Notre Dame University medicine students for 2020 welcomed to Lithgow

Louisa Sondergeld, Lala Sarkissian, Louise Walton and Lindi Beukes are the tenth intake of students for the University.

The students had all picked Lithgow as their choice of placement for the year.

"I was really interested in doing rural medicine and spending the year working rural means that it is more hands on with one on one teaching whereas in Sydney last year I had to compete with other medical students to get time to do things or time with consultants, but here that isn't an issue," Ms Sondergeld said.

Ms Sarkissian said that when she first came to the medical school she found that everyone was really friendly.

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"That makes you want to learn more, and the whole community vibe is really nice compared to the city," she said.

Ms Walton who grew up in Sydney and studied Medical Science at UNSW said she would like to go into rural medicine one day.

"I did research there [at UNSW], and then did volunteering and other work until I got into medicine and since then I've been in Sydney for the past three years and now I'm here," she said.

The students who are learning all the skills they need to become medical practitioners will take this year to work out which field of medicine they want to go into.

"I'm of two minds at the moment I really like anaesthetics but am still tossing up about psychiatry and they're obviously very different and I quite like GP as well," Ms Sarkissian said.

Ms Beukes said that she moved around quite a bit as a child but completed her Higher School Certificate in Newcastle as well as an undergraduate degree in podiatry.

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"I then worked in podiatry in Condobolin and Kununurra in Western Australia before completing my three years in Sydney studying medicine," she said.

Ms Beukes said this year she wants to learn how to be a good intern, since they take up positions as interns next year.

"That's the main goal," she said.

Ms Sarkissian said that she would like to use this year at Lithgow to gain more confidence.

"You are more one on one with your teachers here so you are more likely to gain that confidence and hopefully by the time you graduate you can say 'I am actually capable of doing that' rather then feeling like a burden on the team, like you often do in bigger hospitals," she said.

Ms Sarkissian studied Medical Science before doing research into mental health, then pharmacology.

"I worked as a mental health mentor for a couple of years and also did tutoring on the side, but it was my always goal to get into medicine but it just took longer then I hoped it would," she said.

Ms Sondergeld said she hoped to figure out whether she wanted to do general practise or rural generalist training.

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"I think I want to do rural, because I've only been here two weeks and I already love it," she said.

The students wanted to thank Professor's Dearin, Frost and Brydon as well as Jennifer Corney for all their hard work.

"We have only been here for two weeks and we have already had so many tutorials from them, which is dedication considering they are still doing their full time job," Ms Sondergeld said.

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