summer jobs for med students

Jim79

What health related summer work is available to medical students (if any)?

Laydee

I work as a carer in a private hospital during the summer and there is a few medical students who do the same.

his_dudeness

Tough to get, but portering can be very useful.

A mate of mine was a radiology porter during Med School which helped enormously when he applied for Radiology SpR, got on first attempt with strong references

tony007

Laydee wrote: »

I work as a carer in a private hospital during the summer and there is a few medical students who do the same.

Do you need to get some FETAC cert for that?

WildRosie

tony007 wrote: »

Do you need to get some FETAC cert for that?

HIQA guidelines state that you need to have, be studying for or be willing to commence studying within 12 months for a FETAC Level 5 in Healthcare Support when you commence employment. But if you're a med student, I'd say that probably supercedes the HIQA requirements. I've a few friends who are student nurses and they've no problem getting hours with the agencies.

jumpguy

WildRosie wrote: »

HIQA guidelines state that you need to have, be studying for or be willing to commence studying within 12 months for a FETAC Level 5 in Healthcare Support when you commence employment. But if you're a med student, I'd say that probably supercedes the HIQA requirements.

I suppose you mean a med student who's well into their clinical years? I've asked agencies about it myself but I'm reluctant to try and tell them that being a pre-clinical medical student outweighs a carer course. I doubt being able to list off causes of metabolic acidosis or boasting about my hours sat in the library is what they're looking for. Or am I being naive?

WildRosie

I don't think you'll have any difficulty. You'll most likely have to do a manual & patient handling course, even if you have a valid cert. Depending on the agency, they may have additional requirements like first aid, infection control, personal care, elder abuse awareness. But I really think you'll fine - especially with community care if you're interested in that. Put it this way, my brother who has no inclination towards healthcare or any experience, was working in community care after two days of manual handling and personal care training. It makes me sad when I'm spending a year studying full time to do the same thing (and I actually want to do this kind of work) I've another friend (who really does want to work in healthcare to be fair and will hopefully be studying medicine next year) who's working for one of the big agencies in hospitals around Dublin after seven days of training. You probably will be told to leave the causes of metabolic acidosis at door though, insurance reasons, scope of practice etc.

But I think you're worrying about nothing, you'll still have to do the basics like everyone else. PS The pay with the agencies is a lot better than the community care companies, especially at the weekend. Only drawback is that you don't have set hours or place of work which you most likely would with community care.