Work Experience

We will update this page as soon as we are able to accept new applications.

If you are interested in Allied Health Professions, please contact us using: mse.work.experience@nhs.net 

Thank you for your interest in undertaking a work experience placement at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust is committed to offering high-quality work experience opportunities to people from a diverse range of backgrounds. The Trust has a work experience policy in place to ensure that the application process and allocations of placements is managed in a safe, transparent manner. The process for arranging a placement for a young person or adult seeking a work placement is designed to be fair and equitable.

Work experience placements can be arranged in many, but not all areas of the Trust, depending on the capacity of departments to accommodate requests. Placements can be arranged at all our Trust sites including Basildon, Broomfield, Southend, Orsett, and Braintree hospitals.

Placements are divided into three types:

• Clinical – nursing, allied health professions, healthcare sciences and all other patient facing healthcare roles
• Non-clinical – all administrative areas of the Trust
• Medical – those students applying to study medicine only.

Age Restrictions

For health, safety, and safeguarding reasons, applicants for work experience at the Trust must be at least 15 years of age when applying. Therefore we are unable to support applications for "Bring your child to work day" if they are under the age of 15 years old.

Applicants aged 15 can only undertake non-clinical placements, administration roles in non-patient facing areas.

Applicants aged 16+ are eligible for clinical and non-clinical, if the department agrees and feels that it is appropriate.

To undertake a placement in a clinical area, applicants must be at least 17 years of age.

Placements in high-risk clinical areas – A&E, Maternity, Critical Care, Paediatrics etc. – can only be undertaken by those aged 18 and over.

If you are at school or college and have a keen interest in working for the Trust after your studies, or have completed your studies and are looking for some work experience, please get in touch by emailing mse.work.experience@nhs.net.

Here we can answer any questions that you may have regarding work experience. Once you have decided on your preferred site and department, there are some application forms to complete. Once we have received these, completed in full, we can support you with your application and advise you on next steps.

Process for Work Experience Requests

1. Application form completed by student and submitted to either Workbased Learning team or Medical Education Team, as appropriate, for processing – email copy as attachment to mse.work.experience@nhs.net or relevant Medical Education inbox (see below).
2. Workbased Learning or Medical Education team source a suitable placement based on applicant’s interests and service needs.
3. A work experience contract is drafted by the Workbased Learning team or Medical Education Team and sent to the supervising manager to review and sign.
4. Once returned, the signed work experience contract is forwarded to applicant to sign.
5. A Trust welcome letter is issued to the applicant confirming details of the placement and that the application process is complete and placement can go ahead as scheduled.

It may take up to three months to arrange a suitable placement – work experience opportunities cannot be facilitated at short notice, so please ensure that the application is submitted far in advance of the planned period of work experience.

All work experience placements must be arranged through the relevant team as above.  This is to ensure that the placement conforms with the Trust’s liability insurance, health and safety, and safeguarding policies. Can we please request that you don't arrange any placements yourself without liaising with the relevant team above.