Enough work experience

Hi everyone
I was just wondering if by the time I end up sending my application this will be enough work experience/ voluntary work?

1 Week shadowing a chiropractor
1 Week shadowing a GP (Including a visit to a nursing home)
2 months as a support worker for people with autism and their families (I'm quite interested in being a Psychiatrist)
Attended several lectures at King's College where I learnt about the average day and workloads of various different doctors including a GP and 2 Psychiatrists. (Not work experience but gave me an insight into the life of a doctor)

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

Airmed

You can never have 'enough' work experience. You should check with each of the unis you are applying to, many specify the minimum amount of work experience they would like an applicant to have.

Reply 2

Boredomstrikes

Original post by Airmed

You can never have 'enough' work experience. You should check with each of the unis you are applying to, many specify the minimum amount of work experience they would like an applicant to have.

The ones I want to apply to all tend to be very vague about how much work experience they want I've seen some people who said they had less work experience than I do and got in but others that had much more.

Reply 3

Airmed

Original post by Boredomstrikes

Like I said, never enough. You can still organise to do more after your application is submitted and mention it in your PS; that way you can have those experiences to talk about at interview.

Reply 4

Democracy

Original post by Boredomstrikes

That's because it's the quality of your work experience and how you reflect on it which is important, not the amount. One candidate might get lots of insight into what a career in medicine involves after a couple of days of work experience. Others might not have a clue even after a few weeks.

That said, chiropractic is nonsense - don't waste precious PS characters talking about it.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

Boredomstrikes

Original post by Democracy

Thanks for that I just get really intimidated when I see people who've been doing volunteering at care homes for 3 years and have months worth of work experience in a hospital setting when I haven't had the opportunity to do those kind of things because my family moves a lot. I wasn't sure whether to mention the chiropractic work experience as that was in year 10 and was really the only option at the time for work experience in "healthcare".

Reply 6

UniAdmissions

Original post by Boredomstrikes

Hi Boredomstrikes

I think the thing to bear in mind with work experience when applying for medicine is what you will have gained from the experience rather than the length of time you have done it for.

That is to say that you could have a vast amount of work experience which is not particularly relevant and hasn't given you any transferable skills, whereas you could have spent less time doing work experience that is more relevant and has given you a much better perspective on what a career in medicine actually involves and more skills that can be applied to your studies.

Medical schools understand that not everyone has access to the same opportunities and they are far more concerned with how the experience has shaped you and what you go on to do with that experience than with the length of time you have done it for.

You might be interested in reading this blog post which talks about this exact subject!

I hope that has been of some help... do give me a shout if you have any questions.

UniAdmissions