Work experience is an important part of your journey into medicine, as it allows you to gain insight into the profession and helps you know if this is truly the career you want. Beyond this, reflecting on your work experience is really important for your personal statement and interview.
Your application should show that you have thought your decision to study medicine through and that you understand the realities of the career first-hand – the good, the bad and the ugly. This is done by you reflecting on what you’ve seen during your placement and thinking about how this has affected your decision to study medicine, whether that’s in a positive or negative way.
It can be difficult identifying which aspects of your work experience are most relevant and valuable for your application. So, to help you achieve this, we’ve created a FREE GUIDE to help you document and reflect on your work experience. Whether your work experience is in a clinical setting (e.g. hospital or a GP), or in a nursery or school, or something even further from healthcare, this guide will be useful in helping you find the golden nuggets that are relevant to medicine.
Note: keep an eye out for our post this Friday on how to make the most of your medical and non-medical work experience!
This section explores why reflection is important, and highlights the key skills you should be looking out for during your placement, and why they are each important.
This section explains how to effectively record the different activities you’ve observed or demonstrated each day, and gives you space to document your own journey. We’ve even written a sample daily log for inspiration.
This section explains how to effectively reflect on the different skills you’ve observed or demonstrated each day, and gives you space to document your own journey. We’ve also written a sample skills log for inspiration.
Click HERE to download the word document work experience reflection guide.
Click HERE to download the PDF work experience reflection guide.
Author & Editor: Latifa Haque
