1. Medical CV: Template & How to Write (+25 Expert Tips)

Medical CV: Template & How to Write (+25 Expert Tips)

LiveCareer Editorial Team
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You’ve done your elective placements, and soon, you’re going to have nobody looking over your shoulder. All that stands between you and your next speciality registrar is a cure-all medical CV. Here’s the full treatment plan. 

In this article you will see the best medical CV sample. You will also learn tips on how to make your CV illustrate your medical skills, dedication, and work ethic.

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Medical CV example

Kate Sharp

55 Shannon Way

Chiscan

PA28 4EZ

070 4229 4360

kate@sharp.com

Personal Profile

Due to graduate with a projected 1st Class MBBS Degree from Glasgow University, I have undertaken broad components and elective placements at several medical institutions across the UK, including ICU, surgery, respiratory, hepatology wards and GP surgeries and health centres. Spent 960+ hours assisting and shadowing, of which around 100 on supervised carrying out of procedures expected of FY1 and FY2 doctors. Allowed to independently advise and treat 75+ patients. Seeking a Cardiology Assistantship placement at St. John’s to assist with the increasing caseload due to changing catchment areas.

Work Experience

5th Year Medical Student

Intensive Care Unit, St. George’s Hospital, London

March 2020

  • 4 week elective placement, shadowing ward rounds, emergency and planned surgical procedures. Assisted in surgical technician duties for four emergency open wound surgeries, including holding retractors, suctioning, and maintaining patient and equipment during surgery.

5th Year Medical Student

General Surgery, St. George’s Hospital, London

January 2020

  • 4 week elective surgical assistantship placement, shadowing surgeons, and handling FY1 doctor tasks on a general surgical ward. 

4th Year Medical Student

Marnham Acute Respiratory Ward, St. George’s Hospital, London

June 2019

  • 4 week elective medical assistantship placement, providing care and assistance to patients undergoing non-invasive ventilation, CPAP and tracheotomies.

4th Year Medical Student

Allingham Hepatology Ward, St. George’s Hospital, London

February — March 2019

  • 6 week elective medical assistantship placement, shadowing specialists handling viral hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and other nutrition and alcohol dependency disorders.

4th Year Medical Student

Dr. Brooks Surgery, Gillingham

January 2019

  • 4 week student selected component in a GP surgery, shadowing the GP, nurses, and healthcare assistants. Permitted to have some supervised independence during surgery hours, advising 45+ patients.

3rd Year Medical Student

Dr. Brooks Surgery, Gillingham

2017 — 2018

  • During the 3rd year, I assisted the GP in surgery on a weekly basis. I was allowed some degree of independence during surgery with 30 patients, and perform simple tests, procedures and examinations.

1st and 2nd Year Medical Student

Community Health Centre, Gillingham

2015 — 2017

  • During the first two years, every weekend I assisted nurses and healthcare assistants during my community placement in a local health centre that dealt mainly with disease prevention.

Education

MBBS, Projected Graduation Date: September 2020

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

Memberships

GMC — Reference Number: 3219923

MDU — Membership Number: AA 00000000

Skills

  • Active Listening
  • Patient Advice
  • Empathy
  • Physical Exercise Prescriptions
  • Physical Therapy

Languages

  • French (Fluent)
  • Italian (Basic)
  • German (Basic)

Certifications

  • Register of Exercise Professionals — Level 4 Specialist Fitness Instructor (2016)
  • Register of Exercise Professionals — Level 3 Advanced Fitness Instructor (2015)

That’s a fully cured and supplemented medical CV. Now to operate on your own:

1. Stitch up a personal statement at the top of your medical CV

Your CV personal statement should be brief and concise like a patient condition report. The most important vitals, the history, the outlook. Just like the patient condition, your usefulness as a doctor can be best rated with solid numbers. How many placements did you complete, how many hours?

Of course, your achievements might be scarce at this stage in your career, but doing something as simple as summing up all your elective placement and in-field component hours could show that you are not completely green. 

Most candidates won’t think to do this, and will instead simply list the speciality of the wards where they shadowed. How many patients did you ‘independently’ assist? If applying for a speciality that you have already got some experience in, focus on that. 

Show genuine interest and refer to 1 or 2 achievements that really prove your proficiency in this field. If applying for a higher status of placement than before, focus on the times you had the chance to perform procedures expected by a doctor of this level.

Think about how your hire will benefit them, and tell them what you’re going to do for them. If it’s a hospital known for being hectic, it could be as simple as helping them with the increasing caseload. 

Medical CV personal statement example

Due to graduate with a projected 1st Class MBBS Degree from Glasgow University, I have undertaken broad components and elective placements at several medical institutions across the UK, including ICU, surgery, respiratory, hepatology wards and GP surgeries and health centres. Spent 960+ hours assisting and shadowing, of which around 100 on supervised carrying out of procedures expected of FY1 and FY2 doctors. Allowed to independently advise and treat 75+ patients. Seeking a Cardiology Assistantship placement at St. John’s to assist with the increasing caseload due to changing catchment areas.

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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2. Write your medical CV job description

After you have captured their attention with your hydrated and nourished personal statement, it’s time to provide some detail that’s expected in the kind of application you’re making. You are to list every single clinical placement, the duration, and what you did there.

When describing what you did there, don’t give a hospital-food grade description of your responsibilities. Focus on the unique. The chances you had to perform on your own. The advanced procedures you assisted in. 

Imagine what is the most transferable skill for your new appointment, and describe your experience in that too. Not only is it valuable experience, you display a desire of continuity in your specialization, which is often supported. 

As you will have so many entries after a few years of medical school, try and limit yourself to writing a one, two sentence maximum description of each appointment. The STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) formula can be very helpful in writing these bullet points.

[Job Title]

[Ward Name, Hospital, City]

[Dates of Employment]

Medical CV job description example

5th Year Medical Student

Intensive Care Unit, St. George’s Hospital, London

March 2020

  • 4 week elective placement, shadowing ward rounds, emergency and planned surgical procedures. Assisted in surgical technician duties for four emergency open wound surgeries, including holding retractors, suctioning, and maintaining patient and equipment during surgery.

5th Year Medical Student

General Surgery, St. George’s Hospital, London

January 2020

  • 4 week elective surgical assistantship placement, shadowing surgeons, and handling FY1 doctor tasks on a general surgical ward. 

4th Year Medical Student

Marnham Acute Respiratory Ward, St. George’s Hospital, London

June 2019

  • 4 week elective medical assistantship placement, providing care and assistance to patients undergoing non-invasive ventilation, CPAP and tracheotomies.

4th Year Medical Student

Allingham Hepatology Ward, St. George’s Hospital, London

February — March 2019

  • 6 week elective medical assistantship placement, shadowing specialists handling viral hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and other nutrition and alcohol dependency disorders.

4th Year Medical Student

Dr. Brooks Surgery, Gillingham

January 2019

  • 4 week student selected component in a GP surgery, shadowing the GP, nurses, and healthcare assistants. Permitted to have some supervised independence during surgery hours, advising 45+ patients.

3rd Year Medical Student

Dr. Brooks Surgery, Gillingham

2017 — 2018

  • During the 3rd year, I assisted the GP in surgery on a weekly basis. I was allowed some degree of independence during surgery with 30 patients, and perform simple tests, procedures and examinations.

1st and 2nd Year Medical Student

Community Health Centre, Gillingham

2015 — 2017

  • During the first two years, every weekend I assisted nurses and healthcare assistants during my community placement in a local health centre that dealt mainly with disease prevention.

3. Include an education section in your medical CV

List your formal education in reverse chronological order—only degrees and postgraduate qualifications. If you have done as well as to have some medical prizes and awards, you should most definitely list them here, unless there are so many they command their own 'Awards' section (I would say that's 3 and more).

If it’s the just most standard MBBS route, feel free to keep it short and devote more space to your clinical appointments. Amputate the A-Levels, if you still have them around for some reason.

Medical CV education section

Education

MBBS, Projected Graduation Date: September 2020

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

4. Use clear additional sections on your medical CV

A medical CV is bound to have a quandary of additional information. You’d do best to list all additional information in clear, short CV sections, like:

  • Awards
  • Memberships 
  • Skills
  • Languages
  • Certifications
  • Conferences
  • Courses
  • Publications
  • Research Projects

Keep the personal interests off unless you have solid achievements that reflect well on your work ethic and ability to handle complex problems. 

Stitch on your GMC and any other membership numbers around here, also.

Medical CV additional sections

Memberships

GMC — Reference Number: 3219923

MDU — Membership Number: AA 00000000

Skills

  • Active Listening
  • Patient Advice
  • Empathy
  • Physical Exercise Prescriptions
  • Physical Therapy

Languages

  • French (Fluent)
  • Italian (Basic)
  • German (Basic)

Certifications

  • Register of Exercise Professionals — Level 4 Specialist Fitness Instructor (2016)
  • Register of Exercise Professionals — Level 3 Advanced Fitness Instructor (2015)

References

Dr. A. Kennedy, St. George's Hospital, drakennedy@stgeorges.nhs.net, 07894312843

Dr. S. Kumar, St. George’s Hospital, skumar@stgeorges.nhs.net, 07921283123

5. Write a medical cover letter

A healthy medical cover letter can really solidify your chances of getting an interview. Since you’re bound to have so many entries, the space to discuss them in more detail is very limited without going into 3+ pages. 

The cover letter is where you get to do that, and we suggest to focus on the experience you have already performing the duties you will be expected to perform in the new post—to show you can already do the job.

If it’s a new branch of medicine for you, think about your performance in modules that concern this area. Think about other transferable skills, anything from suturing to people management, that may come useful in the new one.

Start your cover letter with your strongest argument, and explain your motivation. Explain your relevant experience and achievements in the body of the letter, and close with a third paragraph that sums up what you want to do for them. 

Think about this as an expanded version of your personal statement. Keep in mind they both need to be adjusted for every application to seem maximally relevant to the reader, and getting your foot in the door. 

What else to remember about when writing a medical CV?

Industry sources report that the hospital recruiters spend 30-90 seconds on each medical CV. I must say, that’s really great. Usually, we deal with professions where the recruiter will spend approximately 7 seconds on each CV.

The cleaner your CV is, the longer they can bear reading it before they get bored. Be the one that is easy to read, communicates everything fast and clear, and is a pleasure to get out of the way and into the shortlisted pile. Follow these CV fomatting tips:

  • Use a CV font that is easy on the eye.
  • Use 1-inch margins on all sides, and space between each section to guide the eyes and make it easily skimmable for key information.
  • Use clear headings.
  • Choose a simple CV template which is easy on the eye. Remember that visual CVs may not be ATS-friendly.
  • Medical students, FY1 and FY2 doctors should produce a solid, concise 2 or 3 page medical CV.
  • Save in PDF, unless asked otherwise.

Follow-up after a month for each application. Good luck!

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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Did we answer all your questions on how to write a medical doctor CV? Did you find our medical CV template useful? Use the comments section below to ask questions. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.

About the author

LiveCareer Editorial Team
LiveCareer Editorial Team

Since 2005, the LiveCareer Team has been helping job seekers advance their careers. In our in-depth guides, we share insider tips and the most effective CV and cover letter writing techniques so that you can beat recruiters in the hiring game and land your next job fast. Also, make sure to check out our state-of-the-art CV and cover letter builder—professional, intuitive, and fully in line with modern HR standards. Trusted by 10 million users worldwide.

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