How To Reflect On Your Work Experience
Reflecting on any work experience is essential for medical applications. By doing this thoroughly, you can improve the quality of your personal statement and any interview questions related to the healthcare field can be supported with personal anecdotes. In order to reflect well, it is often easier to take a systematic approach, for example using the Gibbs' Reflective Cycle.
This cycle has 5 steps:
Step 1: Description
Keep a log of everything you see on work experience. I spent some time before leaving the hospital each day and used the Notes app on my phone to write down everything I saw- this quickly became invaluable when writing my personal statement and preparing for interviews!
Step 2: Thoughts and feelings
How did you feel during the experience? How do you think the Doctor or other healthcare workers felt? How do you think the patient felt? Why? (Do you think the patient felt comfortable and knowledgeable about their treatment plan? Why is that important?).
Step 3: Evaluation
What was good (or bad) about the experience? Consider how the Doctors contributed to the patient’s feelings.
Step 4: Analysis
Why did things go the way they did? What skills did the Doctors display and make use of to make this an effective patient interaction? Key skills to look out for: communication, teamwork within the multidisciplinary team, leadership, empathy, adaptability, ability to undertake responsibility.
Step 5: Conclusions
Ultimately, what have you learnt? What else could have been done to improve the interaction? What do you need to improve on? Things you may have learnt about: the value of certain skills, the difficulties of Medicine, the diversity of the patient population.
Example:
This may seem complex, so here’s a real example from my work experience that I discussed in both my personal statement and numerous interviews:
The patient was a young girl who was in hospital for severe burns over large parts of her body. I shadowed two Junior Doctors who needed to obtain a blood sample from this patient (Step 1). The girl was clearly, understandably, very nervous to have her blood taken and was already in pain due to her burns. As the Doctors obtained the sample, the patient quickly became upset and frightened, and began to scream. Her heart rate increased significantly, and the monitors were beeping loudly. As I stood and observed I suddenly understood and empathised with her- she was in an unfamiliar environment, in pain and extremely frightened (Step 2). By understanding this, I can appreciate the Doctors’ attempts to make the experience as comforting for the patient as possible- despite the patient becoming upset, the Doctors maintained calm, focused on their work, and managed to obtain the blood sample as quickly as possible all while talking to her in a soothing tone and providing emotional support verbally (Step 3). Looking back now, it was the Doctors’ efficient use of the skill of communication with the patient that led to this being an overall successful patient interaction despite the patient becoming upset (Step 4). As a result of this experience, I have learnt the value of empathy and communication when caring for patients who are often vulnerable, frightened and confused. It is through these skills that patient concerns are fully understood and addressed, ensuring the patient feels comfortable and understands their treatment plan. I have also learnt that treating vulnerable patients can have a strong emotional toll on Doctors, allowing me to pursue medicine with a true insight into the challenges of the career, but also an understanding that this is normal and the collaborative nature of medicine helps to minimise this toll by providing a support system (Step 5).
This provided me with a strong example for answering any questions about communication or empathy. Remember, however, that this is something that will improve with practice! Good luck!