*Closed* - Work Experience and Voluntary Work [Part 1 of 2]

Which ever will take you. Rarely do you get the liberty of choice!

I really need help with this cause i'm unsure of what to do. I've been offered work experience at a hospital but its after i submit my personal statement. i'm not sure if i should mention it on my statement but if i did the detail would not be there. i doubt my interviews will be before ive done the work experience. any ideas as to what i should do??

I'm on my gap year. I have weekly hospital work experience but it does not involve shadowing. I just think my statement would be better with some shadowing. Ive shadowed a GP but it does not sound as good as shadowing a consultant. Thats my dilemma . Im not sure if i should say ive done the work experience which i will have done by interview or if should say i will do it in the hope they'll interview me.

I'm on my gap year. I have weekly hospital work experience but it does not involve shadowing. I just think my statement would be better with some shadowing. Ive shadowed a GP but it does not sound as good as shadowing a consultant. Thats my dilemma . .

Alright, thanks. I'm not sure what kind of spacing to do. I have to work an entire day shift, which I assume is 5-7 hours, whenever I choose. I was thinking once a month, but now I'm considering that if I say this at interview they'll think I was doing it, as you suggested, just to tick a box without any real care. Would twice a month be fine? Ugh!

I've no idea really. Probably; doing a whole day every week is quite a lot alongside A-levels! Or find something you like that has more sociable hours - you've got plenty of time.

Yes, of course you can include that! It's something a lot of people won't have experience of, and you must have learnt a lot of things from having kids from difficult places/with special needs around. It's not a substitute for other voluntary work but is absolutely worth including on your PS.

Thanks again for your help.

I think I'm going to see if I can do it once every two weeks, as that's reasonable. It can't hurt getting volunteer experience in a residential home, and then doing some more at an after school club, or whatever.

Edit: I find it interesting you say that Fostering is not a substitute. Could you elaborate?

Well, basically, you've got great experience from your family fostering (I hope, at least!) but you didn't make any effort to do that yourself. It's just chance that your parents decided to be foster parents and you can reap the benefits. Now, while you certainly should do that, it's not a substitute for doing your own work and finding something else enjoyable and worthwhile off your own bat.

Kind of like when people say that they have a relative who's a doctor, so they've done work experience with them - all well and good, but not as impressive as someone who's had to go out there on their own to find someone to shadow.

Well, basically, you've got great experience from your family fostering (I hope, at least!) but you didn't make any effort to do that yourself. It's just chance that your parents decided to be foster parents and you can reap the benefits. Now, while you certainly should do that, it's not a substitute for doing your own work and finding something else enjoyable and worthwhile off your own bat.

Kind of like when people say that they have a relative who's a doctor, so they've done work experience with them - all well and good, but not as impressive as someone who's had to go out there on their own to find someone to shadow.

Will uni's actually think like that?

My work experiences so far:
- 5 months and still volunteering at a Nursing Home
- Shadowing an Orthopaedic Surgeon (shadowed on an off over a period of 3 months)
- 1 week at a Blood Lab
- 1 week at a Soil Lab
- 3 years volunteering at the Canadian Cancer Society (still continuing)
- Attended some medical camp that none of you would have heard of for 2 weeks (discovering more about medicine)
- 1 day at the Surgical Training Centre at our main hospital
- 2 months of Mini Med School (epigenetics)
- 1 year Peer Mentoring

And I am obviously having A LOT of trouble fitting this into my PS. I have a feeling when I write all of this down admissions will think I'm lying and reject me.