Gap year travel ideas for prospective medical students

A gap year is a generally English concept whereby one takes a year out of their education/career route to do other work and/or travel. Typically, this is best described as backpacking travel. Taking a gap year can be done after university or indeed anytime during one’s career, but they are most commonly taken after A-levels. In this article, I detail gap year ideas for prospective medical students and their benefits and disadvantages.

As a prospective medical student, should I take a gap year?

Attractive to employers
Gap years are great ways of traveling the world in a way that can be very attractive to employers looking for someone with a passion for their field and someone who has experience outside of the ‘normal’. This can be particularly true for medical students because there are many gap year opportunities which involve giving medical help to those in need. Thus, it can benefit both the ‘gapper’, in terms of satisfaction and job prospects, and the communities. A break
Medical degrees are very long, lasting at least 5 years so it may be advisable for some that they take step away from education for a year and come back to it refreshed.
Expensive
Gap years can be very expensive. Also they often mean staying at home for nearly a year in a typically menial, sometimes ‘boring’ job, while one’s friends may be at university having a whale of a time. While this aspect of a gap year may be appealing to those who enjoy home comforts, the traveling bit may not. 'Gap Yah' phenomenon
Recently the image of the ‘gapper’ has got a pretty bad rap with the proliferation of the ‘Gap Yah’ phenomenon.

Gap year medical volunteering opportunities

Adventure trips through companies
There are many companies which offer adventurous gap travel, gap year work and volunteer trips. Three of the biggest are Gapyear, RealGap and iGapyear. These offer a variety of trips based around expedition, teaching, animal care, sports, medical care or a combination, but I will focus on the medical care ones because these will probably be most relevant to prospective medical students. Medical volunteer opportunities
Leading Gap year travel company RealGap offers four expeditions to Kenya, South Africa, India and Malawi. In these, the traveler explores the local area while acting as a volunteer in giving help to local children. There are also 17 ‘childcare’ volunteering opportunities in which the volunteer helps out in schools and orphanages.
Prices
These, like many other companies’ trips, do not come cheap though, working out at around £1,000 per month excluding flights. Therefore, though it can be a lot of hassle, one might be better off essentially cutting out the middle man and finding accommodation/volunteering opportunities oneself.