One of the first things you need to ask yourself is whether you want to work within healthcare. Most people tend to get some form of work experience in a hospital or GP surgery where they can observe the work done by a doctor or another healthcare professional.
Ask yourself why Medicine appeals to you, and see whether these expectations match the realities of what you saw. This form of shadowing will give you an invaluable insight into the career and you’ll often quickly realise whether you can picture yourself in that position or not. You might even realise you prefer the role of a different healthcare professional…and that’s totally fine!
Something you might want to look out for is Medicine taster days that are sometimes run by some universities. You can experience what it’s like to do PBL and sit in lectures – and you’ll get the chance to ask plenty of questions to medical students.
Find out what it’s actually like to study Medicine, because at the end of the day you’ll have to survive the course if you want to end up practising as a doctor. You can have a read of what a typical week in the first year of medical school looks like here.
As well as looking at all the great things about doing Medicine, it’s equally as important to consider the negatives of a medical career. Talk to as many doctors as you can and ask them what the worst part of their job is.
You’ll probably hear things like paperwork, the emotional aspect, the long hours… and if after hearing all this you haven’t been put off, you can rest assured you’re making a fully informed decision if you choose to follow this career path.
So: do your research, talk to medical students, gain some realistic insight, get some medical work experience and you should be able to figure out if medicine is right for you – good luck!
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Life of a Medic 