How to get experience for Health Care Courses/Medicine?

Although I am only 16, I'm thinking forward to summer. During summer, I'm hoping to get some experience as I would love to do Nursing, Medicine, ODP or Paramedic courses for university.

Where should I go? Who should I contact?

I kinda overlooked the fact that having experience for Nursing is necessary because I've been more focused on medicine, but i'm not sure if I have the brain power and intelligence for medicine yet, seeing as I haven't even done my GCSEs yet.

For A Level, I'm hoping to do Biology, Geography and Chemistry/English Lit (not sure which one yet, although I am fully aware Chem is a must for Medicine..)

Also, some girl in my class and even the head of sixth form said you have to take the four A Levels in total, three sciences and maths, to do medicine, which isn't true right? Taking Geog, Bio and Chem would be fine, right? (but my chances would be slim lol)

Thanks in advance

You definitely don't need maths (unless you apply to one of the colleges at Cambridge). You only need three sciences for Cambridge. Doing maths does not increase someones chance of getting in to medicine. Geog, bio and chem are perfectly good choices.

That's good to hear! We have to make the decision if we want to do 4 A Levels or 3 and when head of sixth form said that, I immediately knew it was untrue...

What should I be looking to get? Would ABB be acceptable? Or is it more like AAB (B in Chemistry..)

And what will set me apart from the crowd, because my grades won't lol! And the UKCAT looks hard, is it English focused or Maths focused? (I'm good at english so...)

That's good to hear! We have to make the decision if we want to do 4 A Levels or 3 and when head of sixth form said that, I immediately knew it was untrue...

What should I be looking to get? Would ABB be acceptable? Or is it more like AAB (B in Chemistry..)

And what will set me apart from the crowd, because my grades won't lol! And the UKCAT looks hard, is it English focused or Maths focused? (I'm good at english so...)

The grades you'll need depend on which of the courses you want to get onto, for medicine you'll need AAA at least.

Also, by 4 A levels do you mean 4 full ones, or 3 a levels and 1 as level?

Although I am only 16, I'm thinking forward to summer. During summer, I'm hoping to get some experience as I would love to do Nursing, Medicine, ODP or Paramedic courses for university.

Where should I go? Who should I contact?

I kinda overlooked the fact that having experience for Nursing is necessary because I've been more focused on medicine, but i'm not sure if I have the brain power and intelligence for medicine yet, seeing as I haven't even done my GCSEs yet.

For A Level, I'm hoping to do Biology, Geography and Chemistry/English Lit (not sure which one yet, although I am fully aware Chem is a must for Medicine..)

Also, some girl in my class and even the head of sixth form said you have to take the four A Levels in total, three sciences and maths, to do medicine, which isn't true right? Taking Geog, Bio and Chem would be fine, right? (but my chances would be slim lol)

Thanks in advance

Ask around for work experience, GP surgeries, care homes, wherever you can get some experience caring for people.
For medicine you'd be expected to have done some sort of work experience of this type- most sixth forms will let you go off and do work experience (I think).

A-Levels- the reforms are going to be tough, so GCSEs are going to count for more, and I'm sure most unis would understand that the reforms are going to screw about with the usual 1 AS and 3A-levels candidate, so they shouldn't really mind about whether you take 3 or 4 A Levels, as most schools are sticking with 3 A levels.

You're still going to need Chemistry and Biology. Chem is a requirement. They also expect most candidates to have biology and either maths or physics. This keeps you open to most unis. Your current combination will still mean you are eligible for some unis though.

Grades. AAA. It's a matter of working hard, and understanding the material and applications.
Any A*s boost your application significantly. (If you still get As in the others).


DofE and other extra curricular activities don't affect your application much. The main reason people say that they are good for unis is that they help with the interview process, gives you a more well-rounded character, as opposed to a name on a form.

The only place that requires three sciences for Medicine is Cambridge. The only place that requires maths is one college at Cambridge. They do not need to do maths to 'keep their options open'.

You're still going to need Chemistry and Biology. Chem is a requirement. They also prefer most candidates to have biology and either maths or physics. This keeps you open to most unis. Your current combination will still mean you are eligible for some unis though.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do medicine yet, but should I still choose Chemistry for A Level as it is a necessity?

Depending on which course you most want to do. If you think you want to take medicine, you should definitely take Chemistry, and Biology as the unis prefer that, however most people applying for medicine are firmly decided, so are able to tailor their A-Level choices and Personal statement for medicine courses.

The thing is that if you are undecided on medicine, it is best not to try to apply to it with a mixed set of A Levels, imo, as there will be many candidates with the aforementioned tailored application.


Take into account that I'm just a guy on the internet who can't say for certain what your passions are and what you are thinking right now. I can only help so much.



If there's only one thing I can tell you for certain, it is that without the right A-Level combination, some degrees will be extremely hard to get into.
At this time, you should have an idea of which course is top on your list. Make sure you check out the entry requirements and the usual candidates' A-Level combination. Have a back up choice which has similar requirements and is in a similar field to the first, so that you can still tailor your applications fairly well to your desired field.

I'm sorry if I went on for too long without giving much help, I started losing my train of thought and had to finish the post before I stopped making sense.

I've found a course which looks more accessible for me, it's this one:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/extended-medical-degree-programme-mbbs.aspx

I think I'm eligible for this course, but wouldn't it be really expensive...? I would be going to university for double the amount of time as a normal degree, so how does funding work? If it's £9000 a year, wouldn't I end up paying £54000 which is WAY too much..?

Yes, it is a 6 year course, so £54,000 in tuition fees. (Some unis do a 5 year course though). Not sure about the accommodation and living allowance though.

After your 6 years, you get your degree.
Then you do 2 year foundation training as a Junior doctor- basic salary (if you don't work extra hours) £22,000 first year, £28,000-ish second year.
A final year of specialist training in your field of medicine, with £30,000 salary.

I recommend that you take a student loan. It is vastly misunderstood.
You get your £9,000 every year.
When you get a job, the 9% of earnings over £21,000 (before taxes) is taken to pay off the loan. If you don't earn over £21,000 you pay nothing back.
If you had a salary of £25,000, you would pay back-
£25,000-£21,000= £4,000
£4,000 x 9%= £360 payed to the student loan every year

After 30 years, you're done. They don't ask for you to pay any more money back to them even if you haven't finished.

Hope this eases your mind

Alright, thanks. My parents will probably help me out anyway (hopefully). I want to try and not worry about this anymore because I'm only 16 and I haven't even done my GCSEs yet. I don't want to flop and then not even be able to move onto sixth form

Yeah, don't forget about those GCSEs

I'm really interested in medicine (obviously), so could I write a "blog" (more like a portfolio) where I can research different medical conditions/diseases literally just out of interest? Would this be something I could mention in an interview because I guess it shows you are really interested in the subject and your dad isn't forcing you to do it or something, right?

You can say anything in the interview, so long as it backs you up as a candidate/person.

So yeah, it would be a nice little thing to do on the side (but don't neglect work experience), and you could talk about it, but it depends on how well you do it (if it's just OK, then it might not be worth it, it would have to be worth it)

BTW, I need to point out that I'm probably in the same year as you it's just that I've done a lot of research into my options, so I'm not talking from experience

Oh cool! Year 11 right? How are you coping with GCSEs, and what do you want to get? I'm guessing you want to do medicine or something health care related..

All the tough revision starts now, unfortunately. I'm hoping to get A*s and As in all of my subjects, with the exception of history and art, which I am making B my benchmark.

Yep, I've decided to try to get into medicine, part because it's something I'd like to do (helping people), and part because of the relative security of getting a stable, good job.