DANVILLE (WSLS 10) - For about three weeks, students at Liberty University's College of Osteopathic Medicine have been walking the halls at Danville Regional Medical Center working alongside doctors and seeing patients.
"I'm on the Obstetrics and Gynecology rotation, so I've had an exciting few weeks delivering babies and getting to go into the operating room," said student Jeffrey Collins.
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That's just one of the areas students will get to experience over the next 10 months as they live in Southside and work at DRMC, Memorial Hospital in Martinsville and at private practices.
Alex Palffy, who's been on the internal medicine rotation, said the experience has been eye-opening.
"It's shown me a part of internal medicine that I never would've checked out otherwise and it's given me a lot of opportunities to interact with patients in the hospital," Palffy said.
The hospital hopes that by exposing students to life and medicine in Southside, the students will come back to work at the hospital after they graduate or open a private practice in Southside.
For some students, that hope is fast becoming a reality.
"Honestly, I've fallen in love with Virginia; just the people, they're friendly. The weather. So, it's definitely a place I would love to practice," said student Aurora Hemraj.
Hemraj is from New York and says she knows what it's like to live in an under-served area.
"That's what kind of drew me to Danville; this big, under-served community. So, this will actually fit right into my core values," she explained.
That's exactly what the hospital is looking for and exactly what Southside needs.