When a young girl walked into the Women in Medicine station during Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland's F(em)Powered Field Day event, she quickly announced she did not want to be a doctor.

But, after participating in a variety of activities with medical students, residents and faculty members from KU School of Medicine-Wichita, the young girl left the Women in Medicine station smiling, laughing and requesting others refer to her as "doctor" as she proudly wore her medical gown, gloves and hair covering for the rest of the day.

That's what the Girl Scouts' F(em)Powered Field Day was all about: showing girls they're capable of pursuing any career they want and letting them meet women in career fields they may not have considered before. The April 24 event was at Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland's Starwoods Outdoor Center, just southwest of Wichita, with girls in grades kindergarten through eighth grade participating.

At KU School of Medicine-Wichita's Women in Medicine station, the girls learned about what it takes to have a career in medicine and were able to envision themselves in the medical field as they participated in hands-on educational activities.

"We're going to help you prepare for the operating room," said Kim Krohn, M.D., MPH, FAAFP, associate professor in Family & Community Medicine at KU School of Medicine-Wichita and director of the Family Medicine Residency Program at Wesley Medical Center. "Everyone is going to take a gown out of the plastic bag and put it on, because we want to be clean in the operating room."

As small groups of girls rotated throughout the day through the Women in Medicine station, they first donned medical gowns, gloves, hair coverings and shoe coverings before the medical activities, which included a giant game of Operation made by medical students from KU School of Medicine-Wichita. Complete with a battery-powered, light-up nose and buzzer, the girls tried to remove body parts from the game without setting off the buzzer and learned about those parts as well, including the heart and femur.

Nicole Klaus, Ph.D., ABPP, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, talked to the girls about the brain and how it functions, and also assisted the girls in practicing ultrasounds on the neck of Julie Galliart, Ed.D., associate dean of Faculty Affairs & Development at KU School of Medicine-Wichita. As the girls gently placed a transducer on Dr. Galliart's neck, they could watch the ultrasound of the neck displayed on a tablet.

Girl Scouts learned how to properly wrap an ankle, and older girls practiced suturing and removing fake lesions from a chicken breast. There was also a stuffed gorilla who needed shots (of water) administered to.

"What do you want to do when you grow up? What's on your Top 10 list?" Dr. Galliart asked a group of Girl Scouts at the Women in Medicine station.

"Doing all of this!" one girl replied. "Might as well be a doctor."

Click on the image below to view the Flickr photo album.