Medical student cover letter example
A medical student’s letter for a research placement shows that you can follow a protocol and finish what you start. Give your year, the research or audit you have done with its result, why this group, and the dates you are free.
Read the letter as text
Anjali Desai
Bristol · [email protected] · 07700 900251
12 October 2026
Dr Fiona Hale
Senior Lecturer in Cardiology
Severn Vale University Medical School
Dorian House, Quayside Walk
Bristol BS1 9ZQ
Dear Dr Hale
Summer research placement 2027, heart failure group
I am applying for a summer research placement in your heart failure group for 2027. I am a fourth-year medical student at Severn Vale University and expect to graduate in 2028.
In the summer of 2025 I worked for six weeks as a research assistant in the university’s Clinical Research Facility, measuring blood pressure and arterial stiffness for 40 volunteers in a study of night-shift workers. I learned to follow a protocol exactly, to record every deviation and to keep the data clean in REDCap.
On my surgical placement I led a re-audit of VTE risk assessment on admission with an FY2 doctor. After we added a reminder to the admission checklist, completed assessments rose from 61% to 88%, and I presented the results as a poster at the regional surgical society meeting.
Your trial of a nurse-led follow-up clinic interests me because I meet the patients it is for on my bank shifts on the medical wards. I am free from 21 June to 27 August 2027. My CV is attached, and I would be glad to talk about the project.
Yours sincerely
Anjali Desai
Fictional letter from Anjali Desai, the applicant in the medical student CV example. Every person and employer in it is invented.
Why each paragraph is there
I am applying for a summer research placement in your heart failure group for 2027. I am a fourth-year medical student at Severn Vale University and expect to graduate in 2028.
Which placement, your year and when you graduate.
In the summer of 2025 I worked for six weeks as a research assistant in the university’s Clinical Research Facility, measuring blood pressure and arterial stiffness for 40 volunteers in a study of night-shift workers. I learned to follow a protocol exactly, to record every deviation and to keep the data clean in REDCap.
Research you have done, and what it taught you that this project needs.
On my surgical placement I led a re-audit of VTE risk assessment on admission with an FY2 doctor. After we added a reminder to the admission checklist, completed assessments rose from 61% to 88%, and I presented the results as a poster at the regional surgical society meeting.
One piece of work you led, with its result.
Your trial of a nurse-led follow-up clinic interests me because I meet the patients it is for on my bank shifts on the medical wards. I am free from 21 June to 27 August 2027. My CV is attached, and I would be glad to talk about the project.
Why this group, your dates, then the CV.