WORK EXPERIENCE
When considering work experience for medicine, most students often try to find clinical opportunities - i.e. shadowing under physicians in a hospital/clinic. However, most schools understand that obtaining this type of experience, while valuable, is quite difficult. Therefore, voluntary work or community work is considered just as beneficial. Although, it is expected to have some healthcare experience. More information on guidance over finding relevant work experience can be found here.
Through work experience, universities expect students to learn and develop their teamwork, leadership, empathy, and skills as these are qualities required of a doctor. Through work experience, you also get an understanding of what a day in the life of a doctor consists of - long work hours, dealing with hardships like providing patients with bad news, and a rigorous schedule. Despite this, universities want candidates who are passionate about science and helping others which is displayed through interviews.
Universities have different criteria for medical work experience, you can find the details of this in our PDF document - details given below.
Work experience opportunities during COVID-19:
If you’re an aspiring applicant looking for work experience but are unable to find some in a clinical setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you may want to check out the possibility of doing virtual work experience. The Brighton and Sussex medical schools offers opportunities for virtual work experience that you can find here. There may be other medical schools that have opportunities like these!
Furthermore, you can find more information on how to go about finding relevant work experience here.