What work experience is relevant for applying to study medicine?

Whether you are thinking about your personal statement or your interview, the most important thing is that you demonstrate that you have learnt something from your work experience and you can discuss this in depth. Universities understand that gaining relevant work experience in hospitals or GP practices is hard to come across, and for some it is easier to find that others. Work experience in a healthcare environment is ideal, I would suggest contacting your local GP practice, asking your school for advice or seeing if any local hospitals have any schemes set up for work experience. Alternatively any work experience, paid work or better even, volunteering, with the elderly, children or people with disabilities, would be considered relevant for your application.

Think about your experiences and what stood out for you; some examples would be a particular patient and how they made you feel, a doctor and what you admired about them, or the dynamics of the multidisciplinary team. Talking about your work experience allows you to show off a bit of your personality, your motivation for a career in health care and demonstrates you're keen and committed to finding out more about your future career.

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What should I write about my work experience in my personal statement for medicine?


You are working on a ward round when your fellow junior doctor slurs some of his words. You are concerned but am uncertain on what to do. Later on , you can smell the alcohol on him. How do you deal with this?


a) What are the key things your learned from your work experience? b) Imagine yourself as a junior doctor, you have just finished a shift and check your phone to find one of your patients has added you on facebook. How do you respond to this?


Your hospital has received an extra budget allowance this month, allowing either one life saving heart transplant operation for an eight year old child, or 100 hip replacements. Which do you choose and why?


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