We recognise that sometimes it is difficult to get work experience in a clinical setting.
Here are some other ways to gain experience and knowledge.
Online resources
There are some free online resources available that will give you a taste of what working in healthcare is all about:
Brighton and Sussex Medical School has created a free virtual work experience course that explores several different medical specialities.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has created an interactive platform called Observe GP that highlights the many different aspects of working in primary care.
The University of Sheffield has produced a free online course through Future Learn called Discovering Dentistry. It looks at what dentists do and why it is important.
Volunteering
Useful volunteering websites include:
Gain insight
- The NHS Health Careers website that provides insight into different careers and specialties within the health sector
- The Medical Schools Council has lots of useful resources. This includes the values and attributes needed to study medicine, entry requirements for all medical schools in the UK, and application advice
- Newspaper pages such as the Guardian’s science page and The Telegraph’s health page
- The British Medical Journal’s open access information and their podcasts Talk Medicine and Sharp Scratch
- TED Talks via YouTube can provide useful background information on health topics
- The British Dental Journal’s open access information British Dental Journal (nature.com)
- Springpod
- trac.jobs
- Skills for Health career pathways: Pathways – HASO (skillsforhealth.org.uk)
- Science or health related content on Twitter.