The students will be studying at the Lithgow campus and living in town while undertaking placements at Lithgow, Bathurst and Blue Mountains Hospital.

Sitting down with the students, it is clear to see the passion they have for medicine.

Mr Kouventaris studied a Bachelor of Medical Science at UNSW before heading to Notre Dame Lithgow.

"I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying the whole sense of community, finding everyone extremely welcoming," he said.

Mr Kouventaris, who had previously been living with his family, said it was quite an easy transition to be living with his housemates.

"It feels like I'm in a new family and we've all like bonded really well, so that's been nice," he said.

"I think I'm just enjoying as much of Lithgow as possible, meeting as many locals and trying to do all the different activities around the town."

Mr Kouventaris said it gives him a sense of what it's like living and working in a small community.

"That's what I'm also keen to learn this year, and the doctors have been extremely welcoming," he added.

"We've even been invited to their homes for dinner. So that's good, as well it's a great learning environment that way."

Ms Kisling did medical science as her undergraduate degree at University of Wollongong and the following year she started medicine.

"So far, it's been really good. We've got to meet quite a few people in the community, also the mayor, which was fun," she said.

"We've also been able to do a few of the local things like attending the Rydal show, which was good. So far, everyone's super friendly."

Ms Kisling said she was still trying to work out what type of medicine she wanted to get into in the future.

"I'm trying to decide if I want to do rural practice, but also trying to decide where we want to apply next year at the moment, so that's one of the big things we are all considering," she said.

Ms Kisling explained that the degree they were undertaking at the moment goes for four years, before they do at least one or two years of internship.

"Then after that you kind of decide what specialty you're thinking about, and they all have different timeframes," she said.

Lismore girl Ms Mason studied a Bachelor of Business and did postgraduate in Health and Ageing and then did her MBA after that.

"The end goal is a big question mark for me, so I'm trying to be open to what that might be this year, but at the same time, we have to start thinking about it so we can choose our pathway," she said.

"So it's a bit of a dilemma that we constantly battle and discuss."

Ms Mason loves paediatrics and palliative care as well as medical leadership.

"In terms of going rural I probably will but it will probably be in far north coast, New South Wales," she said.

Ms Mason had been happy that the Lithgow weather put on a good show for the students.

"It's been amazing, it feels more like home," she laughed.

"It's been nice going to the coffee shops and having the pleasure of meeting the mayor and at our welcome dinner we got to meet a lot of the leaders in the community and that was just really nice, but it really showed what everyone in the town has been like for us since we got here."

Ms Heffernan, who originates from Brisbane, originally did an arts degree at the University of Sydney and politics and English literature before working in journalism, and some not-for-profits in academia before coming back to medicine.

"Lithgow was a really last minute choice for me because I was originally going to stay in the city but through placements at more regional hospitals, I decided to have a year in rural medicine, which is something really appealing to me now," she said.

Ms Heffernan said it has been such a welcoming community and she was amazed at how quickly people get to know you.

"At the welcome dinner where we had the current mayor Maree, and former mayor Ray, some of the religious leaders from the community, and a lot of the long-time doctors from the hospital who all welcomed us with open arms," she said.

"It's been really nice to not just be another number within a really huge system where no one remembers you or knows your name. So it's a good way to learn medicine with a small, tight knit community and a really great array of specialists and rural generalists who are good role models for all of us."

Ms Heffernan also showed off her baking skills at the Rydal Show where she took home second place for her Iced Orange Cake.

"I was very honoured to be included by the community like that. You'll catch me in the baking at the Lithgow Show so stay tuned," she said.

Mr Thompson, who goes by Nick unless he is in trouble, did a Bachelor of Science at UQ majoring in psychology before he realised he didn't want to do that.

"My passion sort of lay with the whole body itself but I still wanted to keep talking to people so I decided to do medicine," he said.

"I was also working as a tennis coach at the time and played a fair bit of tournament tennis before that as well so it was interesting transitioning to something, you know, as brutal as first year medicine."

Mr Thompson has found himself moving further west as his degree went on, starting in Darlinghurst before going to the Hawkesbury and now for his last year coming to Lithgow.

"I feel like I've had a better year each year, so it's something that's been great," he said.

"I think the big thing that I've found in Lithgow is just everyone seems to be very welcoming, sharing a little bit of their home with us, which is really nice."

Mr Thompson was also amazed at the "spectacular" views Lithgow has to offer.

"I don't know why it's not talked about more, even at Maccas I was overwhelmed," he said.

"When you when you come through and you sort of look past the golden M into the the mountains in the background, it's just spectacular and it doesn't matter if it's good weather or bad because in the good weather, you get a beautiful view of the mountains and the valleys and in the bad weather you get to watch the bad weather roll over the mountaintops. It's beautiful."

Mr Thompson said he couldn't wait to see what the year had in store because so far it had been a very "positive" experience.

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