Work Experience

**Kia** · 26-11-2005, 11:00 PM

Hey everyone,

im 16 and doing my as-levels at the moment, i really want to apply for medicine next year and know that you need to have some work experience. I really want to try and get some work in a hospital but because i don't turn 17 till next june no hospitals will take me for work experince shadowing a doctor.

Anyone got any ideas of what kind of work experience i could do? what kind of things have other people done??

Thanks

kia xxxx

**safa** · 26-11-2005, 11:17 PM

Hey kia! you could try and work in an elderly home over a long period of time, (i go once a week!) which would look very impressive because it shows that you care, and also that you're commited! I also did work experience at a disabled school! Generally just do things around the community, for example fundraising for charity events! Maybe even try working in a hospice!
anyways good luck with your work experience!

**jersey james** · 03-12-2005, 08:36 PM

go yeah i have exactly the same problem, just worse! also 16, also AS levels, my birthday is august 31st, work that one out. however...

1 week Dentists
1 week Physiotherapists
3 weeks hospital pharmacy (through Project Trident)
and Joy of Joys despite living in Jersey
Summer 2006: 2 weeks KCH London
Also on the horizon: GPs, Jersey Cheshire Home (well started there already really)

Just try and find anything medically related, or care, and go for it. also if you have any family in any way medically connected, ask them! it worked for me (hence KCH).

gd luck
james

**Virus_Tamer** · 05-12-2005, 03:35 AM

As Safa says, they're not just looking for work experience, they're looking for committment, so to them it's probably more impressive if you spend 4 hrs a week at an elderly care home for a few months, than just loads of 1-week stints in a hosp in school holidays. Go for it!

**Varied A** · 05-12-2005, 03:48 AM

St John Ambulance are great - you get training, you can do as little or much as you want, you can stay with them for years if you want to, there are no age restrictions, and you get some real clinical experience actually dealing with patients. It is fair to say that the most you're likely to see on your average day out with them is cut fingers and kids who scraped their knees, but it all counts - and every so often, if you're lucky (well I'm not sure that's the right word, but I'm sure you know what I mean!) you'll come across collapses, fits, arrests and major trauma, which is probably going to be slightly more interesting to you. There are also opportunities to develop leadership & teaching skills which are good for your personal development and for your application.

My other main suggestion is working/volunteering in a nursing home. I did a 2 week work experience placement in a nursing home, and I got on so well (& absolutely loved it!) that they created a part time job for me, doing all the things which I was good at basically - talking to residents, doing odd jobs, running activities (scrabble afternoons, cookery sessios etc...); and they also let me tag along whenever they had some vaguely interesting medical/nursing procedure to do (dressing changes, assessment of ill residents etc..). I also helped out a bit later on by covering shifts in the kitchens by serving food, doing the washing up etc... It was a great experience, and I was really sad to leave when I went to uni. You do have to find somewhere good though - I was quite lucky in that this place was at the upper end of the market, and therefore pretty nice - there are some horrible places out there (I should know, I've dealt with patients from many of them in hospital!) and if you ended up in one I highly doubt you'd enjoy it as much as I did my experience.

Good luck!

**saintgermain** · 11-12-2005, 03:36 AM

Working/volunteering in a nursing home is the way to go. With a stroke of luck they may then take you on as a nursing auxillary. Admissions tutors REALLY love the hands-on stuff. Shadowing is good for getting an idea of what the profession is all about but its actual caring work which marks out the excellent candidates from everyone else.

**Varied A** · 11-12-2005, 03:58 AM

Originally Posted by saintgermain

Working/volunteering in a nursing home is the way to go. With a stroke of luck they may then take you on as a nursing auxillary. Admissions tutors REALLY love the hands-on stuff. Shadowing is good for getting an idea of what the profession is all about but its actual caring work which marks out the excellent candidates from everyone else.

That's an interesting viewpoint, and it's something I've often heard said, but I'm not sure whether or not it's true.

Certainly there are some people (myself included) who would really love the NA/HCA experience, and for them it's a really great thing to do and indeed it can only help an application to med school.

Equally, I know lots of very very good doctors & med students who I'm quite sure would hate working as a HCA, or would just be plain bad at it.

I think that kind of work takes a certain sort of person, and if your heart's not in it then you'll not be any good at it, and in that case I'd really question its usefullness as a positive experience for med school. I have in the past been involved in helping out work experience students, admittedly not in NA/HCA roles, but no matter how committed they are to healthcare, if they aren't interested in the experience you're giving them (other than wanting to say that they did it), then they're not doing themselves (or the organisation they're working with) any favours.

That's not to say you'll be a bad doctor, you just have to remember that the two roles are quite different.

**S Knights** · 11-12-2005, 06:44 AM

I'm inclined to agree... I haven't worked as a Health Care Assistant, and to be honest I don't think I'd be any good at it (in fact I was once forced to spend twelve hours working as a sort of pseudo-HCA as part of one of my early clinical attachments, and it was the most difficult thing I've had to do so far...). I don't know what it was about the role, but I just didn't seem to fit into it very well.
In the end it probably comes down to the differences in the jobs; long term voluntary work, or working as an HCA almost certainly will give you an insight into health care... But it won't be the same as spending a few weeks following doctors around the wards, or standing for hours in theatre. It might be easier said than done, but I do think that you need to get experience at both (let's face it, if you never spend time talking to a doctor during your year of voluntary work it probably won't teach you an awful lot about the job you want to go into).

In the current world of medical admissions it does seem that long term voluntary work is taking on more importance than traditional W/E... So probably a good idea to have a go at getting a place, even if only for a few months to give you an idea whether you like it or not. However, I would still argue that the whole point of work experience is to go out and see the people doing the job - so write to hospitals, talk to local GPs, sweet-talk any of your friends with doctor parents into getting you a few days on a ward... Something will work eventually, and even if you only spend a week doing it, you will have the chance of being exposed to the profession from a different perspective.

If age is an issue with work experience, then I suppose a long term voluntary placement would be a good idea... But even if you get work experience late on in the admissions process it will all count (when I applied I didn't actually do any until after my UCAS form had been submitted), and as long as you can demonstrate that it was useful to you it should be perfectly fine.

I'm acutely aware that I'm starting to ramble now... Think I'd better stop before my flights of ideas get even worse...

**saintgermain** · 11-12-2005, 05:38 PM

Agreed that both types of experience are useful. I am only reporting what I was told by the admissions tutor at one medical school.. he said of my shadowing that "anyone can follow an oncologist around for a week" :/ Of course it gives a good insight into the profession but in terms of showing commitment to caring etc., I'm not sure HCA work can be beaten.

**Varied A** · 11-12-2005, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by saintgermain

Agreed that both types of experience are useful. I am only reporting what I was told by the admissions tutor at one medical school.. he said of my shadowing that "anyone can follow an oncologist around for a week" :/ Of course it gives a good insight into the profession but in terms of showing commitment to caring etc., I'm not sure HCA work can be beaten.

I would be inclined to ask that admissions tutor whether or not he would be prepared to be a HCA for a couple of weeks as evidence of his commitment to caring