Article: Medicine work experience

You can view the page at http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/content.php?r=15999-medicine-work-experience

You can also find reviews of medical work experience schemes on this page, written by previous students who've undertaken the programmes. These reviews offer an idea of what it's like to work in the industry and what's expected of employees.

Reply 2

rohit5148

2

'1. It is not Work Experience, Voluntary Work, Work or Extra-Curriculars that counts, it's experience of the above.'
I didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, does it mean that its the experience of the doctor that counts?

Reply 3

Mutleybm1996

19

One of the best ways of getting work experience at hospitals is to contact consultants directly.

I have to admit that it wasn't something I was looking forward to when I posted my first letter and send the first email, but after lots of perseverance a surprising number have said yes. Even then, a few friends of mine have had run-ins with the co-ordinator here, so just watch out for people trying to assert themselves but 99% of the time the consultants will be more than happy! From my experience they have enough time to explain everything well to students, even at 16 without any clue what half the phrases mean. There will always be the one odd consultant who has a go at you for daring to ask, but most are a friendly group of people more than willing to aid aspiring young doctors.

Reply 4

theresheglows

12

Original post by rohit5148

'1. It is not Work Experience, Voluntary Work, Work or Extra-Curriculars that counts, it's experience of the above.'
I didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, does it mean that its the experience of the doctor that counts?

It means that what is important is not being able to list a load of work experience placements, but what the experiences were that you took from it & what you learned about medicine as a career and about yourself.

Reply 5

AlwaysAnxious

Original post by rohit5148

'1. It is not Work Experience, Voluntary Work, Work or Extra-Curriculars that counts, it's experience of the above.'
I didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, does it mean that its the experience of the doctor that counts?

I think this means 'it's not what you've done but how it has affected you'

Reply 6

returnmigrant

21

Original post by rohit5148

'1. It is not Work Experience, Voluntary Work, Work or Extra-Curriculars that counts, it's experience of the above.'
I didn't quite understand the meaning of this sentence, does it mean that its the experience of the doctor that counts?

It means - don't just list your work experience, but explain the specifics of what you got out of it and use examples from it to show what qualities and skills you have. If you worked in an Aged Care Home, do you now realise that you can't 'cure' everyone, and give you an insight into 'end of life' care? Did you get to know someone with dementia - can you use that to illustrate your compassion or communication skills? Etc.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 7

Westie2001

Totally agree! You need to be able to reflect on what you have learnt during your work experience. You might have 100 hours work exp but the next candidate might have 10 hours but be able to pull all the skills out from that time and use them to explain why it drives/inspires them to become a medical student! There are places that can teach you how to do that with your work experience I had a session with Medical Projects and that taught me reflection and "seeing" the skills is so much more important than just completing work experience.

Reply 8

saychakra

Does one have to be 16 or above for work-experience in a hospital or hospice? Or is a few months away from 16 fine?

Reply 9

returnmigrant

21

Original post by saychakra

Does one have to be 16 or above for work-experience in a hospital or hospice? Or is a few months away from 16 fine?

You will not get clinical work experience at 16. Most hospitals etc wont accept anyone under 17 and then its a struggle as many places will be highly conscious of confidentiality concerns.

You might be able to get volunteer work in an aged care home or a special school at 16 - and this is definitely worth doing, as it will give you experience of the caring professions, and the realities of medicine (ie. you can't cure everyone). Under 16 - forget it, you are still a child and that would mean everyone around you would have to have a child protection check (including the patients).

Reply 10

returnmigrant

21

Please be wary of overseas 'experience' like Gap Medics.

They are commercial outfits, in business to make money. They offer 2 or 3 week 'experiences' that are really just holidays with knobs on.

They will teach you nothing meaningful apart from the lack of resources that many of these hospitals struggle with. Do they really need a gauche western teenager getting in the way as well?

Despite what some applicants and schools believe, Med Schools are NOT remarkably impressed with anyone who has done this. They'd be far more impressed if you have done some challenging volunteer work here in the UK - because that is actually relevant rather than being 'a bit of a jolly'.

Reply 11

ax12

20

As the above poster said, overseas expeditions and voluntourism are something to generally avoid, or at least be cautious of.

This is on the UCL website (but is also relevant to other universities), and says that they don't encourage or support overseas work experience, as they want you to understand healthcare in the UK.

http://www.medschools.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Work-experience-guidelines-for-applicants-to-medicine.pdf

In addition, there are some serious ethical issues with overseas work experience, especially to less well developed countries, even when it comes to fifth years doing their electives abroad. There need to be strong support structures in place for the student, an understanding of your limits, and making sure that you're not taking opportunities away from local people.

Reply 12

nexttime

22

Original post by ax12

In addition, there are some serious ethical issues with overseas work experience, especially to less well developed countries....

Original post by returnmigrant

Do they really need a gauche western teenager getting in the way as well?.

I entirely agree with your comments.

But I just wanted to point out that the hospitals themselves aren't innocent bystanders in the voluntourism industry. They make a lot of money (by local standards) out of it too. If I were running a developing world hospital, I would be casing in wholeheartedly too.

Obviously a work experience student should take a purely observational role. If you stick to that the ethical implications are pretty limited.

Electives are a more interesting question.

(edited 7 years ago)

Article: Medicine work experience

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