Former Narrabri High School student Georgia Goodhew, 22, knows studying medicine is a daunting process, sometimes with little information available.
Goodhew’s first-hand experience as a medical student was her motivation to co-found the Boots to Scrubs initiative, a grassroots scholarship program and campaign that aims to empower and support rural women to pursue a career as a doctor.
Goodhew’s mission is to help support as many rural female students to do medicine as possible.
“It’s a not-for-profit organisation run by medical students for future medical students.
“We run free educational events where we talk about medicine, how to get in, how we can support you. We have done all the legwork for any student to consider studying medicine; we have collated all the information from every medical school across Australia and put it succinctly on our website. We also highlighted pathways for First Nations and other students.
“The other half of what we do is scholarships. We raise money from doctors and organisations and anyone who would like to sponsor us and give $7500 scholarships to first-year rural medical students.”
The fourth-year medical student at Charles Sturt University (CSU) recently returned home to share her medical school journey, and how she formed the organisation, with the Rotary Club of Narrabri.
Support of school, family, friends and service club
When Goodhew was still at high school, her local chapter of the international service club assisted her in attending the International Youth Science Forum in Michigan, USA. She also attended Rotary Youth Studying Astronomy and Related Science and the National Youth Science Forum.
“All of the experiences and science camps confirmed my love of medicine,” Goodhew says.
She was in year nine at Narribri High when she first considered medicine as a possible future career pathway.
“I was so obsessed with what the human body was doing,” Goodhew says.
“I didn’t realise becoming a doctor was a possibility. When I think back to my time at high school, no one else at the time wanted to go into medicine.”
Goodhew remembers her school as supportive, with more support coming from family, friends and her local GP Dr Ojah.
Meeting a kindred spirit
After graduating high school in 2019, Goodhew secured her placement in the Doctor of Medicine program at CSU. It was there she met co-founder of Boots to Scrubs Chloe Campbell, from the rural NSW town of Mila, near Bombala, who had experienced similar challenges and studied nursing before making the switch to become a doctor.
“People find they don’t understand the process of getting into medicine,” Goodhew says.
That realisation prompted the two young women to dedicate their time to develop branding and promote their activities on social media, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
The group organised information sessions in communities in southern and eastern NSW and were met with keen interest from the participants. They hope to do the same in the north-west of the state in the future.
“Every time we spoke, it was just getting bigger and bigger,” Goodhew says.
From the original two co-founders, the organisation now boasts a committee of 12.
“We can now take a bit of a breath,” Goodhew says.
Sharing the workload
Being able to share the workload has helped enormously as she enters the final stage of her studies and juggles full-time hospital placement as well as exams.
Stand-out surgical experiences so far have been in the fields of plastics, joint replacements and trauma.
While Goodhew is yet to determine her path once her studies are complete, she enjoys the surgical world.
“I’ve ruled out the specialities I don’t want to do,” she says
Exploring diverse study pathways
For secondary students thinking about pursuing a future in medicine, Goodhew recommends doing as much research to fully understand the many different ways to become a doctor.
Marian Catholic College student Abbey Fedrigo never considered a career in medicine.
“I thought I’d be competing against really smart kids from Sydney private schools and wouldn’t have a chance,” she says.
“I was never encouraged to do medicine. It’s drilled into you that you need to be the top of the top to do it.”
That changed when Goodhew delivered a talk at her school.
“Georgia explained that there are different pathways to get into medicine,” Fedrigo says.
“You don’t just have to get perfect grades.”
Goodhew has helped the 18-year-old Griffith student map out her path to becoming a doctor.
“I’m at the University of Wollongong doing pre-medicine at the moment,” Fedrigo says.
“If I get a high grade point average, I can do the University Clinical Aptitude Test, which enables entry into medical schools.
“I want to do medicine at Charles Sturt University. I’d like to become a doctor and come back to Griffith and work. I may consider paediatrics; I’m a swim instructor and I’ve always gravitated towards kids.”
Creating a new-look rural health sector workforce
For both Campbell and Goodhew, there was no older local mentor to guide them taowrds life as a medical student.
“Teachers would say it was hard and discourage us. There were no female doctors at all in Narrabri,” says Goodhew.
“Even doctors sometimes put you off; they ask women things like, ‘When are you going to have time for a family? Society still views doctors as being white old men. I want to change that perception.”