WHAT I LOVED ABOUT MY WORK EXPERIENCE! + TIPS ON HOW TO FIND IT!
Friday, May 3
As every aspiring doctor at A-level knows, GRADES and WORK EXPERIENCE. These are two very important things that will define how well you do in your process to medical school. Other things such as extracurricular's and sports and GCSE's are all very important too - especially when writing your personal statement. Any doctor also is required to be fit - so make sure you get some minutes on the treadmill in!!
Despite all this, remember your grades do come first. Comment down below if you'd like some tips on revising and a huge list of extracurricular activities you can do! In this post however, I will be tackling the biggest problem of all: WORK EXPERIENCE!
Now some of us may be lucky to have cousins and family members who work in the NHS, and although I do, it's never that easy trying to get some experience. The first step is if you do have family in the NHS or any contacts, get in touch. They act as a catalyst - and as we all know, its your quickest one way stop to get the experience you need.
If you do not then here are some things you can do to gain it. I'll firstly begin by telling you how my experience went. I have done experience at two hospitals and I volunteer at one. There were so many things that I enjoyed about my work experience, from open heart surgeries to visiting wards. I guess I did get very lucky.
My first day consisted of a 7 hour surgery where I stood the whole time, head held high over the drapes into the depths of someone's chest. It was everything I had imagined - and being able to see the surgery happen with my own eyes just reassured me that this, this is what I want to do.
The great thing about work experience is, if you have your heart set out on medicine then it'll be an opportunity for you to add it in your personal statement. However, if you do not know if medicine is right for you, then get some to find out!
Not all work experience is like the one I managed to get. So do not be disappointed if you were expecting open heart surgeries (if that excites you like me), but rather be grateful for any opportunity you get. The main thing to note here is that finding work experience is so hard, that once you do get it, you yourself will realise and be inclined into undertaking it.
With no breaks in between the entire surgery, I felt like a true surgeon. Standing there the entire time from knife to skin till the sutures and post op brief was given, I still thought to myself, how did I get here? After all, I even got scrubs!
The second day consisted of clinic. Clinic is an appointment service were pre op and post op patients are spoken to individually by their Doctor. Some clinics however vary in other departments. The clinic for cardio thoracic surgery examines pre and post op patients, whereas Rheumatology clinics asses the level of illness presented and determine medications and referrals if need be.
Many work experiences offered are clinic based and consist of shadowing consultants. The best thing to do on your placement is also to keep a reflective journal. This will enable you to write up about things on your personal statement. To gain some work experience, I'd start off by:
1) Contacts, family or friends - see if you can get to it quicker
2) Research - find places online or around your town that you can contact
3) If you have contacted someplace and they have not gotten back to you, keep emailing or calling them back till you have a definitive answer. In most cases, they just forget.
4) Ask anyone you see at networking events or anywhere - maybe they're Doctors from lectures or you go to a candy store and there is a Doctor there. Don't be afraid to ask
5) Attend lectures or any events - these are great places to get into contact with many Doctors who may be able to arrange something for you
6) Find online programmes / courses - these count as work experience too
7) Any form of volunteering long term may be counted.
If you want to hear more about my work experience comment down below, or if you would like to hear about anything else you may be struggling with. I will also be doing a medical condition post per week. This will consist of 2/3 medical conditions that you can learn about and may be asked during your interview.
Good luck.
Sooms.