I know this is difficult and a lot of students will be in a similar position because most will have planned to do the work experience over the summer. Medical schools will understand that applicants in the next cycle will all have had problems with being able to complete work experience so don’t worry you shouldn’t be disadvantaged.
If you do want more experience, here are some tips/points that might help…
- Firstly, you won’t really be able to do anything whilst we’re in lockdown, so you’re going to have to pause looking for other places until the country starts functioning a little more normally again
- Hospital work experience isn’t a necessity, you can easily have no medical work experience and get into medical school.
- Medical schools don’t ask for a list of work experiences you did, therefore it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a lot of different experiences. What’s more important is showing you have insight and reflecting on the experiences you have had
- The only places where your work experience/volunteering will really come to use is in helping you write your PS and during interviews because you’ll be able to draw on experiences from them. So you can use the time you’ve had in the care home so far and reflect on that.
- Any other experiences you have count as work experience. If you’ve had a part time job, done any mentoring in sixth form, anything else. Just have a think of any past experiences you can draw on.
- You can read books, watch videos etc produced by medical students/doctors and it’s perfectly fine to reference these in your PS. The purpose of work experience is to give you an insight into Medicine and doing all this will give you an insight too.
- You could think about becoming a volunteer for the NHS in your local community, helping with shopping etc (but of course, only if it’s safe for you and your family)
Life of a Medic 