The day consisted of a welcome by Associate Professor Dr John Dearin and a welcome to the rural component of the training by Associate Professor Joe McGirr. 

Keynote speaker Professor David Lyle gave a speech on “Making a difference to the Health of Rural Australians” in which he discussed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and mental illness. He talked about making a difference by living in a rural community, and about the Broken Hill lead management program. 

“Lithgow really leads the way in rural hospital training and I think it’s a fantastic place to learn,” Professor Lyle said. 

There was a panel discussion in which local general practitioners, Dr Sivan Kanagaratnam, Dr Kelly Bradley, Dr Mark Freeman and resident medical officers Elspeth Jarman and Henry Gao spoke about ‘what it is like to practice in rural Australia’.  

“It’s really a privilege working in a rural area that you won’t get in Sydney,” Dr Kanagaratnam said. 

Students were given the opportunity to ask the panellists questions about the challenges of working in a rural area. 

“It’s stressful but rewarding, you may bring a child into the world but then you also deal with death,” Dr Kanagaratnam said. 

After morning tea the students split into groups to rotate between taking a hospital tour, visiting Rydal showgrounds for rural health talks and discussing rural issues with Dr Lyn Fragar on ‘Is rural living good for you health?' 

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The Rural Doctors Network, past recipients of bush bursaries and rural doctor network scholarships and a representative from the Riverina Medical Training Hub (for advanced training so doctors don’t have to go back to the city) addressed students.

“It’s our mission is to expose our new medical students to rural issues in health,” Lithgow Rural Clinical School student coordinator Chrissie Thompson said. 

To finish the day the students discussed rural opportunities and rural clinical schools with Associate Professor Joe McGirr. 

“Today has been a great day, it gets the students out of Sydney and starts them looking local,” Professor McGirr said.