Undertaking your elective placement abroad offers you the opportunity to broaden your clinical knowledge while immersing yourself in a totally different culture.
You’ll connect with other healthcare students and graduates from all over the word and from a variety of disciplines too, which means growing your portfolio of professional contacts.
And now you can feel completely confident knowing that you get even more flexibility when booking your Work the World placement. We've also introduced additional procedures in our accommodation to give you total peace of mind while you're overseas.
An overseas placement is, for most, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that opens doors further down the line.
Read more about how a Work the World placement will help your career
A lot of UK-based universities offer overseas placements as a degree module, and we can absolutely facilitate such a placement for you while you’re at university.
But if for any reason you’re not able to make it work, it’s entirely possible for you to go on your placement out of term time, or once you’ve graduated.
Why go overseas?
An elective abroad is your chance to hone your clinical skills in a fast-paced hospital setting — one that differs considerably from the NHS, both from a clinical and indeed an ethical perspective.
Healthcare systems in low resource countries are often under extreme pressure, so you’ll see local staff using extraordinary ingenuity where equipment is lacking. You’ll also note that the role of nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals differ greatly to their UK counterparts due to cultural and socioeconomic reasons.
Why Work the World?
Since 2005, we have taken more than 18,000 undergraduates and graduates away with us.
As every single one of our placements is tailor-made we can build placements based on your experience to date and your areas of interests.
What can I expect from My overseas placement?
Your overseas placement will be completely different from your normal placement or work setting. Local staff face complex challenges in low-resource healthcare systems and have specialised knowledge and skills developed over years of firsthand experience in those environments.
It’s because of this — whether you’re a first-year medical student or a qualified adult nurse — that you won’t directly treat your own patients. That said, as long as you operate within your personal scope of practice there is nothing holding you back from getting involved.
The long-standing relationships with our partner hospitals mean staff on the wards will be briefed on who you are, why you're there, your level of experience and how to best support you.
Our hospital partnerships allow for an enormous amount of flexibility. If, for example, you decide you want to do extra hours or night shifts, we can arrange this while you’re in-country - you don't need to decide before you travel.
Read more about our electives abroad.
Next Steps
Where to?
Begin your journey today by browsing the amazing destinations to choose from. Click below to get started.
Begin your journey today by browsing the amazing destinations to choose from. Click below to get started.
