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

The aim of the personal statement is to help the tutors at university get to know you as a person, and understand why that you want to study medicine. There are two important things that they are looking for: that you are genuinely interested in studying medicine and that you have the skills that someone studying medicine needs to possess. In terms of your interest in medicine you need to demonstrate that you have sought opportunities for work experience or volunteering. They are not interested in how much work experience you have done, but what you gained and learned from it. A good personal statement will identify something in particular that you have seen, and what this made you realise and learn from this. Being able to say that you saw a doctor break bad news, and then realised how important being a good communicator is to clinical practice, is far more impressive than simply listing all the things that you saw whilst on work experience.You also need to demonstrate that you have the skills required to be a good doctor, this could include being a good communicator, team player or a reflective person. I usually find that this is best demonstrated through either voluntary work or extracurricular activities. If you can talk me through what you have done then I can help you to unpick this.