If you want the voluntary work you do to actually improve your chances of getting into medicine or dentistry, you need to carry it out with the right attitude and the right objectives.
Right attitude: Volunteering is more than just an achievement to tick off in your medical application—it’s an opportunity to develop and improve yourself as a person. This means you need to go into it with a serious attitude, a strong level of commitment, and a strong focus on improving and developing yourself as well as serving and engaging with the community. There’s a massive difference between being a truly good doctor and just being ‘school smart’: doing voluntary work helps you to develop the traits, skills and qualities needed to bridge the gap.
Right objectives: To make sure that your voluntary experience actually helps you grow as a person, you need to set objectives that you want to achieve while you’re doing your voluntary work. By continually setting goals, working towards achieving them, revising them, and then setting new goals, your volunteering becomes a very productive experience: not only will it improve your chances of successful medical entry, it will also help you to become a more well-developed person.
