Intro Video – Kirsty Wadsley - Student Recruitment

Welcome to experiencing It which is one part of Taste of Medicine.com.  In this part of the site we are focusing specifically on work experience.  If you are wanting to get into healthcare, work experience is key.  It’s not just about what you do but importantly what you get out of it.  Work experience allows you to demonstrate key transferable skills that can show you are suited for a career in health.  At St George’s, University of London we train people in medical and healthcare courses so we are using our experience to provide you with information that we hope will be useful and help you along the way.  You can also find out the inside stories from our students about their experiences.

 

Getting Good Experience

How to go about it – Top Tips

Video 1 – Georgina and Boz – Recent St George’s Graduates

In this video Georgina talks about her experiences before she went to university and how she didn’t have a huge amount of healthcare work experience.  Most of her experience came from working in a variety of shops, experience mainly undertaken part time whilst at school. Reflecting on this experience Georgina identifies that there are a lot of skills that are transferable.  For example communication skills with patients came from experience she had working in shops dealing with customers and their enquiries. Georgina also had experience of working with colleagues during her part-time employment and this gave her experience of different levels of communication – for example with patients and with colleagues. Georgina also built up time management and leadership skills through shop work and had experience of leading a team. Georgina concludes by recognising that there are a variety of skills developed through part-time work that are relevant in healthcare professions.

 

Video 2 – John Hammond – Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy

John identifies that it’s important to make sure you have a bit of experience linked to the job you are wanting to do.

He goes on to discuss how it can be difficult to get experience, so he recommends volunteer work as well as shadowing a professional already in the job.

John also explains that experience prior to a healthcare course is really valuable to see if you have the qualities required to care for people.  You may not feel you have these qualities, so think about what you can do to develop them.  For John the key is that with experiences you can make the right sort of choices; by seeing what happens in practice you can make a more informed decision.  For example, you might think Physiotherapy is treating sports injuries but that is only a small part of what a physiotherapist does.  There are many other areas you can work in and it is valuable to see the variety of things you might be doing, rather than just one particular area of practice.

 

Video 3 – Akin – Current Student

Akin worked as a volunteer for his GP and found this placement by asking him if he could go and see him, he also spoke with the practice nurse who helped him sort out the placement. Akin spent three days per week for three weeks in the GP practice and saw a whole host of different conditions, he found it a useful experience and was grateful to the GP for allowing it. Akin also spent time in a nursing home over a period of time during which he saw how Doctors and the healthcare team worked together and saw many interesting cases which he found really helpful.  

 

Making the Most of It

Before

Video 1 - Georgina & Boz - Recent St George’s Graduates

Boz: If you were starting to get experience now how would you approach it?

Georgina: I would prepare – before I didn’t know what it would involve, I just turned up and did what people asked.  Now I would read up, find out more beforehand about what will be involved, what kind of things do they do?  I would have questions to ask them which would allow me to be more interactive.

 

Video 2 - Leda - Current Student

“Having done work experience, I think preparing beforehand is a good idea.

‘Where is the place you are going? What should you expect? What are the common things you might see/deal with?’”  By using her experience on a paediatric placement Leda is able to reflect on the preparation she could have undertaken, such as looking up common illnesses that children present with and what a paediatrician does. This way she would know what to expect and be prepared to face things that might have come her way.

 

Video 3 - Georgina & Boz - Recent St George’s Graduates

Boz: When undertaking my first work experience with a GP I didn’t have an action plan, I didn’t talk to people and was shy.  On my second work experience placement, which was in ITU I had a plan!  I found out more about ITU, what I might see and what questions I might want to ask.  I made sure I had a notepad and would jot down conditions and anything I didn’t understand so I could ask people later.  I would ask people ‘what is that?’  In my final exams I had questions about equipment and I had actually learnt a couple of those from my work experience six years earlier!

 

Making the Most of It

During

Video 1 – Georgina & Boz - Recent St George’s Graduates

Boz: Once you turn up it is important not to be shy.  When I was younger I would be shy, I would think I wouldn’t bother them, they’re busy.  People are busy but if you don’t ask you don’t get which is true even at Medical School - you need to make an effort and be proactive.  If people were busy I found they would make time later on to answer questions, for example over lunch, or they would take you for a coffee to answer questions.  Being proactive was important when on work experience but is also something I will take forward for the rest of my life.

 

Video 2 -  John Hammond – Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy

John: Some people are natural reflectors, they think about things when they are on holiday or daydreaming - and that’s reflection, you’re thinking about what might be.  To develop this skill one thing you can do is to keep a diary, jot things down or use your phone to record a few things, like: ‘do you know what I did today’?  Start the process of jotting things down.  For example in Sex and The City the style adopted of ‘what have you done?’ and ‘what this brought up? Where Carrie says ‘today I did this and it made me think…’  You have learnt the skill of reflection by doing things like that.

 

Video 3 – Michael – Current Student

On a recent placement Michael had the opportunity to read colleagues’ reflective practice documents.  By reading about other people’s reflective practices he got a feel for what the other person had gone through and he was able to learn from their experience.  This is why Michael thinks documenting is so important;  so other people can benefit which helps the healthcare profession as a whole not just the person undertaking the experience.  Writing it down cements the experience in your memory and when you later look back, it’s as though it’s still fresh in your mind.

 

Making the Most of It

After

Kenton Lewis – Student Recruitment

Kenton: “Hopefully through looking at the site you have realised how broad the range of experiences can be that are relevant to a career in healthcare. It’s not just working in a hospital that counts, as all other experiences can be relevant and applied to your application. That is what will happen in the next part of the site. Have a look at how the experiences you have got, and your reflection on these can link to the skills and competencies important in a healthcare career.

 

Close of the site

End Video - Kirsty Wadsley - Student Recruitment

Kirsty: “You have now reached the end of Experiencing It, we hope you have found it valuable and seen how work experience can be applied in many ways; it’s how you make the most of it that counts. As with researching for work experience, it is important you do the same for the healthcare courses you are applying for. If you’ve liked what you’ve seen check out the youtube channel to hear more from staff and students about their experiences and about reflection. Experiencing It is part of Tasteofmedicine.com, and there are other areas to the site that you can have a look at and hopefully find more useful information. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to get in touch with us as we would like to hear from you. Email us at: tasteofmedicine@sgul.ac.uk