Wagga's Rural Medicine Pathways hosts first UCAT workshop for Riverina students

Rural Medicine Pathways Kate Hurst has been working on delivering an array of workshops from Wagga for Riverina high school students in years 10 through 12 in a bid to bridge educational gaps.

On Saturday, Ms Hurst held the first "port of call", a University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) intensive workshop.

The workshop was attended by 15 students from years 10 to 12 from right across the Riverina as far as Albury, Griffith and Cootamundra.

"We wanted to keep it small and personal. But there was great enthusiasm and the schools were a great help in getting the information out to students," Ms Hurst said.

"I was impressed with the calibre of the students who came along, we had quite a few year 10 students come."

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It is Ms Hurst's experience that has led her towards wanting to create opportunities for students that she never had.

"I have been passionate about this for a long time, I grew up in Wagga myself and I understand the struggle of being from a rural town trying to do something that feels unattainable," she said.

"I set up Rural Medicine Pathways in the last few months to try and bridge the gap students face when trying to get into medical school.

"The UCAT intensive workshop helps students with tips and tricks and the context of the medical entry exams, which they would otherwise have to pay thousands for and travel to places like Sydney or Canberra to undertake."

Ms Hurst said while there are two medical schools in Wagga, there isn't anything for high school students in helping them gain entry into medical school.

"We have done this to address that gap. In turn, down the track, this then addresses the rural doctor shortages we face now," she said.

"The only way we are going to solve the rural doctor crisis is to get rural kids into medicine.

"It's really hard to get a student from Sydney to move to the likes of Gundagai to be a rural general practitioner, whereas if you get a student from Gundagai or Cootamundra or Tumut, they're far more likely to move back to those communities and research shows that."

With a keen interest in medicine across the Riverina, Ms Hurst said it is important that there is support ready for those students to help maximise their chances of getting into medical schools.

"Entry into medical school is really complex, there are three things which help them to get entry and that is their UCAT exam, their ATAR and their interview, so we want to work with them on interview techniques, written applications and maximising their ATAR to help them get in," she said

More workshops will be held in the coming months, with information to be delivered by schools, or found online at Rural Medicine Pathways.

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