Gap Year Advice and Information

Volunteer with a medical placement

I have always thought I would probably take a gap year. A lot of the older teenagers I knew took them so it has always been part of my consciousness. I made the final decision on an Open Day at Leeds University. I became suddenly aware of the rat race I was in along with the 20,000 other people there and knew that I needed a year out, especially seeing as the medical course is so long.

I chose to do a medical placement pretty much because I was going on to study medicine. It was partly because I thought gaining more work experience would be great and partly because I was worried that having a non-medical project on my UCAS form might be a problem with some universities. In retrospect, I'm not sure that this would have been the case but at the time I was less sure. I had thought about doing a teaching project but it sounded much to scary to stand in front of a class but I did later change my mind on this (see below).

We did a mixture of work on our placement from cleaning and folding towels, serving meals, helping patients move around the hospital to picking up prescriptions. We were also able to do some observing with the doctors. Sometimes this was just seeing the patients on the wards but for the last three months we watched surgery two afternoons a week. That was amazing and really interesting. For the last three months, we also gave an English conversation class to the staff once a week.

I think the biggest thing I learnt on my placement was how to survive on my own. There were so many challenges including language, looking after myself, being so far from home and, I'm sure my partner won't mind me saying this since we get on very well now, getting along with a partner more different from myself than most people I've met! The surgery has to be a highlight for me as well as the chance to experience an entirely different life from the one I had led up till then and the one I hope to lead from now.

I cannot recommend a gap year enough. I think it is the greatest opportunity of your life. It has transformed me. I didn't enjoy all of the work I did on my placement but that feels almost irrelevant since I got so much out of the experience. It is impossible for me to include in here all the things I learnt about myself and my dealings with others but let me just say to anyone thinking about a gap year please don't hesitate for a second. Do it and stick through it and it will be the greatest experience of your life.

I have recently gone to university and had the most fantastic first term in the world. I've had no worries about leaving home because university feels so close to home compared to Japan. It has made me much more confident about meeting new people - if I can meet people in Japanese, meeting them in English is an absolute doddle! The work experience has really helped me appreciate the value of everyone working in healthcare not just superhuman doctors. It has also helped me feel like I can cope with a lot as there were times when the work was particularly boring and being in unfamiliar Japan felt so hard and yet I got through and came out smiling. The last two months were really fabulous and if I can find folding towels and cleaning up urine marvellous then I think I can have a fair go at most things!

Abigail completed her placement with GAP Activity Projects for more infomation please visit www.gap.org.uk