Georgia empowering rural women to embark on career in medicine

Former Narrabri High School student, now medical student, Georgia Goodhew understands embarking on studies in medicine is a daunting process sometimes with little information available.

Her first-hand experience was the catalyst in co-founding the Boots to Scrubs initiative which inspires, empowers and supports rural women to pursue a career as a doctor.

Georgia recently returned home to share her medical school journey, and forming the organisation, with the Rotary Club of Narrabri. The links between Rotary and Georgia run deep, with the service club previously supporting her aspirations.

Georgia, a fourth year medical student at Charles Sturt University, is the daughter of Darren and Jacqui Goodhew.

A Narrabri High School 2019 graduate, Georgia didn’t consider medicine as a possibility until she was in year nine.

“I was so obsessed with what the human body was doing,” she said.

“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.”

Reflecting on her education and community support in Narrabri, she has nothing but praise.

“The school was very supportive,” Georgia said.

Georgia found support through Rotary which assisted her to attend the International Youth Science Forum in Michigan, USA.

Georgia also attended Rotary Youth Studying Astronomy and Related Science and the National Youth Science Forum.

Support also came from her family, friends and local GP Dr Ojah.

“All of the experiences and science camps confirmed my love of medicine,” Georgia said.

Georgia succeeded in her high school studies and secured her placement in the Doctor of Medicine program. At university, she met Chloe – friend and co-founder of Boots to Scrubs – who experienced similar challenges.

“People find they don’t understand the process of getting into medicine,” Georgia said.

“Others in our course had others in their year level wanting to study medicine.”

Georgia and Chloe initially dedicated their time to develop branding and social media, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Every time we spoke, it was just getting bigger and bigger,” she said.

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 at some stage.

From the original two co-founders, the organisation now boasts a committee of 12. At the end of this year, the organisation will become fully fledged in its own right as a non-government organisation run by a board of directors.

“We can now take a bit of a breath,” Georgia said.

Being able to share the workload has helped enormously as Georgia enters the final stage of her studies and juggles full-time hospital placement as well as exams.

Her time in hospital is spent scrubbing into surgeries as well as taking on patients of her own.

Stand-out surgical experiences so far have been in the fields of plastics, joint replacements and trauma.

While Georgia 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 said.

For those interested in a path in medicine, Georgia encourages people to seek as much information and advice as possible as there are many ways to become a doctor.

For Georgia, her medical experience will come full circle when she returns to Narrabri next year for a six-week GP placement with Dr Ojah.