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

indie_couture

I'm struggling to get work experience in a hospital, but I can do volunteering helping on the wards serving refreshments to patients This is good for communication with patients, having a chat with them etc. . I'm also hoping to do a week at Vitalise Again a fantastic build on your communication and help to understand the caring side of daily living with a disability, I've done a few weeks helping at an elderly peoples home This is a brilliant example of medical work experience, most of your patients will be elderly!, volunteer at an after school club, with a friend I ran a terms worth of sessions helping some children with speech and language therapy - MDT work experience, a brilliant idea!, paired reading with younger children and I'm doing another first aid course soon.

I'm worried I don't have anything directly medically related, e.g. shadowing a doctor. Then only thing close I can think of is that in August my school has arranged this day for potential medic applicants to go to a medical school and then go to the hospital. Although I don't know much about it as my teacher has been off.

What do you think?

I've highlighted the things which will be perfect for medicine, tbh you've done fine- you've got great experience lined up there. tbh i find 'organised trips' days you don't get much out of when you're doing something you've organised yourself and getting more actively involved as opposed to observing.

Reply 1187

OP

Subcutaneous

I've highlighted the things which will be perfect for medicine, tbh you've done fine- you've got great experience lined up there. tbh i find 'organised trips' days you don't get much out of when you're doing something you've organised yourself and getting more actively involved as opposed to observing.

OAP home =/= medical experience, really. It'll do if you really can't get into a hospital for something more clinical than serving drinks but it doesn't teach you much about what being a doctor will be like.

indie_couture, your commitment to these various things is good (if you can say you've learned something useful from them) but it does rather stand out that you have not really had any contact with doctors in any setting. I appreciate this is not always possible to arrange, but there is still time so I would keep trying to find something!

Reply 1188

Helenia

OAP home =/= medical experience, really. It'll do if you really can't get into a hospital for something more clinical than serving drinks but it doesn't teach you much about what being a doctor will be like.

indie_couture, your commitment to these various things is good (if you can say you've learned something useful from them) but it does rather stand out that you have not really had any contact with doctors in any setting. I appreciate this is not always possible to arrange, but there is still time so I would keep trying to find something!

obviously if she gets hospital/medical work experience great, but if she can't as long as she relates what she has done back to medicine and frames it into a good PS she should be fine.

Reply 1189

OP

Subcutaneous

obviously if she gets hospital/medical work experience great, but if she can't as long as she relates what she has done back to medicine and frames it into a good PS she should be fine.

I wouldn't be quite so chilled about it. Work in an elderly home is very different from work in a hospital or a GP setting, and while it can be useful, it's still really not experience of what life as a doctor would be like. If you think the two are equivalent then that's just an indictment of how little you understand medicine.

Reply 1190

Helenia

I wouldn't be quite so chilled about it. Work in an elderly home is very different from work in a hospital or a GP setting, and while it can be useful, it's still really not experience of what life as a doctor would be like. If you think the two are equivalent then that's just an indictment of how little you understand medicine.

oh ffs, i'm not that stupid to know nursing homes aren't the same. It's SO hard to get work experience with a hospital or GP, especially if you're under 18, i'm sure you know that. Many PCT's have different rules on it, i know i had problems finding it when i was under 18 as my pct just didn't allow it. The best i got was a chat with my GP about how the medical career progresses etc; wasn't till late septemeber i got something significant (when i had turned 18) I just mentioned it's been organised and then talked more in detail about it during my interviews

Reply 1191

username210636

13

RoadWarrior

Wow, how did you get w/e at SGUL? I tried ringing but they said they had nothing :confused:

I actually got it through a friend who knows someone who works there; prior to that I tried for months without any real result.

Reply 1192

username210636

13

Alex L

All comes down to what you get out of it, and how you portray it then. It could either come across as amazing (and therefore be more than enough) or it could be seen as crap. With a bit of time spent on your PS it should be the former :yy:

Wow thanks very much; I will bear your advice in mind when writing my PS *shudders*

Thanks! :biggrin:

Reply 1193

OP

Subcutaneous

oh ffs, i'm not that stupid to know nursing homes aren't the same. It's SO hard to get work experience with a hospital or GP, especially if you're under 18, i'm sure you know that. Many PCT's have different rules on it, i know i had problems finding it when i was under 18 as my pct just didn't allow it. The best i got was a chat with my GP about how the medical career progresses etc; wasn't till late septemeber i got something significant (when i had turned 18) I just mentioned it's been organised and then talked more in detail about it during my interviews

I know it can be hard, but a)plenty of other people have managed it and b)there's still ages before they have to apply so I wouldn't tell them they'll be fine now when there's plenty of time to sort something out!

Anyway, there's no point carrying this on, just don't get too blasé about these things especially when you know you're always going to be in difficult territory in this forum.

Reply 1194

Asclepius

12

Ignoramus

Wow thanks very much; I will bear your advice in mind when writing my PS *shudders*

Thanks! :biggrin:

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but writing your PS involves lots and lots of rewording and tiny edits :sigh:

Good luck though :p:

Reply 1195

brokenangel

16

Subcutaneous

oh ffs, i'm not that stupid to know nursing homes aren't the same. It's SO hard to get work experience with a hospital or GP, especially if you're under 18, i'm sure you know that. Many PCT's have different rules on it, i know i had problems finding it when i was under 18 as my pct just didn't allow it. The best i got was a chat with my GP about how the medical career progresses etc; wasn't till late septemeber i got something significant (when i had turned 18) I just mentioned it's been organised and then talked more in detail about it during my interviews

hard but not impossible, i was 16 when i first did work experiance ie shadowing in a hospitala and GP to be fair it was easier to organise that than it is trying to do it for graduate entry

Reply 1196

brokenangel

hard but not impossible, i was 16 when i first did work experiance ie shadowing in a hospitala and GP to be fair it was easier to organise that than it is trying to do it for graduate entry

like i said it depends on the area you're in; somewhere like nottingham we're always having the odd 16yr old kid hanging around on the ward every month or so; where as in bristol i found the best way to get work experience was to get it done unoffically. I had to go all through the routes, emailed directly to the ward sisters/consultants instead of HR or professional development tc, the only thing wrong was that i wasn't insured etc
I remember i wrote everywhere..i went mad, gp surgeries, cottage hospitals, nurse led units etc - and this was when i was considering medicine! It wasn't until i was almost 18 (ie the summer before year 13) i got something worthwhile and an experience i got some good lessons from.

It reallllyyyy does depend on where you live and how persistent you are and flexible aswell, plus knowing where to look, for example if a 16yr old wanted to have some experience on my unit and be with the consultant psychiatrist and doctors etc and the MH nurses, they'd be more than welcome.

this has been my experience when i was trying to get work experience, from the ages of 15-18!

Reply 1197

Syphro

1

What sort of extra-curricular are uni's like Oxbridge and Edinburgh looking for?

So far my extra-curricular will be:

1/2 years x badminton (casual, joining club)

3 years x scout patrol leader

1 year x school council rep

1 year x prefect (head boy top 10 :mad:

)

Joining Air Cadets

Reply 1198

OP