Enhancing med school applications with essential work experience

As a student you should be starting to prepare your personal statements over the summer. You’ll need to collate evidence of your grades and clinical work experience, as well as polishing up on your communication skills and ensuring your healthcare knowledge is up to scratch and ready for those all-important medical school interviews. Have you ticked all the boxes?

Many medical schools place emphasis on the personal statement; it is a declaration of your passion for medicine and working in healthcare. Though applications must fulfil the academic requirements, successful candidates will have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about their application that will grab the attention of the admissions tutor. It really is worth doing your research into what individual medical schools are looking for -and never be tempted to have your personal statement written for you.

Writing your statement is likely to take far longer than expected; it is best to write everything down, make cuts, edits and rewrite where necessary. Presenting your passion for the subject and communicating the knowledge you’ve gained on the NHS and health care in general is important, so too is demonstrating you have the necessary ‘hands-on’ work experience, which you have reflected upon, to back up your academic excellence.

Work experience is extremely valuable when considering your application to medical school and is a prerequisite for gaining entry. It gives you a taste for medicine and helps you decide whether it is really for you. Your experiences can be of varying lengths and within varying settings and situations; anything that has clinical relevance is considered work experience to which you can highlight within your application, explaining what you did, what you learnt and how you can apply it in future.

Though clinical work experience will stand you in good stead, other roles such as caring and interacting with the public are equally valuable. Not only do they allow you to hone your communication skills, but combining this with academic work illustrates that you have excellent interpersonal and organisational skills.

Where can you gain additional work experience?

Understanding the shortage of qualified and specialised medical professionals in the UK, ID Medical School was founded with the intent of offering doctors of all grades the opportunity to develop their requisite skills and continue their professional development. Together with WatMed educational, a provider of high quality CPD accredited courses with a difference; potential medical students benefit from free places on clinical-based courses, as well as having access to a multitude of educational resources - an ideal way to gain additional work experience and knowledge for your medical school application and interview.

Caryn Cooper, Head of ID Medical School, comments, “To train and educate the next generation of healthcare professionals is our intention, and ID Medical School is committed to the grass roots of the profession. We are proud to offer medical students free places on courses delivered by WatMed educational.

“As the UK’s leading healthcare recruiter, we look at the ‘bigger picture’ of NHS workforce planning, ensuring we offer added-value beyond locum supply by upskilling and ensuring junior healthcare professionals have access to relevant courses and learning materials.”

Dr Kishan Rees founder of WatMed educational added, “Medicine is a completely different proposition now to when I applied for 2004 entry. I firmly believe we owe it to those following in our footsteps to ease their path.

“Medical students can never have too many resources. I recommend collating any articles from medical journals such as the BMJ which you are particularly interested in, and ensure you are able to understand from a scientific point of view, but explain to a member of the public. And - watch as many video tutorials as possible. The latter is ideal for when you’re on the move where you can learn and observe from your mobile devices.

“The information in our medical school application videos is essential knowledge for prospective applicants to the profession and these are freely available on the WatMed educational YouTube channel; so students can not only maximise their chances of success, but also make an informed choice as to whether medicine is right for them. WatMed educational takes pride in playing an active part helping recruit the most talented and suited into the profession.”

Email IDMSchool@id-medical.com to find out more about work experience opportunities and courses to enhance your medical school application.

ENDS

About WatMed educational

WatMed educational, working in exclusive partnership with ID Medical School, is a provider of high quality CPD accredited courses with a difference. This is a company founded on solid principles with a true desire to bring about positive change within the medical profession at the grass roots level.

Dr Kishan Rees, director of WatMed educational is currently a clinical teaching fellow and coming to the end of reading for a Masters in Medical Education (Due to graduate July 2015). He has launched PREPARE4FY1® to supplement the current teaching he provides and runs a successful CPD accredited Clinical Skills Workshop with ID Medical School. Of particular relevance is the PREPARE4FY1® WordPress site where there is a blog on careers advice on getting in to medical school.

Following the success of the Clinical Skills Workshops, WatMed educational has been actively adding to its portfolio of courses. Its latest course ‘Up2Speed™’ is just one example of a new, case-based teaching course with discussion around key areas relevant to those practising in today’s complex NHS environment.

About ID Medical

Award-winning, multi-discipline healthcare recruiter ID Medical was formed in 2002 and is a superior quality supplier of locum doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and clerical staff to over 90% of NHS hospitals and private medical sector organisations.

From its headquarters in Milton Keynes as well as its Central London office, ID Medical provides practical, cost-effective and innovative workforce solutions, supplying over 5 million hours to the NHS per annum. Crown Commercial Service (CCS), HealthTrust Europe (HTE) and London Procurement Partnership (LPP) framework approved, ID Medical receives over 38,000 available shifts per month in hospitals nationwide.

Since its foundation, the company has earned itself industry-wide accreditation and success with an amounting collection of accolades. These include the Recruiter FAST 50, Real Business Hot 100, Recruitment International Top 250 and The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100. Most notably, through an abiding focus on employee satisfaction, ID Medical was crowned Recruitment International’s ‘Best Recruitment Company to Work for 2013’ and made its debut in The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for 2014 at list position 33.

For more information please visit our website at www.id-medical.com, view our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @IDMedical.