Work Experience for Medicine

I was just wondering if for work experience in medicine if it matters if you only do volunteering (say at a charity shop) for a week or two, or if you have to do long periods of time like several months or even a year.
Also, how much work and voluntary experience is needed? As I've seen the amounts several people have said that had done, but I never knew if they were actually accepted into Med School.
thanks

With any work experience/volunteering placement you do, you have to ask yourself several things:

1) How does this placement confirm my desire to be a doctor?
2) How can I put this across in a personal statement?
3) How can I put this across in an interview?

With that in mind, it should be clear that the amount of work experience/volunteering you do doesn't really matter*, but how you reflect on it and think about it counts for a lot more.

Working in a charity shop is okay, but it should really be your last resort as far as volunteering placements go. Have you already checked around local nursing homes and hospices? You need to demonstrate that you have an awareness of what it's like to work in a caring environment. Working over a long period of time is a good idea as it demonstrates commitment, but the med schools are not going to reject you for doing three months of volunteering instead of four, that's not how it works. What matters most is how you reflect on your experiences.

*Unless the medical school has specified that they require a minimum number of hours/weeks of volunteering.

Thank you so much! I'm only in year 10 at the moment, and I currently volunteering at a sort of youth group for primary school children, I was just wondering in case it would be more favoured among medical schools to do a year or so rather than a few months or if it didnt matter. I'm planning on hopefully doing some volunteering in a local nursing home and Im also going to do 2 weeks at a radio station which I found out was actually hospital based.
Thank you for your help

Oh I see! Wow, I'm impressed - I thought you would have had to be a bit older to volunteer in a nursing home etc - learned something new there!

Unless the medical school has specified a certain number of hours/weeks, assume that they're more interested in quality over quantity. It's certainly a good idea to do your volunteering regularly over a few months etc, but again, they won't reject you simply because another applicant has done a month more volunteering!

Well I'm going to try to apply when I'm 16 haha I didn't really make that clear haha!
And thank you so much for your help! If I was to volunteer in say a hospital apparently the waiting lists are ridiculously long so would it be good to sign up before i'm even old enough? As I've heard it's quite competitive to do so and I think it'd be a great experience to have as I don't have any doctors or anyone that has a career to do with medicine so it would be quite difficult for me to get a guaranteed space.

Well I'm going to try to apply when I'm 16 haha I didn't really make that clear haha!

They prefer long term volunteering, as it shows commitment :-)

That's something you'd have to check with your local hospital tbh

The hospital may also have a dedicated work experience programme which you won't need contacts for - definitely worth investigating further. Failing that, email consultants' secretaries by the dozen (when you're 16+), and hopefully one will be happy to take you on for a few days of shadowing.

They prefer long term volunteering, as it shows commitment :-)