Mentioning the fact I would like to go into Medical Research...

[magpie7]

Hello!

I was wondering if it would be best not to mention the fact I would like to go into Medical Research after University.

In the Personal Statement a lot of emphasis goes on work experience and how 'caring' you are etc... But none of this applies to Medical Research (really?)

Its very good me mentioning all my work experience and saying what I got out of it... But then they can just hit back at me saying 'but you don't wish to work in that type of environment, or with people?'

Obviously I can't say now that in 6 years time I would like to go into Medical Research, but its what I have set my mind on right now.

Thanks!

[bclark3]

One of the things that has been repeated to me over and over again by any med students or doctors I have met is that whatever specialty you go into med school with intention of pursuing, there is a high possibility that you will come out the other end thinking something completely different.

Aside from that things might get complicated at interview if the interviewer was to ask you why you are pursuing a medicine degree and not a biomedical science degree.

On the plus side if you enjoy medical research and are keeping up to date with current research it could give you an edge in interviews, or make you sound enthusiastic in your PS. Hope this helps and good luck with your application!

[giella]

You could always angle it to indicate that this is an area that you would enjoy.
What appeals to me about medicine is that fact that it pulls together many of the skills which I already practice in one form or another. Obviously that's part of what's tugging at your interest as well, otherwise you would be doing a biomedical science degree next year instead, so there's no need to make a choice between skills - caring, problem solving etc. - and science.
You'll be devoting one part of your personal statement to talking about your A levels. If you really are this academically passionate, use this section to talk about how you hope a medical degree could lead to you developing this interest in an area of research that could be incredibly beneficial. You could show that you've thought about goals, and what you hope to achieve through studying medicine. There's nothing wrong with having ambitions or goals at this stage; why else would you be doing a degree, and a vocational one at that?
Like I said, you're probably also interested in patient care. By showing that you understand that a medical degree is also about gaining a set of skills which enable you to effectively treat patients and manage their care, you could link your goal in terms of your scientific education/research to this and show that you are committed to improving the quality of care your patients receive in whatever form your work takes. There's an opportunity to show that you are open-minded and enthusiastic about all branches of medicine.
If you are going to talk about medical research however, make sure you know what this actually means. Lab work? Surveys? Gene studies? Drug trials? Experiments which managerial approaches? Communication studies? I'm not even sure what this concept really means. The type of research I would be interested in might concern communication studies, because that's an area of interest, but there's perhaps many ways and approaches that could be used for studying this. Does your idea of research encompass both analytical and applied medical science?
You'll have to forgive my general ignorance in this area. I'm from an arts background and my eyes glaze over at these pages in the BMJ. But I think it's worth knowing what exactly it is you're talking about if you're going to mention it. Perhaps it would be beneficial to mention medical research within the context of an area you're interested in. Going back to the personal statement technique here, it could be a good way to link together two points: your goals and to talk about an area of science in which you have an interest.

[Arch_Angel]

Hi, haven't read all the posts (well, Giella's TL;DR post) but it's my understand that you have to do foundation years anyway, unless you leave and go into a PhD, which won't be on the career path and you won't get paid anywhere near as much and your medical degree won't really be worth much (again, as is my understanding).

They want to create "good" docs, whatever this means, you have to be able to deal with people, whole sections of many courses are dedicated to dealing with people.

It'd be foolish to go in with the academic guns blazing, but in an interview you could say something like "I've always been fascinated by science and although I love working with people I'm thinking if I get in that I'd like to end up in academic medicine, spliting the time between research and teaching if possible etc, however this is just a projection of my current interests, i'll have to wait and see what interests me on the course".

As far as personal statements go, best not to mention it in case you give them the wrong idea.

[magpie7]

Thanks for the responses guys!

And giella- you mentioned some good points and how I could go around things; I'll definitely note them down!