Can veterinary and dentistry work experience be used for medicine/paramedicine?

Like the title says, I've got virtual work experience for veterinary and dentistry as I thought it would help with me going into the medicine/paramedicine field but I wanted to check to make sure it actually can for future reference.

Reply 1

TSR Hippocrates

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Reply 2

ErasistratusV

I wouldn't rely on it if it was me. Best to find some other work experience specifically for medicine. It's important that you have something- working in a care home or volunteering with charities may suffice if you can't get any time in a clinical environment.

I'd be wary of applying for more than one of these courses in the same application, it may be interpreted by admissions as a student who isn't very sure of their decision. Whilst it might appear that medicine, veterinary and dentistry use require similar skills they are very very different jobs.

I know the veterinary world quite well and it is very very different to medicine as a vocation. I can only assume dentistry is an entire other world also.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

udayphilip

Original post by ErasistratusV

I wouldn't rely on it if it was me. Best to find some other work experience specifically for medicine. It's important that you have something- working in a care home or volunteering with charities may suffice if you can't get any time in a clinical environment.
I'd be wary of applying for more than one of these courses in the same application, it may be interpreted by admissions as a student who isn't very sure of their decision. Whilst it might appear that medicine, veterinary and dentistry use require similar skills they are very very different jobs.
I know the veterinary world quite well and it is very very different to medicine as a vocation. I can only assume dentistry is an entire other world also.

thanks I'll definitely keep that all in mind for the future. If I do have other work experiences (which I do), is it at least worth mentioning these other work experiences I have including the veterinary and dental work experience?

Reply 4

ErasistratusV

Original post by udayphilip

I am afraid I simply do not know. My concern is similar to what I said above. Even if you had great experiences in other places, if you begin talking about your veterinary work experience in a medical admissions interview, there is a risk of a couple of things happening. Firstly, your interviewers, whoever they may be and whatever profession they are from, might not have any knowledge of the veterinary world so there is a potential for confusion or simply losing time in the interview for no end result. Secondly, they might begin to think you aren't particularly committed to the field of study you are applying for because you are giving them mixed messages. If I'm presented with someone who has tried their hand in medicine, veterinary and dentistry and then talks about all three equally, I'm going to begin to question if they are really certain about this course.

Where you could score bigly is if one of the interviewers was to suggest "have you considered veterinary medicine?" in which case you can explain you did some work experience and it didn't put the hook in you in the same way medicine has although I feel this kind of questioning would be rather unlikely.

I still think I would be finding specific and decent work experience for medicine and concentrating on learning about medicine to prepare for the interviews. I think trying to apply for all three degrees might be risky because you would need to practice for interviews for all three potentially and then struggle with the enormity of that task and not get an offer for any of them.

A number of people I have met in the past had considered vet or dent or med but then firmly decide on one in particular and don't ever go further with the others except when they decide to enter the world of max-fax. They are all very different vocations. I know a great deal about the veterinary world and the differences between it and medicine are sizeable and too numerous to list. I can see what would attract a person to become a veterinary surgeon- it is very hands on, very focused and very much one person in that moment type care. It is a different proposition to medicine. I can see dentistry being similar in a lot of ways, hands on, intense (it's all surgery basically at the end of the day) and all on you as an individual.

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