Work experience is essential to medical school applications. If you’re thinking of applying to medical school, our free online medicine work experience will be a great place to start. We’ll be running 4 interactive sessions covering different specialties. The aims of this work experience program are as follows:
- To provide students with a realistic understanding of the working life of a doctor
- To provide vast experiences to reflect on for medicine personal statements and interviews.
- To increase students’ understanding of each specialty covered
- To build medical knowledge of the specialties covered
- To participate in interactive case studies and experience simulated patient interactions
- To develop the history-taking and examination skills of participating students
- To learn to diagnose illnesses in a simulated and supervised environment
By the end of the program, you should have a much wider understanding of different specialties within medicine and have a range of experiences to discuss in your personal statement and interviews. All participants will have the opportunity to take the end-of-program knowledge test, after which a certificate of completion will be provided should students achieve the 80% pass mark.
Why is work experience important?
Work experience is important for many reasons including offering you first-hand exposure to clinical environments like hospitals and clinics. This exposure will allow you to apply classroom knowledge to real-life scenarios, developing crucial clinical skills and understanding the dynamics of patient care. Additionally, work experience enhances professionalism, communication skills, and empathy, crucial for effective patient-centered care.
Furthermore, work experience will enable you explore various medical specialties and career paths, guiding your future decisions and residency choices. It also provides networking opportunities, allowing you build relationships with professionals in the field and access mentorship and career advancement opportunities. Essentially, work experience plays a vital role in preparing you for the challenges and responsibilities of practicing medicine ethically and competently.
What skills will I learn?
You will develop clinical skills essential for patient care. These include taking patient histories, interpreting diagnostic tests, and medical documentation practices, such as maintaining patient records and writing progress notes.
Engaging in discussions with peers and healthcare professionals will improve your verbal communication skills, essential for conveying medical information clearly and effectively.
Analyzing medical cases and participating in the online work experience will sharpen your critical thinking skills, crucial for diagnosing and treating patients.
You will gain more understanding of medical practice from the sessions, including an insight into the healthcare system, relevant medical concepts and terminologies from each work experience
Interacting with peers and healthcare professionals through the work experience will help you develop professionalism, including practicing bedside manner, confidentiality, and ethical conduct.
Who can apply?
Our work experience programme is generally focussed on those looking to apply to medical school, and most attendees are age 16-18. Our programme is also open to older applicants (gap year or post-grad attendees), or those under the age of 16 with explicit parental consent. There are no other prerequisites to joining our virtual work experience.
Session 1: Psychiatry
The aim of this medicine work experience session is to introduce you to the field of psychiatry. Through interactive cases, you’ll learn about psychiatric conditions, relevant history taking, examinations, and diagnostic tools. Students will have the opportunity to participate in diagnosing simulated patients.
Session 2: Ophthalmology
You’ll learn from an eye surgeon about the leading causes of sight loss in the UK and how they are diagnosed and managed. You will also learn about how to differentiate between an eye problem that will get better with simple treatment and one that needs emergency treatment to avoid irreversible blindness or death.
Session 3: Abdominal X-Rays
The aim of this medicine work experience session is to introduce you to abdominal plain films. Through interactive case studies, you’ll learn how to assess a normal abdominal X-ray, and will understand features of abnormality. Students will have the opportunity to diagnose patient cases based on abdominal x-ray findings.
Session 4: General Surgery
This medical work experience session aims to introduce you to the field of general surgery. You’ll learn about common presentations, surgical emergencies, and non-surgical management of acute abdominal pathologies. Students will have the opportunity to participate in discussions and diagnostics.
End of Programme Test
Upon completion of all 4 sessions of the work experience, you need to take the test for the work experience. A certificate of completion will be issued to you if you score 80% or more on the test. Date for the test will be announced soon.
Applying to medicine or dentistry in 2024? Check out our application packages which feature complete support for the UCAT, interviews and personal statements, as well as monthly Support & Progress meetings with our admissions experts. We help 1000s of applicants each year, and we’d love to help you, too!
FAQs
Do you offer in-person work experience?
Yes! If you’re interested in our in-person work experience, check out our week-long residential medicine work experience in London, which also includes short-term, non-residential options.
Why should I take part in this virtual work experience?
If you’re interested in applying for medical school, having some form of work experience is crucial to your application. Typically students will spend some time shadowing healthcare staff and talk about their experiences in their personal statement and interviews.
Our virtual medicine work experience covers elements of a different medical specialty in each session. Each session is interactive and intensive, engaging students and helping them learn an array of transferable skills that will make their application stand out amongst others.
What if I can’t attend the work experience live sessions? Will there be recordings?
We highly recommend attending each session live, as the sessions are interactive and live attendance will allow maximal benefit. However, we do understand that students have other commitments. As such, the recording of each medicine work experience session will be uploaded directly on our website for viewing.
Will I receive a certificate of participation for the work experience?
There will be an end of programme knowledge test with a pass mark of 80%. All students who achieve the pass mark will receive a certificate to demonstrate successful completion of their medical work experience.
What age group is the medicine work experience programme suitable for?
We recommend our work experience programme for anyone who is 14 and older. It’s also best suited for those applying for medical school in the 2025 entry. However, we’re happy for those considering applying in later years to also attend.
How old do I have to be to participate in the programme?
Most hospitals will only accept students who are at least 16 years of age for work experience. However, younger applicants from 14+ are more than welcome to participate in our virtual medicine work experience.
What safeguarding measures are in place during the programme?
Please see our safeguarding policy for more information.
What other support do you offer for medical school applications?
We offer complete support for medicine and dentistry applications. If you’d like support with the full medical application process, from A-Z, with regular advice and feedback from our admissions experts, our medicine and dentistry application packages might be best for you. We can also support you through our UCAT live course and tutoring services, which include our best-selling UCAT book. Attend our live personal statement course and request reviews or tutoring to write your truest personal statement. To ace your interviews, take our live interview course, including mock circuits, and university-specific interview tutoring.
