If you are a student interested in a career in medicine then medicine work experience can help you decide if a career in medicine is for you, see what areas of medicine you prefer, help your personal statement for medical school shine and provide you with some in depth experience to wow at a medical school interview.
All medical schools will expect that you have had some medical work experience under your belt before you apply. In one of the most competitive degree courses to secure a place, it’s what usually separates a successful applicant from one which doesn’t receive an offer.
Medicine is one of the most, if not the most competitive degree course to secure a place on. This is true all over the world and doctors are held, quite rightly so, in very high esteem in society. If you have your heart set on a medical career then work experience will provide you with so many things to help you not only secure that place at university by demonstrating your commitment to medicine but to confirm 100% to yourself that it’s the right career to embark upon. When it comes to applying to medical degrees hospital experience can be the difference between getting that much sought after place or not and we’re here to help.
When it comes to deciding who should receive an offer or not from a medical school, there’s 5 main areas that the admissions panel will consider:
Your exam results are vitally important. With applications to medical school soaring, most students wouldn’t not even consider applying to medical school without the very best grades so this is the very first hurdle to overcome. Obviously the better your grades the more options and chances you have or a successful medical school application but if your grades do fall short, all is not lost, there’s still plenty of medical schools that offer places to students without the very highest grades.
This is your chance in 47 lines to tell the medical schools why you want to become a doctor and why you want to study medicine. It’s your invitation to an interview so it has to tick all of the right boxes. There’s a real art to writing a personal statement, you can find out more by reading our “Applying to Medical School Guide.”
The admissions test you have to sit before you apply to med school, designed to test various areas of your thinking skills, medical knowledge and clinical aptitude. At the end of the test you will be given your score which the medical schools have access to and it will be used, in part, as a factor in determining your suitability for a place in medical school.
The medical school interview is where you will be given your chance, face to face, to tell the interview panel why you deserve your place in medical school and why you will be a success. It’s here you can really show off your medicine work experience and it’s your opportunity to expand on what you said on your personal statement too. Again, check out our “Applying to Medical School Guide” for more detailed information regarding the format these interviews will take.
Of the 4 factors listed above you can presume that students are whittled down at each stage of the process, some falling by the wayside when it comes to their personal statement or a lower than average UKCAT score for example. When it comes to that final decision the medical school admissions panel have the unenviable choice of choosing who to offer places to when all the applicants are very strong. This is when medicine work experience becomes the separating factor.
All medical schools will expect you to have some experience of healthcare. This work experience is often very hard to come by for a variety of reasons, the largest two being over subscription for places and confidentiality issues surrounding allowing untrained students aged 16+ into hospitals. It’s by no means impossible to get medicine work experience, you just need to be very proactive and tenacious in your approaches to hospitals and GP’s. Also any related volunteering such as in care homes or for charities can look great and class as work experience for your applications.
Premed Projects was started to offer students from all over the world the chance to get some relevant work experience medicine in the format of organised courses that are either 1 or 2-weeks in duration. Through our hospital and university partnerships we are able to offer this unique experience to our students.
Premed Projects are ideal for students aged 16+ who have an interest in medicine and are looking to gain work experience by working in a hospital environment. There’s no better way to find out if a career in medicine is for you, stand out on your UCAS personal statement for medicine and shine at medical school interviews than by joining one of our healthcare courses to find all about your future career.
Premed Projects offers medicine work experience for students aged 16+ to offer valuable skills and material for university applications and interviews. Take a look behind the scenes on our popular Thailand medical work experience project.
Premed Projects sole aim is to provide students interested in healthcare careers aged 14+ with some medicine work experience that isn’t available anywhere else. On our residential courses you’ll live with students from all over the world interested in medicine and whichever Premed Project destination that you choose we’ll make sure you gain some in depth experience of healthcare.
We’ll introduce you to the world of medicine through time spent in hospitals, medical schools, lectures and an insight into the day-to-day life of doctors. A truly unique opportunity for all aspiring medical students.
Premed Projects medicine work experiences take place in London during October and February half term holidays and all summer long. Our partner hospitals here are renowned for offering some of the best healthcare in the world. Work experience in the UK is notoriously difficult to obtain but through the hospital partnerships we have, we are able to offer you exclusive access to London’s premier healthcare facilities and medical schools and you won’t find that opportunity anywhere else. Every day is different on our London work experience courses so students can see a broad variety of healthcare in the UK’s capital city.
Wether you’re an international applicant to UK med schools or a UK based student already, hospital work experience in London is invaluable.
You’ll learn all about healthcare in the UK and medical careers through lectures from UK doctors, visits to state of the art hospitals, interactive workshops at leading London medical schools, clinical skill sessions and volunteering opportunities too. In other words everything you need for a successful med school application. Students typically will visit Imperial Medical school, Barts hospital, Guys hospital, Cancer research facilities and one of the countries leading hospices amongst many other places during your stay with us.
By the end of your Premed Project we will arm you with enough medicine work experience to really make you stand head and shoulders above the competition, along with the certificates and references to prove it.
Medical work experience in Thailand takes place in several different hospitals, meaning you get a huge insight into life as a doctor and a chance to see many different medical techniques and differing standards of healthcare in the country.
We’ll take you first to shadow doctors in a government hospital based in Chiang Mai. A large 520 bed hospital, you’ll see how doctors juggle the large number of patients arriving through their doors. With a large accident and emergency department too this is fast paced medicine at it’s best. Towards the end of your first week we’ll also show you the largest private hospital in northern Thailand, brimming with the very latest in diagnostic equipment and treatments and where resources are plentiful. Thailand is a huge destination for medical tourism with many westerners arriving for cosmetic surgery, weight loss surgery or simply to benefit from cutting edge medical techniques at prices much cheaper than their own countries.
In your second week we’ll take you to more hospitals in Chiang Mai and some more rural based ones so you can contrast these with the huge facilities in the city. Ayurvedic medicine is popular here as are holistic approaches to medicine too. How does a doctor treat a patient who rejects western medicine and instead firmly believes in natural remedies for their ailment? You’ll see all the skills needed to be a doctor on show here, empathy, patience, determination, hard work and an ability to handle pressure situations.
Seeing these different hospitals couldn’t be more of a contrast, reflecting well a country full of contrasts and disparity. An important part of your project is seeing both sides of the coin and see how medicine works in this part of the world, which will ultimately help you understand healthcare better.
Choosing to undertake hospital work experience abroad enables you to see many things that you wouldn’t have the opportunity to see in your home country. It also broadens your horizons and allows an insight into global healthcare. When it comes to deciding in medicine is the right career for you or looking to demonstrate to med school interviewers how serious you are about the profession, choosing to go overseas ticks all the boxes. Make no mistake, medical work experience abroad isn’t a holiday with us, yes there will be time to relax and enjoy the country but you’ll be working in the hospitals here for 40 hours per week, giving you more work experience hours than almost all of the other applicants to your chosen course.
A huge part of being a doctor is complying to medical ethics and as all Premed Projects students are untrained in medicine we offer shadowing, observational experiences for students. The doctors responsible for the clinical care of each patient determine the extent of each students’ participation each day, taking into account the relevant clinical protocols. In our Thailand destination, you will be allowed to perform non-obtrusive medical procedures under the watchful eye of doctors such as simple bandage dressing, completion of fluid charts, assisting with patients movement, blood pressure monitoring, helping to interpret X-rays & many more simple clinical procedures. As well as being involved in these procedures, you should watch, learn and ask questions of your appointed doctors to make the most of your opportunity of medicine work experience with us.
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