In terms of work experience to apply for medicine, what do you recommend and what are they looking for?

So medical schools almost require the students to have had some work experience done in a caring setting due to a number of reason: first of all it shows that you are a compassionate individual, who's able to show empathy to vulnerable group of people in the world and that you have the ability to get through a hard University degree by showing that you are hard working and persevering through difficult and physically and mentally challening work. Medical schools therefore wants you to do work experience which have the characteristic of it being: regular, in a caring environment, long term and be able to provide you with reflection at the end of the day. Therefore it does not necessarily have to be a shadowing experience in a GP practice or hospital. It's brilliant if you are able to have that under your belt but they understand that getting clinical experience when you're not even 18 can be hard therefore what they want from you is more of a volunteering role. I personally did a year of voluteering in a local hospice doing the dishes, laundry and making tea for palliative patients. Through this experience I've learnt a lot from it and it was very emotionally challenging watching patients who were in walking to thier end of life with terminal illnesses, but it also taught me many different things and actually made me want to become a doctor even more. This reflection is the key here and this is something why they want you to get work experience done and write about in your PS. What have you gained, what did you feel and why and what would you do if similar situation arise again? Few examples of work experience in general include working in a care home, being a HCA, being a ward assisstant, volunteering in an after school club for disabled children, etc etc. Ultimately they are looking for commitment and development of interpersonal skills and not just the fact that you saw a cool operation happening in a plastics theatre. So it would be good to bear that in mind and use this information when you're finding what work experience would be of most beneficial to your medicine application.