Insight into Medicine

If you are thinking about a career in medicine then spending time shadowing a doctor is extremely important, not only to help you decide whether a medical career is right for you, but also to enhance your UCAS application to medical school.

Insight into Medicine enables current matriculated students at Oxford University (undergraduate or postgraduate) to spend a day with a hospital consultant in Oxford. It's a great opportunity to consider if you have difficulty arranging your own work shadowing. 

The  Insight into Medicine programme currently runs once a year in Trinity term. The next programme will take place in 2027.

We recommend that students join our Graduate Medicine Support Group to be kept up to date. The Graduate Medicine Support Group is is run by the Careers team and meetings are organised termly and provide Oxford University students and alumni an opportunity to share ideas and advice about applying for medicine. Email updates are also sent out to the group. Contact [email protected] for more information.

"I really enjoyed being able to see the problem solving aspect of medicine; taking each little bit of evidence provided by the patient history and examination to assess the nature and severity of disease then coming up with a plan of action…it was a really interesting and useful day, and I would completely recommend it."

"I got to observe mostly junior doctors all day and got a very realistic idea about what doctors spend their time doing. I followed a junior doctor doing the ward round in the morning and was very impressed/surprised by how much responsibility they have in their first year."

"I spent time with a consultant, junior doctors and students. I was in the vascular department, and spent time in the day clinic, on the ward and in radiography. 100% would recommend the programme, especially for those who have struggled to get experience themselves."

If you want to build up your medical experience please read What sort of work experience should I be looking for?, under the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Medicine as a Second Degree webpage.