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Pre-Medicine Volunteering
Our pre-medic placements offer students a chance to gain first hand experience of working in a real life hospital environment. Whether you’re looking to stand out on your Med school application and in interviews or see your theoretical knowledge put into practice, there’s no better way to gain a unique personal insight into clinical medicine than by shadowing physicians and other health professionals in their day-to-day work.
Our programs are designed for students with a strong interest and aptitude for a medical career, prior to starting clinical training. Placements are ideal for High School students as well as those on a pre-med track, studying related degree courses (such as biomedical sciences) or in the pre-clinical years of medical school.
In each department, you’ll be assigned a specific doctor or medical officer as your personal mentor. A typical working day begins with shadowing your mentor on ward rounds before moving on to outpatient clinics or the operating theatre. Three afternoons a week you’ll attend our bespoke clinical teaching sessions, held exclusively for Gap Medics students by specialist doctors to help you understand and interpret the cases you see on the wards, in clinics and in theatre.
Most students join us for two weeks, but our programs are available from one week to a month or more. As long as we have space on the program, you can start and finish whenever you want, 52 weeks of the year. If you’re looking for a general overview of working in a hospital, we normally recommend one week per department, typically choosing from general medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology and general/orthopaedic surgery. However, we’re more than happy to tailor your placement if you already have specific departmental preferences.
Undertaking hospital work experience abroad not only allows you to experience interesting exotic cases such as malaria and typhoid, it helps you to appreciate the diversity in healthcare provision around the world and see first hand the ethical dilemmas doctors in these countries face every day. It also – of course – turns a couple of weeks’ work experience into the adventure of a lifetime!
Weekends are free time, and students usually make the most of this to go travelling with fellow students from the Gap Medics house: Wildlife safaris in Africa, Caribbean beaches, diving in Thailand or camel trekking in India… the choice is yours.
Supporting our hospitals
As part of our detailed partnership agreements, we pay our hospitals for every student they host to ensure everyone benefits from the programme and staff remain motivated. On average, around 10% of the total you pay goes directly to the hospital.
Gap Medics Houses
Living in one of our super-sociable houses together with other premeds is a huge part of the Gap Medics experience
Programs
"The value of relevant work experience on a medical school application is huge – both in supporting a student’s commitment and providing something unique to talk about at interview."