weeks in a hospital in Malawi (Africa). I was just wondering whether I needed this kind of volunteering too :smile:
Original post by ameehannah
A lot of universities want work in experience in a health care environment eg a hospice or care home. I am a St. John ambulance cadet, do you think this counts?


Yes it will count because it is voluntary work in a caring role.

I do think it would be a good idea for you to get some more varied work experience/voluntary work in a caring environment such as a hospital, GP surgery or care home so that you are able to comment on issues facing the NHS and other ethical issues, it would be a great plus to your application.
Reply 4
Original post by Natalierm2707
Yes it will count because it is voluntary work in a caring role.

I do think it would be a good idea for you to get some more varied work experience/voluntary work in a caring environment such as a hospital, GP surgery or care home so that you are able to comment on issues facing the NHS and other ethical issues, it would be a great plus to your application.

Thank you! I edited my post there to clarify my other work experience
Original post by ameehannah
Thank you! I edited my post there to clarify my other work experience


Oh I see great work experience there, maybe try to get something in the UK though as at my interview they asked me a lot about the NHS, medical training in the NHS and about healthcare in the news in the UK, so its a good idea to have some good grounding in these areas, and having witnessed it first hands means you will have much more to talk about.
Reply 6
Original post by Natalierm2707
Oh I see great work experience there, maybe try to get something in the UK though as at my interview they asked me a lot about the NHS, medical training in the NHS and about healthcare in the news in the UK, so its a good idea to have some good grounding in these areas, and having witnessed it first hands means you will have much more to talk about.

Yeah I'll maybe try to get some more in the uk. I'm currently reading some books at the moment about the nhs, medical ethics and the sort of stuff they ask you about in interviews. Thanks for the reply !
Original post by ameehannah
A lot of universities want volunteering in a health care environment eg a hospice or care home. I am a St. John ambulance cadet, do you think this counts? Should probably mention that I have a work experience in various health care roles at home in Northern Ireland (doctor, nurse, midwife) and did 2 weeks in a hospital in Malawi (Africa)


Hi ameehannah

It sounds as though you have a lot of great work experience.

As long as you can reflect on your experience in the St. Johns Ambulance to show that you have gained something from it, then it certainly counts.

I notice that you said that you are going to try and get some more UK based work experience, which would be great. If you do manage to secure some, make sure that you go into it thinking about the sort of things that you can reflect on based on your observations as this will all strengthen your application.

I hope that is useful... all the best with it all and feel free to let me know if you have any questions... always happy to help!

UniAdmissions
Reply 8
Original post by UniAdmissions
Hi ameehannah

It sounds as though you have a lot of great work experience.

As long as you can reflect on your experience in the St. Johns Ambulance to show that you have gained something from it, then it certainly counts.

I notice that you said that you are going to try and get some more UK based work experience, which would be great. If you do manage to secure some, make sure that you go into it thinking about the sort of things that you can reflect on based on your observations as this will all strengthen your application.

I hope that is useful... all the best with it all and feel free to let me know if you have any questions... always happy to help!

UniAdmissions

Thank you :smile: I'll try to see what more work experience I can get in uk then

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