Work experience

Work Experience at East Surrey Hospital

There are over 350 roles within the NHS, whatever your skills, qualifications or interests, there is a career waiting for you.

At East Surrey Hospital we offer a range of opportunities including work experience and career events if you are considering a career within the NHS.

Work Experience Placements 2024

Applications for 2024 work experience placements are now closed.

The work experience application process at SASH for 2024 opened on Monday 8th January 2024 at 9am. Due to very high demand, our work experience placements are now closed to new applicants as we have received sufficient applications to fill the available 150 spaces we have at SASH. Unfortunately, this means that the Education team are unable to accept any new applicant requests. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

To those who have applied, your responses will be reviewed by the Education, Learning & Organisation Development Team and you will be contacted if your application has been successful. Unfortunately, a placement is not guaranteed. In the meantime, we politely ask you to please not contact the office in regards to your application status as the information provided will not differ from the information on this webpage. If there are any changes to your application whether this be a change of dates or you no longer wish to partake in work experience please do notify us via email to sash.academy@nhs.net.

The next application window will be in January 2025 for April-October placements. Please see the details below regarding the work experience at East Surrey Hospital and further career resources with information on ways to gain NHS experience.

Work Experience at East Surrey Hospital

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare have been one of the only organisations to reopen for work experience placements since the pandemic, we were delighted to be able to offer over 100 students a work experience placement across clinical, administrative and technical areas for 2023.

Placement Process

Work experience provides an opportunity to gain insight through observation into the many roles available within the NHS.

At East Surrey Hospital we offer 2-5 day work experience placements from April-October each year. Please note work experience placements are based at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill and placements are unpaid. The Trust will not meet any costs of travel, subsistence, parking or accommodation. Please be aware work experience is popular and always oversubscribed, we therefore cannot guarantee a placement. Early applications are encouraged.

Work Experience Departments

We offer students the chance to shadow staff in a wide variety of job roles and areas, both clinical and non-clinical. The departments who offer work experience vary per year due to organisational reasons.

Departments who are offering placement in 2024 are:

Radiology

Trauma & Orthopaedics

Medicine – Care of the Elderly

Urology

Occupational Therapy

Dietetics

Physiotherapy

Pharmacy

Dental

Acute Medical Unit

Cardiology

Pathology Lab

Placement departments are subject to change and in some circumstances, we may be able to accommodate areas not listed, if students have a particular field of interest.

Restricted areas

Work experience will not be offered in the following areas nor should you visit any of these areas if undertaking work experience in another department:

Maternity

G.U medicine

Theatres

Mortuary

Paediatrics

Eligibility

Students must be a minimum of 16 years of age; however, there is no upper age limit and we are happy to provide opportunities to those considering a change in career. The trust has put in place the following age restrictions to ensure applicants are able to cope with the physical and emotional elements of the placement.

We recognise the value of work experience for gaining insight into NHS careers and we look forward to receiving your application. Please check back on this webpage in late 2024 for information regarding the 2025 work experience process.

Career Events at SASH

East Surrey Hospital hosts an annual Meet the Practitioner Careers Event to promote the range of careers across health & social care. This provides attendees the opportunity to talk with practitioners and gain insight into NHS professions.

Details regarding the next SASH Meet the Practitioner Careers Event will be posted here, so check back regularly for further details or follow Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust’s social media to stay updated on upcoming career events.