Work experience
Work experience requirements
- At least 70 hours of health or social care related work experience in the last three years (15th October 2023 to 15th October 2026).
- At least two experiences in different settings or roles/professions.
- For applicants without direct patient or service user contact in a healthcare role, relevant experience might include activities such as shadowing in a GP surgery and working as a Healthcare Assistant (HCA).
- For applicants who are health professionals with direct patient or service user contact, we require evidence of your training or employment, and an additional experience such as completion of an online or virtual work experience course.
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Your work experience should help you gain insight into caring or supportive roles. This can take place in health, social care, community, or other relevant settings. We will ask for a link to the organisation’s website (or similar) to confirm your experience.
Expected work experience outcomes
Work experience is an essential part of your application to Warwick Medical School. It should help you understand the realities of healthcare, gain insight into professional roles, develop key skills such as communication, empathy and teamwork, and reflect on your suitability for a career in medicine.
Across your combined work experience you must meet all of the following outcomes (these do not need to be met in a single placement):
- Insight into working as a health or social care professions.
- Experience providing direct, face-to-face (in-person), hands-on care to people with health, care or wellbeing needs.
- Insight into your own strengths, areas for development, and how you respond to challenges in caring roles.
- Experience of, or insight into, working effectively in diverse teams with people with different roles or areas of expertise.
- Experience of engaging with people in public-facing roles where you support their health, wellbeing, or welfare.
What work experiences do we recommend?
It is not possible to provide a full list of acceptable work experiences, as roles vary between organisations. You are responsible for demonstrating how your combined experiences meet the required outcomes at your Multiple Mini Interview (MMI).
Relevant experience typically includes:
- Working as a healthcare assistant or support worker
- Volunteering in a care or nursing home
- Hospital volunteering where you actively engage with patients
- Supporting individuals with disabilities or additional needs
- Roles in community supporting vulnerable groups or social care settings
- Paid or voluntary roles involving personal care or direct patient interaction
- Shadowing healthcare professionals (when combined with reflection and active involvement)
These experiences are valuable as they help you understand patient needs and perspectives, the challenges of care delivery, and teamwork in practice. Additionally a range of relevant experiences, undertaken for sufficient time to gain meaningful insight, is recommended.
Specific guidance
- Each experience must last for a minimum of seven hours (the equivalent of one day).
- Hours spent on duty or on call but not providing health or social care do not count towards the minimum requirement of 70 hours (e.g., hours spent on duty with St John’s Ambulance).
- Training and/or induction for a role does not count towards the 70 hours.
- Experiences can be paid, voluntary or part of hands-on requirements for a health or social care qualification.
- There is no maximum number of online/remote or shadowing hours allowed (although to meet outcomes #2 and #5 not all your experiences can be online/remote/shadowing).
- Successful completion of the BSMS online work experience programme counts for a maximum of 10 hours.
- Caring for friends and/or family members does not count towards the 70 hours.
Due to the number of enquiries we receive, we are unable to provide a comprehensive review service on whether your work experience would be acceptable. Use this flow chart to check you meet the work experience requirements.
How do I evidence my work experience?
You will need to complete an online questionnaire with details of your work experiences, including:
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- Total hours and dates of each role
- Role title and organisation
- Hours spent in each role
- Confirmation that the experience was supervised or undertaken in an appropriate setting
- For each experience, provide a PDF reference on headed paper confirming your role, dates, hours, and the organisation’s status or professional registration.
- For virtual or online experiences, provide details of the assessment (e.g., a certificate of passing). Certificates of attendance alone are not sufficient.
- Experiences without proper evidence will not count towards the minimum 70 hours.
- Questionnaire responses must be completed by 31 October and references by 13 November. If you have applied previously, a new questionnaire and references are required. Responses after these dates will not be considered.
Work experience and the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI)
During your Multiple Mini Interview (MMI), you will be asked to reflect on the work experience you declared in your online questionnaire and for which you provided references. You should discuss what you learned about your strengths, areas for development, and the skills and qualities needed to be a doctor. Recognising areas for growth is expected and demonstrates self-awareness, it is not a weakness.