If you’re preparing to apply for a degree in medicine, you’re probably aware that it has always been a notoriously competitive subject. Therefore, it’s important to write a brilliant personal statement that will stand out from the crowd, and make you sound like a student that the admissions tutors want to have on their course.
This means your UCAS personal statement should showcase your skills, experience and personal qualities that show you are suited to a career in medicine. This can be a difficult and daunting process, especially when you only have 4,000 characters in which to convince each university that you an ideal candidate.
However, try not to worry! We’ve put together this blog post for those applying to medicine at university this year, in which we have taken one of our top-rated medicine personal statement examples and analysed why it was so successful.
We hope this will then help you structure your own medicine personal statement in a way that will put you ahead of the competition, as well as explaining what to include and what to avoid. While it’s a great statement, we also realise that there is still room for improvement, and we have included suggestions for making it even better were it to be redrafted.
What can you find in this article?
Before you start writing
Throughout your first draft, it’s important to keep in mind that you need to:
- Demonstrate that you have relevant and meaningful insight into the medical profession, ideally through both your independent research and reading, and any work experience placements you have completed. This might include books, videos, podcasts, webinars, events, newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals.
- Provide examples to back up everything you want to talk about, including strengths, weaknesses, and experiences.
- Mention your academic achievements and interests, as well as any relevant hobbies or extracurricular activities you take part in.
- Talk about your career plans, and where you hope your medicine degree will take you in future.
By ensuring you cover of all these points, you’ll already be on your way to writing a great medicine personal statement.
Introduction
The complex structure of the human body is a unique beauty. However, when witnessing my uncle deteriorating due to cancer it showed that complexity inescapably meant that problems arise. I realised the effects such illness can have on the patient and their families and appreciate how fulfilling being a doctor would be in such circumstances. I have experienced first-hand how diverse a doctor’s job can be; not just prescribing drugs or performing surgery but also empathy and compassion being key to delivering an effective care.
The writer starts of their statement well with a succinct introduction that relays an anecdote about their uncle. This is always a good way of opening your statement, as it draws the reader and makes them want to read on. They talk about the complexity of the human body, and how this can create problems in the guise of cancer.
They then relate their experience of watching their uncle deteriorate to wanting to become a doctor, as they have witnessed first-hand the effect that illness can have on a patient’s family. By easing other people’s suffering, they realise that being doctor will be a highly rewarding career, highlighting this as one of the reasons why they have chosen to study medicine.
For your own introduction, try to think of a personal story that you could tell that explains why you became interested in medicine, or an experience that fuelled your interest in this particular subject. Remember that your statement should be personal, i.e. about you, so use the opportunity to talk about your life using your own, unique voice.
Main body
After this, they move on to discuss the requirements for becoming a good doctor: not just prescribing medicine, but showing empathy compassion, two important character traits that are needed in the profession. Again, the writer links this back to their own experiences, which they go into in more detail in the next section:
This fact was highlighted during a period of shadowing a Professorial unit at a Department of Psychiatry. Here, I realised the importance of treating patients in a holistic manner; doctors need to be skilful enough to deal with the health implications of both physical and psychological complaints. I was able to observe doctors communicating in difficult situations such as witnessing the emotional despair of a patient suffering from profound depression, where key skills such as empathy, patience and compassion are essential to enhance the doctor-patient relationship. Having observed clinical multidisciplinary team meetings, I am able to appreciate the input various teams have in providing effective care and ensuring a better outcome overall for the patient and their families.
Here, the writer uses their experience at a psychiatric unit to show their understanding that doctors must address both the physical and psychological effects of illness on patients, and that this can sometimes make communication a difficult task. Another example is provided to back up this statement, before the writer goes on to talk about how working as part of a team, and not just an individual, can lead to better healthcare. However, this section could be slightly improved by removing the repetition of “observe/observed” and switching it out for a similar word such as “study”.
The next part of their personal statement talks about their work experience at a care home:
Having worked in a care home, I was able to work closely with elderly patients. This made me aware of their specific healthcare needs and challenges in relation to their care. Healthcare needs are influenced by various other factors including gender, ethnicity and social class. Doctors need to demonstrate the capability of recognising these specific healthcare needs and addressing them appropriately. Many patients were in a poor state of health and usually in terminal phases of their illness. This environment exemplified how healthcare staffs are often faced with emotionally stressing situations. They use this experience to demonstrate their understanding of patient backgrounds, and how this can influence the care that they need, and the emotional toll this can take on doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff. Again, this section could be improved by removing the repetition of the word “healthcare”, and rewriting it using slightly different vocabulary.
My experience of shadowing a GP and the attached community staff exemplified how modern primary care in partnership with secondary care is central to an effective NHS. Furthermore, I understand the research aspect of medicine providing an evidence base for modern medicine as well as the need for clinicians to undertake lifelong learning for the benefit of their patients. Having attended a medical summer school, I had the opportunity to speak to medical professionals and students. Speaking to them made me aware of the challenges associated with a career as a doctor such as the proactive balance between work with long hour shifts with social and family life.
The writer goes on to talk about a couple of other related experiences, helping them to recognise that both primary and secondary care are interlinked, and that this relationship is key to running a successful and efficient national health service. They also recognise the long, unsocial hours involved in being a doctor, and the importance of a network of family and friends to keep their life in balance. This is important, as it shows the admissions tutors that have thought about their choice of career, and weighed up the negatives, as well as the positives.
I have completed my Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh awards, which enabled me to develop my interpersonal and speaking skills whilst teaching a range of children with different abilities. I am the founder member of my school’s debating club from which I have learnt methods of critical thinking and respectful discourse which may benefit my career in multidisciplinary meetings and case conferences. Within my role as a science prefect, I have been proactively involved in organising open days.
Being chair of Doncaster Interfaith has enabled me to discuss and develop my views on ethical and moral issues, involving me delivering lectures to the public, furthering my skills in public speaking and leadership. I have started the Crest award to independently explore science alongside my A levels.
The writer moves on to their academic achievements and extracurricular activities, which is good, but they could try to link the benefits of these experiences more strongly to their medical career. For example, how might developing skills in leadership help them as a doctor?
Alternatively, they could have mentioned their teaching to children would help them with interactions on the paediatric ward as a doctor.
Conclusion
Biology and chemistry allowed me to develop analytical skills and Physics and Maths have developed my deduction skills in following logical processes to infer results. I love reading as a hobby to increase my knowledge and as entertainment.
The medical world is full of intellectual, ethical, physical and emotional challenges which doctors face on a daily basis, but yet this creates a dynamic profession which is one of the most rewarding. My aspiration for excellence and to succeed within the medical profession will no doubt help make a difference to the lives of the future.
The writer rounds off their statement by talking about the subjects they are studying at school and the skills they have developed from these. This paragraph could be improved slightly by saying how these could be useful in their training to be a doctor. They then conclude with an appreciation that a career as a doctor is challenging in many different ways, but is still extremely rewarding.
They focus on making a difference to other people’s lives, which is a strong way to conclude a personal statement, as it conveys an enthusiasm for medicine and wanting to make the world a better place. Through this sentence, they display an insight that shows admissions tutors they have given serious thought to their chosen career, and recognise that although medicine is a demanding path to follow, their willingness to help others will make it worthwhile.
For your own conclusion, talk about how your medicine degree will help you achieve your future goals and ambitions, and how you hope it will help you grow as a person. Admissions tutors want to know you are committed to this course, and that you are not going to do something completely different once you graduate! Reassure them that this is the right path for you, and how you see as a stepping stone to building your career in medicine. For example, you might mention where you hope to work once you've graduated, a desire to carry out a medical project abroad in a less developed country, or whether you are considering additional studies to further expand your knowledge.
Summary
Overall, this medicine personal statement is a good example, but there are a few tweaks that could have been made to improve it further:
- Removing repetition of words such as “observed” and “healthcare”.
- More closely linking some of their experiences, academic achievements, and extracurricular activities with being a doctor in terms of the skills they have learned.
- Spend more time talking about the subject itself and why they are passionate about it.
- Some of the sentences could be phrased better, and there are a few grammatical mistakes that require fixing.
Remember that reflection should be a major part of your medicine personal statement. When you’re writing it, don’t just turn out a laundry list of your experiences and achievements – reflect on the main things you took away from these, and link them back to the qualities that are important for becoming a doctor. Always try to adopt a “show don’t tell” approach, and you’ll end up with a winning personal statement that will help you secure a place on your chosen medicine course.
Wishing you all the best with your medicine personal statement, and if you’re looking for further inspiration, look at the rest of our medicine personal statement examples over at the main website.
