[oreostastenice]

So I've got these next eight weeks off and I'm thinking about doing some volunteering before I head off to college, but I cant find anythingggg that might aid me into doing Medicine in the future. What types of volunteering should I consider? I want to become a surgeon hopefully, so I dont know what might help.

If you've got any useful sites, please share. I'm already on do-it.org.uk, but I've only got a response from one so far.

[lcsurfer]

look for local carehomes, red cross, st johns, ring hospitals, speak to family members if they are in the healthcare profession etc etc

[Nav_Mallhi]

Do you mean work experience? It's terrible. I want to go into dentisty and I've almost called up ever single dental surgery in my area to ask if they do work expereice. All they ever say is "we have already got people" or "sorry we dont do work expreice anymore"- soooooo annoying. I suggest that you just try calling up different places

[oreostastenice]

(Original post by lcsurfer)
look for local carehomes, red cross, st johns, ring hospitals, speak to family members if they are in the healthcare profession etc etc

What are ring hospitals? Just normal ones?
And hmmm.. Yeah, I faced that same problem. Seems like everybodys got there before me -_-

[twelve]

(Original post by oreostastenice)
What are ring hospitals? Just normal ones?
And hmmm.. Yeah, I faced that same problem. Seems like everybodys got there before me -_-

When they said 'ring hospitals' they meant, call up hospitals - find the department that deals with students and work experience students. Try to look up the extension somewhere else before going through switchboard - that'll take a while. Also better off calling than sending emails cause emails can be ignored very easily.

Ditto to all the other suggestions, but it might be difficult to get it before you go to college - CRB's can take about 6 weeks to process, and thats after references and everything, so don't hold out too much hope for starting volunteering before college.

[oreostastenice]

(Original post by twelve)
When they said 'ring hospitals' they meant, call up hospitals - find the department that deals with students and work experience students. Try to look up the extension somewhere else before going through switchboard - that'll take a while. Also better off calling than sending emails cause emails can be ignored very easily.

Ditto to all the other suggestions, but it might be difficult to get it before you go to college - CRB's can take about 6 weeks to process, and thats after references and everything, so don't hold out too much hope for starting volunteering before college.

Oh, okay.. Thanks for the heads-up though! So now I have nothing to do this summer

I'll probably attempt getting into a ring hospital once I've settled into my college then

[twelve]

(Original post by oreostastenice)
Oh, okay.. Thanks for the heads-up though! So now I have nothing to do this summer

I'll probably attempt getting into a ring hospital once I've settled into my college then

Sorry I don't think you've understood, there's no such thing as a ring hospital, the other poster suggested you ring hospitals, as in give them a phone call.

EDIT: Also, I would suggest applying for volunteering, because you will need it to apply for medicine, and its good to have it long term, so start early! Apply now, just be aware that you might not be able to start until after you've started at college. I applied for my hospital volunteering in Spetember when I started college (thats when I found out about it) and didn't start til the new year, and carried it on for a year. So yeah, apply now, and hopefully you'll be able to start in October/November time maybe? That way you'll have done exactly a year when you are applying which is good

[oreostastenice]

(Original post by twelve)
Sorry I don't think you've understood, there's no such thing as a ring hospital, the other poster suggested you ring hospitals, as in give them a phone call.

EDIT: Also, I would suggest applying for volunteering, because you will need it to apply for medicine, and its good to have it long term, so start early! Apply now, just be aware that you might not be able to start until after you've started at college. I applied for my hospital volunteering in Spetember when I started college (thats when I found out about it) and didn't start til the new year, and carried it on for a year. So yeah, apply now, and hopefully you'll be able to start in October/November time maybe? That way you'll have done exactly a year when you are applying which is good

Oh, thank you! Fml, I feel like an idiot now but I rang up my local hospital ages ago and they said they had a back-log in applications for volunteering. Should I apply at hospitals in different areas then?

[tclarke]

Hey

I have an offer from Liverpool to study Medicine (A100) for 2012 entry. Yay *happy dance*

I volunteered at a local club that supports disabled children. I have been going there pretty much every other saturday for about a year, but when I applied for Medicine I had been going for a few months. I also volunteer at this local charity called the Keech Hospice where I am a fundraiser volunteer, but I didn't write about that much on my personal statement.

I'm lucky enough to have a cousin that has his own General Practice so I was able to go there for a week. I also went to a mental care home for 2 weeks which was a very unique experience I must say! A real eye-opener. I was actually able to shadow a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Barts Hospital in London which was absolutely amazing!!! The operations that I saw were incredible!!! I did that for a week and then for another week I shadowed a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Hospital which was also fantastic! Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to get these placements. All I did was go on this website:
http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/...s-years-10-13/

On there, there's a list of placement sponsors. I emailed pretty much everyone and expressed my interest in studying medicine etc etc etc and 2 of them replied offering me a placement.

But please don't feel that you have to get all this work experience to get an offer. My friend got an offer from Barts and he didn't do any hospital work placements or shadow any GP's. He just volunteered at a care home so you really do not need loads and loads.

If anyone would like any help, just send me a message.

Good luck to everyone!!

[oreostastenice]

(Original post by tclarke)
Hey

I have an offer from Liverpool to study Medicine (A100) for 2012 entry. Yay *happy dance*

I volunteered at a local club that supports disabled children. I have been going there pretty much every other saturday for about a year, but when I applied for Medicine I had been going for a few months. I also volunteer at this local charity called the Keech Hospice where I am a fundraiser volunteer, but I didn't write about that much on my personal statement.

I'm lucky enough to have a cousin that has his own General Practice so I was able to go there for a week. I also went to a mental care home for 2 weeks which was a very unique experience I must say! A real eye-opener. I was actually able to shadow a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Barts Hospital in London which was absolutely amazing!!! The operations that I saw were incredible!!! I did that for a week and then for another week I shadowed a consultant general surgeon at the Royal London Hospital which was also fantastic! Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to get these placements. All I did was go on this website:
http://www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk/...s-years-10-13/

On there, there's a list of placement sponsors. I emailed pretty much everyone and expressed my interest in studying medicine etc etc etc and 2 of them replied offering me a placement.

But please don't feel that you have to get all this work experience to get an offer. My friend got an offer from Barts and he didn't do any hospital work placements or shadow any GP's. He just volunteered at a care home so you really do not need loads and loads.

If anyone would like any help, just send me a message.

Good luck to everyone!!

Thank you, oh my god, that was very helpful!

[BlueSparkleDust]

(Original post by twelve)
When they said 'ring hospitals' they meant, call up hospitals - find the department that deals with students and work experience students. Try to look up the extension somewhere else before going through switchboard - that'll take a while. Also better off calling than sending emails cause emails can be ignored very easily.

Ditto to all the other suggestions, but it might be difficult to get it before you go to college - CRB's can take about 6 weeks to process, and thats after references and everything, so don't hold out too much hope for starting volunteering before college.

I thought you meant that ring hospitals were different to normal hospitals as well

[Swords N Thorns]

(Original post by oreostastenice)
So I've got these next eight weeks off and I'm thinking about doing some volunteering before I head off to college, but I cant find anythingggg that might aid me into doing Medicine in the future. What types of volunteering should I consider? I want to become a surgeon hopefully, so I dont know what might help.

If you've got any useful sites, please share. I'm already on do-it.org.uk, but I've only got a response from one so far.

I volunteered for a care home a month or so ago and I've already started,
I know CRB's are supposed to take around 8 weeks, but I got mine back in 2 weeks, and it took around 3 weeks for my references to get back.
I just e-mailed a few different care homes (out of the 20 or so I e-mailed, only 1 replied with the answer I wanted ) so it might take a little while, just send basically the same e-mail to a load of different care homes (changing a few words such as the name, of course) and wait until one gets back to you. I found e-mail much more effective than phone calling.
Try and start now and keep it up throughout the year if you can - long term work experience is good.
I quite enjoy it actually, some of the residents have been teaching me how to play card games and it's nice to sit and talk to some of them for half an hour or so just to try and brighten up their day a bit. Currently I'm only doing 3 hours per week and they're fine with that, so it's not like it's time consuming or anything!

I'm also currently a volunteer at St. John Ambulance. However, I've only been there for 3 weeks and am currently considering quitting, as there are a lot of children between 10-15 resulting in quite an immature environment, so unless you're over 18, I wouldn't really recommend it there.

Finally, I volunteered in a charity shop for 8 months whilst I was 15 (as I was too young to do much else). I only did this for about 2 hours per week but it gave me something to do on a Saturday morning instead of just lying in bed, and it helped me to learn time-management and organisational skills as I had to get the bus there every morning. I also quite enjoyed sorting through some of the items, and the manager gave me a box of chocolates for Christmas and they all signed a birthday card for my 16th haha. It was quite fun, but it got somewhat repetitive after a while, so when I turned 16 I left so I could try out other things.

Don't worry about getting too much work experience just yet - there's plenty of time!
What I would recommend though, is trying to do a bit of volunteering. You don't have to do loads, but it's a real eye-opener and you can learn a lot.

Hope this helped! If you need anything else, just PM me!

[Magician]

(Original post by oreostastenice)
So I've got these next eight weeks off and I'm thinking about doing some volunteering before I head off to college, but I cant find anythingggg that might aid me into doing Medicine in the future. What types of volunteering should I consider? I want to become a surgeon hopefully, so I dont know what might help.

If you've got any useful sites, please share. I'm already on do-it.org.uk, but I've only got a response from one so far.

look on your hospitals website for different types of volunteering jobs that may be available (e.g. ward befriender type). some may allow you to shadow a consultant for few days.

in all honesty, having any job can be used to sell yourself on your personal statement.

[oreostastenice]

(Original post by swords n thorns)
i volunteered for a care home a month or so ago and i've already started,
i know crb's are supposed to take around 8 weeks, but i got mine back in 2 weeks, and it took around 3 weeks for my references to get back.
i just e-mailed a few different care homes (out of the 20 or so i e-mailed, only 1 replied with the answer i wanted ) so it might take a little while, just send basically the same e-mail to a load of different care homes (changing a few words such as the name, of course) and wait until one gets back to you. I found e-mail much more effective than phone calling.
Try and start now and keep it up throughout the year if you can - long term work experience is good.
i quite enjoy it actually, some of the residents have been teaching me how to play card games and it's nice to sit and talk to some of them for half an hour or so just to try and brighten up their day a bit. Currently i'm only doing 3 hours per week and they're fine with that, so it's not like it's time consuming or anything!

I'm also currently a volunteer at st. John ambulance. However, i've only been there for 3 weeks and am currently considering quitting, as there are a lot of children between 10-15 resulting in quite an immature environment, so unless you're over 18, i wouldn't really recommend it there.

Finally, i volunteered in a charity shop for 8 months whilst i was 15 (as i was too young to do much else). I only did this for about 2 hours per week but it gave me something to do on a saturday morning instead of just lying in bed, and it helped me to learn time-management and organisational skills as i had to get the bus there every morning. I also quite enjoyed sorting through some of the items, and the manager gave me a box of chocolates for christmas and they all signed a birthday card for my 16th haha. it was quite fun, but it got somewhat repetitive after a while, so when i turned 16 i left so i could try out other things.

don't worry about getting too much work experience just yet - there's plenty of time!
What i would recommend though, is trying to do a bit of volunteering. You don't have to do loads, but it's a real eye-opener and you can learn a lot.

Hope this helped! If you need anything else, just pm me! :d

thank you!