I feel it is time to continue where I left off.
So, if you are sitting comfortably, then I shall begin;
I promised that I would reflect upon my work experience this summer, and perhaps explain a little bit about it.
Since I have, yet again, been unsuccessful in getting into med school, I felt it would perhaps be prudent to explore alternatives that would keep be happy, and occupied.
I blame Tom Reynolds for this.
Before I realised that I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a paramedic. To this day I am not sure why. I think it might have been the flashing lights, fast driving and over dramatization by television. Nevertheless, that was what I wanted to do. Around the age of 12 or 13, I have no idea what changed my mind, but it was medicine all the way from then on. It may have been that we had family friends who were doctors and therefore who influenced my young mind. I really do have no idea...
Anyhow, as I previously mentioned, the NHS job had the advantage of making me eligible to shadow two paramedics across two 12 hour shifts, from 7am to 7pm. The experience was honestly astonishing, and I really surprised myself. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I guess that when you build something up you expect it to fail.
There wasn't as much to occupy me as I presumed there would be. In fact, across the period of 24 hours there were only 4 jobs, and 3 were all on the same day. The days were long, very tiring and yet I loved every minute of it. Never have I read and watched television so much in two days. Yet, when a call came in I found myself smiling, much to everyone else's amusement. They promised that it would wear off.....
It was this experience that means I will be applying for a paramedic science degree as a back up for medicine. I think that whichever path I choose, beit medicine or the ambulance service, the only difference is the money. At least the ambulance service will keep my Lara Croft instincts (read: thrill seeker) honed.
I'm sure Tom Reynolds will disagree with me here.... Feel free to comment..
M
5 comments:
Sounds great :)
(and surely, going into one field wouldn't neccesarily prevent you from going into the other at a later stage, if you're willing to start learning again)
_HOW_MANY_JOBS_!_
Is this some bizzare alternate reality where patients have common sense and stuff?
Tell me - I wouldn't mind a transfer to there...
Are you applying to Hertford, or are there other courses available now?
One bit of info for you though - we had a fella join who was waiting to start medical school - but he liked the ambulances so much he decided that he prefered it to being a doctor, and so has remained wearing the green and racing around the streets for a living.
No, I'm actually applying to both Sheffield Hallam and University of Central Lancashire in Preston, they will be my two back ups for medicine this year.
As for common sense patients, I doubt it. It's just very rural.
more sheep than people
Merys
How long does it take to become a paramedic in the UK?
How about applying to carribbean medical schools? The one a colleague of mine went to (forget the name right now) did all of their clinical rotations in the states, so he basically got the same training as a US med student.
I still wish I was a paramedic.
Paramedic in university here takes 3 years, and (from what i am told) just a little longer on average otherwise. It's the driving that's the problem. Go through university and it's all included, go the normal route and (if you passed your test after 1998, like me) you have to do a category C (HGV) licence to even apply, that makes you a truck driver. That costs nearly £1000, and you still aren't guaranteed to be accepted.
I don't really fancy the caribbean due to the extortionate fees, roughly around £10K a year, from what I was told. I'm just gonna have to stick it out in the UK......
:(
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