Nacktschnecken omlet Cube

[donald]

Hi

 

My son has always wanted to go into medicine and is looking for some relevant work experience this summer holiday but he is not sixteen until July. Any ideas?

 

I know a lot of places due to health and safetyetc it has become harder for them to find something to do? He is happy to go as a volunteer etc.

 

Where to start looking or if anyone has been in a similar situation what did you do?

 

Thank you for any inspiration

 

Donald

[westie mum]

When my daughter had to look for work experience she found it reaaly difficult because she wanted to do forensic science. What I did was contacted the local university and asked if she could do her work experience in the forensic science department. They agreed and she quite enjoyed it, the only thing she found though was that because there wasn't many students about some days she did end up cleaning things and tidying things away. Mostly though it was basic experiments (blowing jelly babies up being one of them!)they weren't allowed to do anything gory with her because of her age.

[ChrisP]

I did a weeks work experience in the Hospital nearby, when I was 14. I got to shadow the nures on the ward for all sorts of tasks and duties, from patient care, to going with them when they had tests such as MRI scans etc. Perhaps contact your local hospital and see if they will do the same?

[percy049]

Im going to do work experience with my dad at a pharmacy (cant say which [advertising], but it has 5 letters ), to replenish stock, pull items on shelves forward etc. You can't work with money or medicines until your 16.

[Alis girls]

Some Dr's surgeries occasionally use them as sumarisers - to sumarise records on computers

[craftyhunnypie]

Not thought about sitting in with a dentist to watch?

 

Emma.x

[emily95]

Not thought about sitting in with a dentist to watch?

 

Emma.x

 

This is pretty much what I did for my work experience in october, when I was 15

I really enjoyed it and it was very useful!

[LolaLayla]

What about working in a nursing home or a hospice if you have one nearby?

[ubereglu]

At an Opticians maybe?

 

He'll find it really difficult to get any work experience nowadays as a lot of the things people were able to do you now have to be 18 for.

[whoopsie]

We've had several people doing work experience in the hospital and some of them have gone on to work there! I would suggest writing to the head of nursing/midwifery/medicine and asking them if there is an appropriate opportunity. Some teenagers have worked as clerks in the admin ofice (wonderful they were, too) to understand a bit more about 'behind the scenes'.

 

I think the only place they weren't cleared to work was the operating theatre (not old enough) and i'm not sure about the delivery suite.

[LeeMeadfan]

Bear in mind that if he does placements out of school time I'm not sure on the implications re: CRB checks etc?

 

I think it's different if the 'work experience ' is done via school as there will obviously be certain things in place regarding Health & safety, 'insurance' etc.

 

Wishing him good luck!

[hazard]

my son wants to do medicine when he leaves school he is 15 now and he does voluntary work with st john ambulance there he gets to learn how to handle casualties and gains his first aid training which looks good on his med school application.

[whoopsie]

My brother did a 'pre-med' course at Nottingham University (think he was a couple of years older than your son though as it involved an overnight stay). He loved it and learned loads even though it turned out he couldn't go into medicine (Latex allergy deemed too severe). He still talks about it sometimes so he must have had a good experience.

 

It's something else to look into for the future. I know they still run it.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

We had difficulty getting my YS work experience in any of the places relevant to his chosen career path (marine biology/conservation). Every place we tried said no due to either health and safety or lack of staff for training (zoo, Deep Sea World, botanical gardens, RSSPCA, etc) .

 

As a result, he's coming to do a week of outdoor education at my work - a special school for autistic kids .

[Lewis]

My brother did a 'pre-med' course at Nottingham University (think he was a couple of years older than your son though as it involved an overnight stay).

I went on the vet versions of those Vet-Medlink and Vet-Sim, were both really good and a few days long. Get to stay in halls and meet others you could end up at Uni with Learn about interviews, we did practicals with horses and exotics (skunks, alpaca, all reptiles, meercats etc) and got loads of tips.

I still speak to a couple of people that went and 1 is at Uni with me (but doing Maths!).

 

The medicine ones are Medlink and Med-Sim

 

Hope your son enjoys it ANH. Know its a pain getting work exp, for school I did a week with Guide Dogs then 2 weeks completely unrelated... backstage in a theatre!

[whoopsie]

Med-Link. That was it.

 

Let us know how you (and he) get on.