Guest Blog: Work experience at George Marshall Medical Museum! (Megan)

‘I came to the George Marshall Medical Museum for three days of February half term from Worcester Sixth Form College. I was interested in doing work experience here because I chose early modern history and classical civilisation as A-levels, both of which involve an element of history, with Classics requiring analysis of historical artefacts.

The time I have spent at the museum was even more interesting and diverse than I expected. I have helped to create a history trail around the museum, engaged with visitors as part of a tour, and transcribed an oral history recording about being a midwife in Worcester and the surrounding areas. Furthermore, I also looked through newspaper clippings belonging to medical professionals; in order to select relevant information which could be used by the museum in future projects.

My favourite part of work experience was looking through the old newspapers because it was amazing to see that so much history had been preserved in such a casual fashion as a scrapbook. It made me think that the memories we store in current scrapbooks could someday be used and looked at by other students in a similar way.

In summary, I would highly recommend coming to the George Marshall Medical Museum as a visitor, or for work experience. The museum itself contains a varied and wide amount of medical history with some of the tales of the artefacts verging on gory! The building itself is very busy and has a good atmosphere; I enjoyed working in an area which was being used by current medical students as well as visitors. My work experience here has proven to me that I would be interested in pursuing a career involving museum or archiving work.’

talk cancelled

We have cancelled our talk ‘Remembering Powick Hospital’ on tuesday 18 february and our drop-in on wednesday 19 february at george marshall medical museum, due to high water levels and to ensure the safety of our speaker and audience. The talk will be rearranged in due course and we are sorry for the inconvenience.

please note the museum remains open monday to friday, 9am to 5pm, with trails, dressing-up and craft activities.

Guest Blog from a Work Experience Student: Sophie

I decided to come to George Marshall Medical Museum because I enjoy science and thought the medical side would inform me more about that side of science. Whilst I was doing my work experience I was able to listen to a podcast about mental health during the world war and I listened to some audio files from various people speaking about their lives during the war - this was to help with the research of STDs. Also, I was able to help out with a group of school children, who were learning about the Victorian era, and I spent one day at the Worcester old infirmary where I learnt information about how certain practices were carried out. For one of the days I was able to do research in the Hive, where I looked at old newspapers dated between 1938-1945, this was interesting as I could find out the local social events and the more severe cases happening during that period.

The part I enjoyed most about the work experience was the new information I learnt whilst there, as I didn’t take GCSE history it was really interesting to learn how certain practises have changed over time e.g. anaesthetic and amputation.

 I enjoyed helping to look through the old images of certain diseases and how artists drew the human body. I feel the experience at the museum has shown me that I wouldn’t want a job as a historian or at a museum as you need to take a lot of care with handling artefacts, you need to know a lot of factual information about each item as well as be able to spend hours looking through old documents to find even a small fragment of useful information- which I found really difficult at the Hive.

I think my experiences at the museum has sparked a greater interest for me in the surgical side of science and it could be a route I would take in the future as a career.

Overall, I would recommend the George Marshall Medical museum and infirmary as work placement or as a visit.

Guest Blog from a Work Experience Student: Anna

I have really enjoyed my time at the George Marshall Medical museum, I decided to choose this place as my work experience because I am interested in the sciences and thought that this experience would help aid my understanding in how specific discoveries have helped us develop in the medicines and allowed us to be where we are today.  However not only did I learn about this on my experience I also discovered information beyond the medical practice for example I visited the old infirmary which told me a lot about what Worcester used to be like and also new medical practice.

I also discovered information beyond the medical practice for example I visited the old infirmary which told me a lot about what Worcester used to be like and also new medical practice.

I would recommend a visit to both the George Marshall Medical Museum and the Infirmary as they’re truly interesting. During my work experience the museum offered a variety of activities throughout the week, this was really nice as compared to other work experience places I have been to it meant that each day was different and informative. So for the first day of the experience I spent it at the George Marshall Medical Museum, after exploring the museum I sat and listened to  a very interesting podcast which was being recorded this expanded my knowledge on a topic which I have not previously studied. After this I listened to audio files from various people living in the war (people from medical backgrounds).

The next day I went to the infirmary another museum which I helped produce a PowerPoint on prosthetics which will be displayed in the museum. For the second part of the day I accompanied a guided tour which helped me discover things I did not previously know about Worcester a city which I thought I knew quite well. On the Wednesday I visited the hive where I looked through old newspapers from around the war time, this was interesting and also helped me take advantage of the library’s resources which I haven’t previously used. On the last day I helped with artefacts which was very interesting to see.

Overall I have enjoyed my time here and the staff were lovely so I would recommend this to anyone.