Remember, there are Medical students and Doctors that before Medical School had no experience of Medicine beyond themselves or family members being admitted to hospital. Again, this is a great talking point and if you have learnt something from it, it is definitely worth mentioning! Or perhaps you decided to check out Observe GP (an interactive alternative to work experience) and gained some valuable insight into the role of a GP. Perhaps pre-pandemic you were lucky enough to spend two days on a ward and really get stuck in and asked questions, spoke to loads of members of the team and really felt like you understood what was going on, that’s what matters. Universities will be aware of this too, and take it into consideration. Remember, everyone will be in a similar boat in terms of limited work experience due to COVID-19.
Don’t Worry If Your Experience Doesn’t Seem As Elaborate As Everyone Else’s Prove to them that if you spent three years on the ward training at their Medical School, you’ll take on what you need to become a safe, caring and effective Doctor. Medical Schools know what you did – tell them what it showed you. Universities don’t want to take on students that think all of Medicine is sitting in a clinic because they’ll lose them when that student is shocked that they have to spend hours a week on a ward round. You don’t have to tell admission tutors every fact you learnt (that’s what they’re there to teach you!), but an understanding of Medicine and what it involves is crucial. Show Them What You Learnt, Not What You Did Think of your personal statement as a taster, a flavour of who you are – give them enough to ask you about at interview, but not so much there’s nothing to ask. You only have 4000 characters for your statement and everyone has to have some form of work experience, so don’t just chuck it in there to show you did it and don’t make the whole first page about every single detail of one isolated experience.
If you happened to get involved with volunteering that focused on helping ill, disabled or disadvantaged people, what did you learn from it? Try not to fit your experience into the standard template of ‘I did x time at y place and it showed me xyz skills.’ Be Concise Perhaps it was a consultant taking the time to make sure that their junior Doctors were coping with the workload – or maybe it was as simple as someone knowing the tea and coffee orders for the team. Yes, there are buzzwords that every Medical School looks for, but you can get them in without making your statement appear exactly the same as everyone else’s. Don’t be afraid to be off the wall with what you learnt, either – everyone can write essays on kindness and compassion because of that one time they saw a staff member smile or hold someone’s hand, but not everyone will be able to realise that teamwork is more than just being civil to your colleagues. Write out what you learnt from your experience before you try and sculpt it into something for your statement.
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