It’s no wonder that work experience matters a lot when it comes to working in the field of medicine. If you are interested in pursuing a career as a doctor and thinking of getting into medical school, then you should gain relevant work experience before embarking on your medical school journey. Gaining work experience in the field of medicine can bolster your chances of getting into medical school and show the admission panel that you are committed to working in the field of medicine.
It plays a key role in preparing aspiring students for a challenging life of the medical school and demonstrates your dedication and enthusiasm to the medical profession. Whether you shadow a physician, work in a laboratory, or participate in any other hospital project, highlight the list of experiences you gained in your medical school application. Your admission committee wants to learn what did you learn by working in medical environments. If your medical school interview is scheduled, and you are wondering how to discuss your work experience in the interview, here are a few tips that will help you ace your medical school interview.
Create a List of Your Medical Work Experience
The interview panel wants to know what you did, what skills you have learned by shadowing a physician or volunteering in a hospital and how you can deal with patients. When it comes to discussing your work experience in your medical school interview, it is important to create a list of experiences you have gained and what you did. If you have made notes or important points while you were participating in a hospital shadowing project, carefully read those points to remind yourself what you did. It will greatly help you to discuss your important experiences in an interview.
Evaluate Each Experience
It doesn’t matter whether you have spent a month shadowing a GP, observing surgeries, or spent weeks in pediatrics, geriatrics or any other ward. The interviewers are interested in what you learned from those experiences. Before showing up for a medical school interview, consider the things you learned or observed in each placement.
In an interview, you have a great opportunity to tell the admission committee what you witnessed and demonstrate your understanding of the medical field. So, choose the key experiences and discuss moments that helped you polish your personality and clinical knowledge. You can show them why you are suited to the medicinal career and how you can make a difference in the field of medicine.
Talk about Your Skill Set
When you have a face-to-face session with the admission committee, it is a great opportunity to show them your motivation and how gaining work experience has positively impacted your life. In an interview, you can easily talk about the challenges you faced you learn while shadowing a surgeon or working in a research lab.
Describe what you learned from these challenges and which skills you learned by working in different healthcare settings. For instance, if you have worked in a research lab, you might have learned the importance of teamwork, if you worked in a GP clinic, you learned how to communicate with young, middle and older people. If you worked in a laboratory, you definitely gained some clinical knowledge that will prepare you for clinical clerkships.
The admission panel wants to know whether you are prepared for the challenges doctors and other healthcare professionals usually face in the medical field. Show them that you are ready for this challenging career. Not only does gaining clinical work experience help you gain admission in a medical school, but it helps you throughout your school life, residency training and career.
Show Your Pro-activeness
The admission committee prefers those candidates for their medical school who are proactive, willing to take the challenges and grab opportunities whenever they get a chance. You can impress the admission committee by showing how proactive you are by discussing a few of your experiences. For instance, if you have helped the ward staff, observed different doctors’ work, or took part in productive discussions, tell these experiences to the panel. It will depict that you have a desire to pursue a career and have the potential to become a good doctor.
Concluding It All
Your medical school interview is a great opportunity for you to show what you learned from your time in different clinical settings. Before the interview, going through the key experience and remembering the important things will help you show the admission panel what you saw and learned. You can discuss case-by-case examples to highlight your communication, leadership, teamwork and other skills. Tell the interviewers you are ready to gain more experience during holidays, semester break and weekends to advance your medical knowledge and skills. It will show the admission panel that you are up for the challenges and ready for the stressful medical school life and challenging career.
