My Work Experience

After doing some research on universities, I discovered that most universities, prefer candidates who have had some kind of work experience. The main reason for this may be so that, an applicant can actually experience the day to day life of an actual doctor, or another person playing a different medicine based role. This would be so that applicants can decide weather studying medicine is for them, as they may be put off by the experience they gain and withdraw their application, however for some, the work experience may be how they expected it to be, and so they decide to pursue into studying medicine.

There are many ways of finding work experience in a medicine based environment, however in many cases it is not as easy to actually find a place to do the work, this is because of the number of people wanting to study medicine and the limited amount of space in hospitals and surgerys. For my work experience, I applied using a number of methods, these were such as: using NHS Notts work force - at NHS Notts work force, the staff find places for students wanting work experience in Nottingham, the work experience would range from a number of types and days, and would be based in one of the two main hospitals in Nottingham (Queens Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital). However due to the number of applicants in Nottingham, the spaces in these hospitals were absolutely full, and so I was not able to find a place using this method - Therefore I decided to use another method as I would be wasting my time trying to wait for a opening at one of the hospitals. To find work experience I also tried emailing doctors directly, This was also a long winded and unsuccessful method - As I had to look through directories of doctors, individually click on their names, and then use a search engine with their name in it to see if I could find an email address or any contact information, so that I could ask to do work experience with them. This did not work because the email address which were found on the Internet were not valid, and information on doctors is extremely difficult to find. Finally I found my work experience at surgery where one of my family members worked. This was with an uncle who was a GP at a private surgery (Melbourne Park Medical Centre - Nottingham). Although I found my work experience with a family member, it did not make it any easier to actually get them to free up their time table slightly to fit me in, as GP's are usually pre booked with patient appointments. I was first declined to do work experience with my uncle, but after I had explained to him how I have not been able to find work experience anywhere else, he allowed me to do work experience with him, for this to happen he said that I had to do my work experience at a later stage (during the summer holidays) when he will have more free time and a less busy schedule. So I agreed, as this was the only option for me.

During my work experience, I was assigned two main roles. These were sitting with the GP and observing the relation ship between patients and the doctor, and the second main role was sitting with the nurse, observing her administer any vaccinations or vitamin boosters, asking her questions about her job and medicine as a whole etc... I Sat in with the GP for a number of three days, these were from 08:30 to 13:00/14:00. When I sat with the GP, I was able to observe the different illnesses the patients came to discuss. Whether these be from physical illnesses such as athletes foot or mental illnesses e.g. stress. During my days with the GP I learnt how to interact with patients by observing the GP himself - e.g. by being caring, collective of the information provided by the patient and also by being patient towards different patients with different personalities. Some things which the GP had told me to keep in mind were to respect the patient (and leave if they were not comfortable), not to interfere when the GP is in discussion with the patient, and finally the very important fact of patient confidentiality - meaning I was not allowed to name people when I left the GP's room, talk about peoples illness by naming them or pointing them out etc... Some discussions which I had with the GP were about the differences between a specialist doctor and a GP's role in medicine, I also learnt some key new facts which the GP had said to look out for e.g. the term 'ICE' (Idea, Concern, Expectation) - What this term was used for was, how a patient would interact with the GP e.g. If they had some kind of problem, they would have an idea of what it was, they would then have some concerns which they may ask the GP about, and finally the patient would have an expectation of the GP would do for them such as, prescribe medicine, give them a sick note etc... when I understood this term, I was able to observe it in almost every patient which came to visit the GP and was able to see how the GP communicated back to the patient in line with the term 'ICE'. The skills I gained by working with the GP were mainly patience in understating what the patient had to say, and also enhance communication skills by observing how the GP would address different diseases which different patients came in with.

I also sat in the nurses room over a period of two days, observing the types of patients she addressed, and the illness which she came across to deal with. the main type of roles for the nurse were giving injections to patients, dealing with dressings, and physical damage to the body e.g.treating scab wound from knock and bumps (mainly on the elderly). As I observed the nurse, I noticed that her role differed from the GP's quite significantly; were the GP would be mainly providing reassurance to the patient and the nurse would be  dealing physically with different conditions. During my time with the nurse, I was lucky enough to be able to physically examine an abbesses on patients which the nurse was treating and also gain information from her such as why certain injections e.g. vitamin B12 is applied in the muscle rather than veins etc... Overall the skills I improved on were communication when not only interacting with patients, but also when I was interacting with the nurse as well, I also improved my confidence via interacting with patients.

During the periods of time when I was not able to sit in with the GP or the nurse due to the patient feeling uncomfortable with a student present, I was able to work at the front reception desk. Here I learnt how to book appointments for patients and also sign them in - This was sometimes a pressure-full situation as there may be a line of patients waiting, and as I was new to the system the surgery was using, I sometimes made mistakes and held the line up, causing patients to become impatient etc... also during my time at the reception, I was given prescriptions and patient documents to file. over all this helped me to further develop my communication and confidence skills, as well as help me build my organisational skills.

In conclusion, the work experience which I did, allowed me to take an insight into a normal day as a GP and nurse, and overall I have enjoyed the work experience and am comfortable with the idea of working in this type of environment as I'm not put off by the amount of work expected from a doctor at a day by day basis. Furthermore this work experience has not put me off but has allowed me to push my self further into studying medicine.