Customising your placement is one of the great benefits of a Work the World trip.
And unlike other providers, we get right into the fine detail of what you’re hoping to see and achieve while you’re overseas.
You will not get an off-the-shelf experience — it will be totally tailored to your clinical interests and goals.
But what exactly can you customise, and how does the tailoring process work?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to what you can expect —
1. ChoosE Your Destination
— Students on their way to placement —
Step one is choosing which destination you want to travel to. Each destination has its own unique appeal, so deciding between them could prove more challenging than you might think.
So to make your life easier, you can speak to one of our consultants. They’ll listen to your interests — both clinically and in terms of tourism — and recommend destinations based on what you tell them.
You’ll get detailed advice about the destination itself, potential placement hospitals, and even individual departments. This is also your first chance to ask questions — our consultants have deep knowledge about our destinations, so make sure you quiz them.
You’ll get all the information you need to help you make the best possible decision.
2. Gain Access to a Library of Resources
As soon as you’ve chosen where you want to travel, our advice is to get registered as quickly as possible. Registering early has lots of benefits, chief among them being securing your space. It’s not uncommon for destinations to fill up completely, weeks in advance.
You’ll then get a call from us within 48 hours of securing your space. We’ll talk you through MyTrip (your online placement planner) which gives you access to up-to-date information about your placement, and a timeline of what you can expect in the lead up to your trip.
At this point, you’ll also get access to language guides that include videos hosted by our in-country language teachers. These lessons will teach you everyday words and phrases and clinical terminology. You’ll be surprised how far you’ll get with just a little of the local language. And this goes double if you can throw in a few clinical phrases here and there.
3. Working through MyTrip
The next step is working through MyTrip. Our Head Office team will give you instructions as to what you need to do, like reading through essential information, filling in personal details, and giving us a rough overview of what you hope to get from your placement.
We’ll be in contact with you throughout to make sure you have all the information you could possibly need on things like:
- University paperwork
- Placement confirmation letters
- Travel insurance
- Indemnity insurance
- Visas
- Organising flights
- The type and amount of currency you’ll need
- What you need to pack
4. Tailoring your clinical placement
Your interests and goals are unique and specific. This is why you need to be able to tailor your placement. Again, we do not offer off-the-shelf placements because in our experience, ‘one-size-fits-all’ never really fits anyone.
Around three months before you’re due to depart, you’ll have a clinical consultation with the Operations Managers corresponding to your destination of choice. This is an in-depth, but informal chat about what interests you clinically speaking.
You’ll discuss your work experience to date and your overall objectives. And we’ll give you detailed information surrounding things like cultural differences and the different conditions and practices you might see.
We’ll then work with you to design the perfect placement.
Who are Operations Managers?
Your assigned Operations Manager is responsible for setting up and running our destinations from our Head Office. They know absolutely everything when it comes to clinical opportunities, local culture, travel opportunities, and general destination information.
In short, there’s no one on the planet who is better placed to organise and oversee your experience.
They make multiple yearly trips to the destinations they’re responsible for. This gives them a deep understanding of how everything works. They also hire and manage the in-country teams — the people who make sure your placement lives up to your expectations while you’re overseas.
Speaking of whom…
5. Getting your placement set up on the ground
Your in-country team picks up from where your Operations Manager leaves off.
All our in-country teams have strong, in-person relationships with our partner hospitals and clinics around the world. It’s thanks to these partnerships that we are able to fine tune your placement in such granular detail – not something other providers are able to say.
These close partnerships also allow us to get a complete understanding of each hospital and clinic’s safety protocols. We can then relay these to you closer to the time of your departure, so you know what to expect and how best to prepare for your placement.
The in-country team will physically go into the hospital departments you’ve chosen. They will work with department staff and your soon-to-be supervisors to lay down an initial structure for your placement. An enormous amount of important groundwork goes in at this stage.
Once everything is confirmed on the ground, we’ll update your placement planner. You’ll see detailed information about your hospital, the departments you’ve chosen to spend time in, and any add-on experiences you’ve opted into.
You can also read about your accommodation (the private, catered Work the World house), who your housemates will be, and details about your in-country team.
6. The week before you travel
You’ll get one last scheduled phone call from us around one week before you’re due to depart.
We’ll talk you through the final preparatory steps you need to take before you head off. This is us double checking details like your arrival time and letting you know the plan for exactly when and where the Work the World team will pick you up from the airport.
You’ll also get more detail on what you can expect to happen in the first 48 hours or so — when you arrive at the house, what happens during your hospital and local area orientations…
This is also a good chance for you to ask any last-minute questions before you head out. But you can, of course, contact us at any point after this call if something else comes up.
You'll have total peace of mind when booking
You can feel completely confident knowing that you now get even more flexibility when booking your Work the World placement. We've also introduced additional procedures in our accommodation to give you total peace of mind while you're overseas
