Work experience for year 11 and 12 students (or those enrolled into other education programmes aged 16-18)
Work experience is an unpaid, short-term placement, undertaken by students wishing to learn about a particular job or area of work. It offers an opportunity for students to find out what skills employers look for when they are recruiting to a position and provides them a chance to develop their self-confidence and communication skills.
Most work experience attachments are from school students wanting to sample healthcare before considering onward choices about subjects related to medicine. There are many aspects to healthcare from nursing to medicine, management to finance, surgery to psychology, therapies to pharmacy, IT to administration – all of which make up the 24/7 community of carers.
The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital does not currently offer a centralised work experience programme, however there are many responsible clinicians and staff in senior posts that would be willing to support a few placements per year. It is for an individual department to decide if a work experience placement can be accommodated and to make the necessary arrangements. Please note that because these attachments need supervision, many staff will not be able to assist due to their own clinical commitments which cannot be disrupted.
Individuals interested in a placement with the trust should contact the manager/department directly to secure a work placement.
Please find the current list of areas and contacts in Our Services web pages.
Further details of our consultants and their specialisms
- To ensure fair opportunity and to manage demand for placements, work experience placements are 1 to 5 days in duration.
- Students cannot be hosted in an area where a family member or close friend is working
- Students must be aged 16 – 18 years old and have the permission of their parent or guardian.
- Students cannot be placed in high risk areas, such as Theatres, ICU, Paediatrics and Estates. Not all areas will be able to accept requests.
- Students cannot be placed out of hours, weekends or bank holidays.
- Students are permitted one placement only.
If you have any further queries please email: rnoh.
Work experience application form
Therapies work placements
The Therapies Department runs a combined Allied Health Professions (AHP) work experience programme. This may include spending time shadowing Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Dieticians, Speech and Language Therapists, Orthotists and Prosthetists, subject to availability. Due to high demand, this programme is only open to students looking to study one of these AHP professions.
To apply for this programme, please complete the work experience application form and email it to rnoh.
Observerships – Over 18’s
An observership is an educational experience (longer than a day but no longer than 2 weeks) that is restricted to watching and listening during patient histories, physical examinations, procedures, outpatient appointments, teaching rounds, and educational conferences - therefore observation only.
Our observer placements provide applicants with the opportunity to work alongside RNOH clinicians.
Observerships are for over 18's only, for students aged 16-18 please refer to the Work Experience guidance above.
To request an observer placement please complete the application form below and send to the RNOH clinician who you wish to sponsor your placement. These are the clinicians/departments you would like to observe.