Volunteering inspires pathway to healthcare careers | News

Volunteering at Royal Surrey has ‘sealed the deal’ on a future in medicine for Prahlad Prabu. He’s been part of our Student Volunteers’ Programme which is run once a year at the hospital. It gives anyone interested in a healthcare related career the chance to get hands on experience.

18 year old Prahlad spent most of his time on Bramshott ward chatting with patients and helping with some practical care:

“Doing volunteering and getting hands on, helping patients and talking to health professionals about their work, gave me an insight into how medicine would actually be as a career. I spoke to lots of junior doctors, they loved their job and I enjoyed seeing them at work.”

He says his experience confirmed that he wanted to become a doctor.

“What I saw in the ward was everyone working together collaboratively as a team to accomplish a task. Everyone listened to each other and if someone felt stressed by a situation, whether it was a patient or a colleague, there was lots of support for them.”  

Prahlad began volunteering at the hospital in his first year of sixth form. He credits his school with helping him find the opportunity and recommends it to anyone in the same position who isn’t totally sure a healthcare career is for them:

“Get some hands on experience. It helps you understand all about how the system works and about the environment, if you’re excited by it and can see yourself working in it in the future.”

He says being able to draw on personal first hand examples helped in his application for university:

“In terms of my interview it definitely gave me an advantage to have the confidence to talk about my own personal experiences of volunteering on Bramshott, I would recommend it to anyone thinking about an NHS career.”

Prahlad is now a week away from starting a medical degree at Leeds University.  Good luck to him!

Pictured above, left to right: Senior Sister on Bramshott ward, Phillippa Davies, and Prahlad Prabu.