Internship at Bupa – Summer 2012 by Daniel Ketley, 5th Year Medical Student, University College London Medical School.

I began my placement at Bupa with a mixed sense of excitement and trepidation. Having entered medicine straight from school I had no experience of the corporate environment, and had no idea what to expect, or what I would be doing.

I was based at Willow House in Staines, where the people I worked alongside were incredibly friendly and accommodating. Within a few hours I felt part of the team and had been given my first task.

My first project was with the healthcare commissioning team. I was given a project brief and had to develop my approach to the task and plan my work accordingly. The task seemed daunting at first, however I realised that my training at medical school had equipped me with the skills I needed; I just needed to apply them in a slightly different context to what I was used to.

The project was immensely rewarding as I took the task from a project brief through to a completed document which was very satisfying. As a medical student I often offer opinions on what I would do if I were the doctor in a particular clinical case; in this instance I not only had to evaluate the options and offer an opinion, I had to take the process one step further and reach a decision for the report which was something I had not done before.

My second project was working alongside the policy development unit. In contrast to the first project where I worked independently, in this case I was part of an established team which brought its own challenges. I was able to learn an awful lot from the more experienced members of the team, whilst at the same time build and develop my own thinking and skill set.

My time at Bupa taught me a great deal about how healthcare in the UK is organised in both the private and public spheres, as well as the challenges facing healthcare commissioners in the future. I no longer see my time at Bupa as an internship, I think of it as an essential part of my medical degree. The skills and exposure it gave me I have taken back into the clinical environment and will use as a doctor later in my career.