year 12 medical work experience - please share what you did/how you got it!!!

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

as long as you do virtual its fine
i got work experience through family friends, but i also know people who just emailed/called local gp surgeries and care homes until they got something.
i also did this volunteering thing - probably easier to commute to if you live in the south east of london, and its a weekly commitment, but i got so much experience of what working in a hospital is like through it (although i wasn't shadowing doctors). bear in mind its not easy to get into, i know people who got rejected.
Volunteering | King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (kch.nhs.uk)

as long as you do virtual its fine
i got work experience through family friends, but i also know people who just emailed/called local gp surgeries and care homes until they got something.
i also did this volunteering thing - probably easier to commute to if you live in the south east of london, and its a weekly commitment, but i got so much experience of what working in a hospital is like through it (although i wasn't shadowing doctors). bear in mind its not easy to get into, i know people who got rejected.
Volunteering | King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (kch.nhs.uk)

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

did you ever do the king's college work experience course? i asked a separate question about it here: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7513921

no, but some of my friends have. if you have a question i can pass it on to them and see if they reply. although for the one in your post, they all live in the required area so they wouldn't be able to help with that

You absolutely do not need to have ever set foot in a clinical environment to acquire work experience. Universities know how difficult it can be to obtain work experience in hospital and particularly in general practice which surgeries are not obliged to provide.
You could volunteer in care homes, nursing homes, youth clubs, charity work or any of the above, even virtual work experience can be very useful. The main thing is that you write down and reflect upon your experiences and any learning points you notice during your time there.
You may find more traction if you email or telephone your local community hospital as they are generally smaller and have smaller teams on site and you have more chance of being brought to the attention of the matron or senior who runs the show. Also, because the case load is generally less acute, it is usually a more relaxed environment and you will thus have more time to spend with patients and observe patient care holistically.
You will not be at any disadvantage whatsoever if you have not been in a GP consult or operating theatre when applying to medical school. Admissions do not select people based on what work experience they have managed to secure.

yeah i agree but its really difficult to get volunteering nowadays esp in a care home- i've called so many and a lot of them have said no (mainly due to age restriction and capacity) is there any other way of getting a volunteering opportunity in a nursing home?

hi just wondering if anyone knows of any ways I can get into work experience in a hospital?
im about to go into year 12 and I want to hopefully apply to medicine for uni
none of my family are doctors so I really don't have many contacts, I asked parents' friends at UCLH who are surgeons/doctors and they said it was against the rules, but other people I know have managed to get to go to the same place through family members!
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and could let me know how they managed to get any placements. I would really love experience in a hospital but anything medicine related that can go on my uni applications would be great!!
i feel like its rlly key to have medical work experience for medicine applications (to show you're committed/you know you want to do it i guess) but it also seems like people who don't come from medical backgrounds can't really get anything because my parents can't just take me in and none of the courses that i've seen online are hands on/actually IN hospitals, they seem to focus more on research and lectures (e.g. ucl course).
i've seen a few that you have to pay for, but they seem more like workshops (like fake scenarios) and it seems insane to spend £1.5k for a 5 day simulation when others are just going in to actual hospitals for free!! so i thought i would check and see if anyone managed to get around this problem or has any placements that they applied to that i could try!
thank you for any tips!!
i live close to london so can easily get the train there. but to be honest i will literally go anywhere to get some experience!! so wherever you did yours i will be super grateful to hear.

Hello, I applied through King's college and got in person work experience, it's open to anyone who lives in their trust (South london-y) Most london hospitals do allow work experience, (think UCLH might be the only one that does not so you might be out of luck there). I asked the hospitals associated with Imperial and they said they only take students who go to a school they run programs with so you could check if your school falls under any of those.
I know people who got work experience by getting in touch with doctors over linkedin so that might be an option, make an account and fill it out properly with grades/school etc and look up consultants based on which hospital you could feasibly travel too, especially doctors who have administrative roles alongside clinical seem to have good profiles so they are also most likely to actually be able to authorise you to shadow someone on the department. Don't just message them like "can i shadow you?", do some research, introduce yourself, ask them questions about being a doctor and their role then you're more likely to get a yes for work experience. Same thing may work for GPs but have never seen it happen myself so maybe you can try and let us all know!
I also know Darent Valley hospital in Dartford takes lots of work experience students, you can go on their website to look up doctors' emails and if you follow their instructions and look in advance (ie email for a summer hols placement in Jan (you might just be a little too late for Oct and xmas holidays)) it's pretty certain you will get one.
I knew a family member who worked in a hospital, but not as a doctor, and they were able to put me in touch with the person in charge of sorting out placements, if you know any nurses or other staff, this is a very valuable option.
Other trusts that I know people got placements at relatively easily: Lewisham and Greenwich, Barnet, Great Ormond's Street (I believe they run a program that you have to apply to through the website)

hi, i'm going to apply for the king's college work experience - could you please tell me a bit about it and what you did? thank you!

Hiya, so you fill out a form and email it to the co-ordinator, it asks you some basic details and why you want to do medicine. Then if you've been selected, they randomly assign you a department and which hospital you'll be going to (though you do get to express preferences in the form, I also didn't originally get my first choice and just emailed really nicely and asked if they could consider me for any other departments, and they did move me). After that, they ask you to fill out more forms, about vaccination history and other safety things.
It is one week long, and on the first day there was a teams call briefing all the students involved what their responsibilities were (basically stay out of the way, and call a nurse or doctor if you don't know) and an introduction to all the hospital safety measures, they also told us which consultant we were shadowing. We showed up and asked for the consultant at the ward and from there, he gave us a quick tour and then handed us off to the FY1s. I was in acute medicine, so I couldn't go with the consultant when he went to trauma/the ER, so we mainly shadowed the other doctors, we did talk a lot with the doctors about what their daily responsibilities were and attended the meetings and ward rounds. It really depends of what doctors you get assigned to, I shadowed one absolutely fantastic registrar who went out of her way to introduce me to the patients and let me have conversations and even try doing examinations, but everyone is pretty lovely and happy to at least answer questions. I'd suggest preparing questions about the job beforehand, and doing lots of research into what the department is and its roles before starting, it's useful to know so you don't waste time trying to figure out what is going on. Also, having a basic idea of what you want to see is good so you can just directly ask the doctors if that would be possible instead of relying on the doctors' idea of what you could do.

thank you so much for your reply!! i appreciate it aha. were you in groups or were you by yourself shadowing? i also wanted to ask - this years placement takes place the week before my y11 nov mocks and i'm a bit concerned about balancing revision; is it just for a couple hours each day?

It was 2 students per consultant, most consultants will send you two around the department together.
It's 9-5, and you can talk to the doctors about an hour lunch break and things like that, although we often got sent home by 3-4 as it was quiet (this will probably vary wildly between departments so don't bank on it).
I'd honestly say you shouldn't worry about the mocks, if you're efficient with your time, you could easily get 3-4 hours of revision around it per day (though i'd definitely recommend setting aside 30mins-1h after each day to write out notes and reflections on what you'd saw, so including that, 5 hours). It will be tiring, but starting your revision well before the holidays should make it manageable. It is honestly so much better to get work experience out of the way in year 11 and not have to stress about it in year 12, where you've already got predicteds, UCAT and the ps to worry about. It also gives you time to switch pathways (ie: choose a different career or subjects) if you didn't like it.