Medical work experience opportunities for medical school applicants

[ComingUpTrumps]

Hi everyone,

I’m mentoring a student going into Year 12 this year (she’s almost 16, so just at the age when she’d be able to start volunteering/doing work experience in medical settings) and she’s interested in getting medical work experience/shadowing work in preparation for her application to medical school.

She’s already doing part-time work and some volunteering (which was on pause for much of lockdown), but work experience would help her further.

I fully realise the challenge at this time of arranging medical work experience due to the enormous pressures hospitals are under.

If anyone is in a similar position (family members or students applying to medical school but unable to get work experience at the moment), how have you got around this?

I’ve found this website, which suggests alternative ways of getting medical experience, but just wanted to ask if anyone has other

I’ve found this link, which suggests alternative ways of getting work experience for medical school applicants, but just wondered if anyone has any other ideas about getting work experience?

www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2636/guidance-on-gaining-relevant-experience-for-studying-medicine-in-the-time-of-covid-19.pdf

Thanks!

I know in our area we have the Lincolnshire Talent Academy which is an NHS initiative. My daughter did a week in a hospital and was about to do a consultant shadowing just as Covid hit.

Not sure if that’s a thing in other areas.

My DD was exceptionally lucky to get a job in a pharmacy but they are few and far between, but it’s worth asking now as the counter assistants that work there currently might be going off to Uni soon.

Look broader such a s AHP roles. I'm a speech therapist. Might not be field they are interested in but still patient interaction challenging conversation counselling note taking infection control etc. We would have them from 16 (not before as a minor) observering in PPE 2 with patients/parents (I work in paediatric s) consent obviously. Look on websites for local trusts and there will be email addresses for admin to make contact

Our local DGH runs (or usually runs) and experience week for young people thinking of medicine as a career. Why not make contact with your local DGH - the Human Resources team would be a good place to start or Medical Staffing.

Your mentee will only get a few days shadowing a consultant after an introductory half day/ day. If they want more - then volunteering with people is the way to go - demonstrating good communication skills. Can be hospital/ health related / social care / community related.

It’s also really good to have long term volunteering placements eg in a hospice twice a week for a year as this shows commitment.

Another big tick is work experience in medical research institutes. All medical schools pride themselves on their research programmes and it’s really rare at interview for a candidate to have this sort of work experience. It will really make them stand out.

Finally start revising for UKCAT exams and BMAT exams (if required for medical schools they are interested in) as soon as possible as some will not even offer an interview without a certain score regardless of work experience. The UKCAT can be quite tricky at first to get the knack of but there are some great books to help you understand it.

Good luck.

Thanks so much everyone! I’ve passed on your advice to my mentee - I’m sure she’ll find it really helpful!

As someone with a yr 13 child who has 0 medical experience still due to Covid, I would just let you know that hospitals, doctors, care homes etc are not doing any Volunteering g or work experience currently and have a backlog of cancelled experience to re schedule

It might be worth looking into opportunities abroad, though these tend to be self funded.

I know some current (American) med students who volunteered in Panama, Honduras, and other less well off places. Accommodation was very primitive.

Look into church based organisations (all churches regardless of affiliation) and foreign aid charities for leads. Check Irish foreign aid charities too.

My daughter is at med school. When she was 16, the local hospital was over subscribed with requests for work experience. She managed to get a p/t job in a chemist and started the dispenser training whilst there, together with volunteering in a care home assisting the activities coordinator and a half day per week assisting in a special needs school got her a wide range of situational 'people' contacts and experiences that worked well for her personal statement.

Before I entered the medical faculty, I decided to take some time to think about it. It was a significant step, and I wanted to be sure that I wanted to do this all my life. As a result, to get at least some experience at 18, I decided to take phlebotomist courses. By the way, I found out about the opening of people for this vacancy from this site -- www.exploremedicalcareers.com/phlebotomist/. My parents have always supported me very well in this regard. As a result, I took courses in one year then worked in a hospital for another year. Having gained experience, I was sure that I wanted to be a doctor and entered a medical college. And for several years now I have been working as a doctor :)

When my DD was thinking about medicine (she eventually opted for BioMed), she was finding it difficult to find placements, and that was years ago. However, we went off spec as it were, and she found a volunteering role as a ward clerk in a hospice, challenging but rewarding. She also contacted our Opticians, whose owner was also an Opthamologist at the local hospital. He arranged for her to have a 2 week stint shadowing the opthamology team, including watching cataract surgery etc. It was very, very, interesting. There are a lot of random conditions that are diagnosed via the eyes.

Agree about thinking beyond hospitals and GP centres and for longer than a week to really know what getting in for. Working in a residential home/care home/nursing home would give the opportunity to see the bread and butter clients of medicine, what life is like for them, how injury and illness is managed; there may/should also be opportunities to sit in on multi disciplinary meetings involving social services, gp, district nursing, ot, salt etc. in quite a few homes around me there are registered nurses working within who could be shadowed for access to see medicine management etc.

Your student should write a letter with a request for volunteering at hospitals and clinics that are located near her. Thus, she will be able to cover several institutions at once and officially establish contact for further cooperation.
When I started college, I always dreamed of doing an internship in www.alveda.life/ to study oriental medicine and its methods better. However, this center is quite busy, so it does not accept interns.
But I managed to learn a lot during my visits to the doctor. By the way, what specialty does your student want to enter? This factor also depends on which clinic you should get a job at.