THESE students never thought they would juggle their studies with a battle against a pandemic when they enrolled.
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But COVID-19 has turned a lot of assumptions upside down, third year La Trobe University Bendigo student Mollie Housego says.
"It is something we talk about all the time," she says from Bendigo Health's Mollison Street vaccination centre..
Ms Housego was among the first students called in earlier this year when authorities decided to muster as many qualified vaccinators as possible to meet demand.
She is on the front lines administering jabs and supervising people for any complications in the 15 minutes that follow.
Ms Hosego is also there to reassure people who might be anxious about getting a needle or who want more information about their vaccine dose.
It is a position of trust and she is thankful that the community has put its faith in her and five Bendigo classmates at the Mollison Street clinic.
The skills they are applying are ones learned in their second and third years of La Trobe's Bachelor of Paramedicine course.
But putting them into practice has opened the door to new experiences Ms Housego says will make her a better paramedic.
"I feel pretty blessed to have been given the opportunity to do this," she says.
That includes working with patients in a way that's difficult to replicate in the classroom.
"That's one of the main ways I've benefited in this job. I'm building rapport with people. It's being able to talk with everyone in the community, not just others from uni," Ms Housego says.
"People have real life concerns, queries and conditions that we must consider before we vaccinate."
Ms Housego wants to keep working on the pandemic's frontline for as long as she is needed.
"No-one knows what might happen in the next three months, the next six months. We are just happy to be here until they no longer require us," Ms Housego says.
Bendigo Health has previously said it expects the vaccine surge to slow to a trickle once 90 per cent of the community has received two doses.
The group hit hit a 70 per cent double dose target on Thursday, while Victoria as a whole hit 60 per cent earlier in the week.
Health authorities are bracing for a spike in hospitalisations in the coming months, though.
The spike events are expected to stretch the health system and pose a host of new challenges for those on the front line.
For the moment though, the priority is to vaccinate as many people as possible.
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