Doctor hopes to inspire young Limerick medics with her new children’s book

THE CREATOR of the fictional, cartoon-like figure called Dr Ouchy is on a tough mission: she wants to play her part in ending gender stereotyping in medicine. And she is beginning by publishing her first-ever book aimed at children.

But Ukraine-born Tetyana Kelly, who adopted Limerick as her hometown over 20 years ago, plans to go further, with a whole series of books aimed at sparking children’s imagination, making them laugh, allowing them to learn something new - and oh, yes, breaking down stereotypes at the same time.

The former Presentation girl, who first qualified as a nurse before qualifying as a doctor, is very clear on one point: for too long and far too often, women in medicine are assumed to be nurses and not doctors or surgeons.

“The majority of lay people assume that if you are a female, you must be a nurse within a hospital, or while wearing scrubs,” says Tetyana who now works as a surgical registrar in a Canberra hospital. “Even when you introduce yourself as a doctor, patients sometimes don't hear it, and ask for a doctor.”

“This is never encountered by my male colleagues,” she continues. “For a female surgeon, we hear 'nurse' every day.”

These stereotypes are so deeply rooted, she believes it will take generations to learn that a doctor doesn't have to be an older male with a grey beard, the classic stereotype that has dominated literature for so many decades, if not centuries.

“That's where Dr Ouchy comes and brings change. She is a young female with white coat and red stilettos, the complete reverse of the old cliche classic doctor.”

In her first book, the story revolves around Dr Ouchy who lives in the middle of a magical forest, and her neighbour Nurse Piggy. Every day, they work to save unwell animals, relying on Dr Ouchy’s doctor’s bag full of tricks. In this case the patient is Baby Shark who has a troublesome tooth.

“I always wanted to write a children’s book,” reveals Tetyana although she admits that “writing was never easy for me”.

She moved from the Ukraine to Limerick on St Patrick’s Day, 2000 and her parents, Vladimir and Valentyna still live in the Old Singland Road area with other relations in other parts of the country. A graduate in nursing and medicine from UL, Tetyana did her internship at University Hospital Limerick. She married Castletroy man John Kelly and the couple have two children, Moses born in Limerick and Coco born in Sydney where the family lived for a while before relocating to Canberra.

Currently, Tetyana works as a registrar in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and aims to qualify as a consultant in the future.

“Being a plastic surgery registrar I operate on patients with trauma, infections, burns, hand fractures and skin cancers. In public hospital settings we do not do cosmetic plastic surgery, as is often assumed as soon as I mention 'plastic surgery'. It is a very busy job with late evenings and sometimes 100 hours/week when I do on-call” she explains.

But she recalls a male, anaesthetist discouraging her from pursuing the surgery route, in order to have a family. “To me it was never a discouragement, but rather a call to challenge all those stereotypes who believe women should not do surgery, and should settle on something easier with family-friendly working hours.”

“More women enter medicine these days, and while the numbers in surgery are still less than 50% I do see female surgeons in all surgical specialties. The gender bias will slowly change, but it will take time,” Tetyana says.

Dr Ouchy and Nurse Piggy, with illustrations by Cat Soper, is selling in Australia, America, Canada, Cuba, and Europe via Amazon. The second book in the series will be published next year.