Where to gain work experience?

[linyen416]

Hi everyone!
I'm a Year 11 high school student in Brisbane seriously aiming to do medicine at uni . Could someone please help me here and answer some questions?

1. Where do you think I could gain workplace experience in the medical field? Should I contact hospitals directly or gain experience through work experience programs? (The work experience programs that I have found are only for working in medical research, however I would like to gain some practical experience in the hospital. How could I do that? )

2. Please give me suggestions about how to prepare for the UMAT and I have enrolled in a UMAT prep course ICARUS. What do you think I should focus one, I mean, which part needs the most practice and what are some particular techniques?

Thank you.
-Linda

[mildred87]

If you want "hands-on" experience...then best bet is to do work experience in the nursing unit of a hospital. I found that most of my friends who did work experience with the doctors just followed them around all day/spent most of their time in the canteen. Wheras i was in the nursing unit and actually got to help out a lot...and even learnt a few things about dressing wounds, hostpital procedures, paper work, and got to talk to patients etc. I think I ended up with a more worthwhile experience. This would be useful for you to get a feel for what it's like...

But if you want to actually treat people and gain that sort of experience...then I suggest you join an organisation such as St John Ambulance where you get to treat members of the public at public events such as concerts etc. (under supervision of course because you are a minor). (Let me know if you want more details).