What do I need to include in my personal statement?

Writing a personal statement can be alot harder than you initially think.  Personally, I recommend writing the main body before writing the beginning and end.  Making a list of everything you want to get across by the end of your statement is helpful to get your point across within the 500 word limit.   Some key things to include in your statement are skills and qualities that you think a good doctor should have and recent examples of how you have shown yourself to these skills and qualities.  When writing my personal statement I looked at, 'Tomorrow's doctors' for guidance on what would be relavent qualities to include.

Work experience can be difficult to get, so it is important to make the most out of the days you get.  Here it can be worth mentioning what you liked about your experience and also mentioning difficulties doctors face on a daily basis and show an appriciation of these but also that you know you can handle these,  It is important to be able to talk about anything you have mentioned in your statement with confidence in an interview, as interviewers will, in my experience, have a copy of your personal statement to hand at your interview and will expect you be able to talk about and expand upon anything you have mentioned.  This includes any books you have mentioned that you may have read.