On your overseas elective you’ll meet people from all walks of life and from all over the world. And that makes your trip with Work the World a social experience at its heart.
You already understand that people are the very reason your profession exists. But it’s the camaraderie between you and your peers and future colleagues that will get you through day in, day out on the wards.
And this is one of the huge benefits you’ll get while living with other healthcare students and graduates on your overseas placement.
You’ll learn from each other and build your professional network. But through the once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences and the eye-opening shared experiences in your placement hospitals, you’ll also make friends for life.
Be a part of something
If you could jump forward in time to see what the real standout memories of your trip would be, what might you find? The time you spend in your placement hospital — the reason for your trip — would feature front and centre.
But you might be surprised by just how profoundly you were impacted by the peers you shared this unique experience with.
The enormous leaps in personal growth you’ll experience through living with a diversity of fellow healthcare students and graduates cannot be understated.
Life in the Work the World House
You’ll live in one of our exclusive private houses while you’re overseas with us. Your house acts as your home from home, and a hub of social activity.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re travelling on your own or with a group of uni friends. Either way, you’ll quickly make friends with the people you meet in the house.
When you arrive you’ll notice that there are other healthcare students and graduates already in the house. Some might have been there for weeks. This is because our electives don’t have a set duration — you can stay for as long or as short as you like.
This offers you the huge benefit of being welcomed by peers who will, alongside your in-country staff team, will help show you the ropes. They will give you insider info and shared wisdom that was passed to them by the housemates who came before. And after a few days of settling in, you'll feel like you've been in the house for weeks.
You'll feel like family by the end of your trip
You'll spend a fair bit of your downtime in the house with your new housemates over the course of your trip, and there's plenty for you to do together.
The houses themselves are huge and have plenty of room for socialising. Your breakfast and dinner together every day at the big communal tables (unless you want to eat out). The houses also have spacious living areas where you can do everything from chatting about the day’s placement to watching films and playing board games.
If you want to spend some time together outside, you can do things like jump in the pool, set up a net to play badminton or have a few beers on the balcony. Each house in each destination has its own character and offers different activities. But regardless of which destination you choose to travel to, you'll never be bored.
You can even attend the weekly barbecue night hosted by the Work the World team. This is a great opportunity for everyone in the house to get together and socialise over delicious food and a couple of drinks.
The same, but different
If you don't feel like staying in, you and your housemates can head out for the evening. After a day on placement, sometimes the best way to let off a bit of steam is to go out and enjoy yourself. This isn't much different from how you might do things back home. Apart from the fact that you might find yourself sipping cocktails by the sea watching the sun go down in a beautiful tropical destination.
What about me time?
Even the most extroverted among us can't be social all the time. And that's fine, because our houses offer plenty of breakout areas for you to hide away and read a book if that's what you want to do. The same can be said if you're studying for exams and worried about finding a quiet place to revise.
You'll be surrounded by like-minded peers
Some of the things you might see on your clinical placement will be eye-opening. Which is why you undertake an overseas experience like this — to see things you would never see on a placement at home.
Some of the clinical experiences you have might challenge you. And this is why it's important to have people around you who are in the same boat sharing similar experiences.
When you come home after placement, you might decide to sit and chat to your housemates about the day’s experiences. You can compare stories and and help each other process what you've seen and done with the background of having trained in similar healthcare systems back at home.
Your in-country team will go through regular debriefings with you in a more official capacity, and their knowledge of local culture will help contextualise your experiences. But sometimes you’ll just want to talk things through with a peer.
All of this will help boost your confidence and training as you go through the rest of your studies or career. You'll come out the other side of the experience ready for anything, and your Work the World housemates will have helped you get there.
You'll learn more from your peers than you might think
Your clinical learning doesn't stop when you leave your placement hospital. Don't forget, your housemates will be from different countries around the world and bring with them experience of their own healthcare systems. You’ll find out about how different clinical disciplines deliver care in different clinical settings.
Whether you’re a nurse from the UK wondering what life is like as an Australian midwife, or studying medicine in the Netherlands and interested in the structure of medical education in the USA, there’s always something to be learned.
“It was surprising to learn from my fellow housemate that medics from her medical school in the US don’t have any time for reflection when something goes wrong or they have a bad experience while practising. They’re just expected to carry on. Especially as reflection is given such importance in the UK.” - Sarah Turner - Nurse, University of Surrey, UK
Travelling outside of placement
You’ll really get to know your housemates when you go on weekend trips together. As we mentioned above, the clinical experience is the focus of your trip. But you'll have plenty of downtime, including weekends, to go and explore the destination you've travelled to. The travel opportunities themselves are endless, so we won't go into them here. But the bonds you’ll form and memories you’ll make through the adventures you'll go on with your housemates will last a lifetime.
“We had a camaraderie that can only be borne of travelling together like we did.” — Jack Slaymaker, Peru
Want to find out more about the once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunities in our destinations? Try swimming with whale sharks, hiking through mountains, and relaxing on paradise beaches.
Choose your discipline
Choose your discipline to dig into the clinical opportunities available across a range of destinations.
Choose your discipline to dig into the clinical opportunities available across a range of destinations.
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