That is the goal of the University of Newcastle's (UoN) annual 'Health Careers Forum', held at the uni's Taree campus on High Street.

Organising the forum was palliative care specialist, Dr Arron Veltre, who works between Manning Base Hospital and the UoN Taree campus as the clinical dean.

Dr Veltre said the flexibility of being able to work at the Taree campus with the students and walk them around the corner to Manning Base has been really beneficial.

"Having this campus and training facilities allows us to show local students the pathways that are available to them.

"Being in a rural town like Taree, medical students are exposed to such a broad range of skills, which we hope will keep these students in the area."

The team has been running the program for 11 years, and it has been "so successful" that they struggle to find jobs for all the students who want to relocate to the Manning.

Medical students from UoN, Nicola Searles and Brittany Glanville, attended the forum to tell their pathways stories to the school students.

Nicola and Brittany both grew up in the Manning-Great Lakes and agreed the opportunity to come back and work in the area has been very rewarding.

Nicola, a former Taree High School student, said being back in Taree to complete her fourth year medical prac has been great. "When I tell patients that I grew up here they get really get excited and feel more comfortable, which I love."

Brittany, a former Great Lakes College student, said her passion for rural health has definitely been influenced by growing up in Forster.

"And being instilled in the Taree community has been so rewarding as I grew up here."

Brittany attended the UoN health career forum when she was in Year 11, which she says gave her the insight into how she could kick-start her career in health.

"I came to one of these workshops when I was a student," Brittan said. "I actually started my study in pharmacology before transferring into medicine so it is cool to tell my story to these students so they know there are other pathways.

"What we are really about is trying to raise the aspirations for local students so they can see there are alternative pathways to studying medical and health degrees, and live and work where they grew up."

Dr Veltre said it was a highlight to have the two girls speak to the students.

"We have students, like Nicola and Brittany, who came to this building in Year 11 and are now coming back to tell their story as 4th and 5th year medical students.

"Brittany's career adviser from Great Lakes College is here today too, which just shows the full circle."

Year 10 students from Great Lakes College, Jake Herivel and Lucas Guiney, said they both have a passion for a career in health and found the workshop "really helpful".

Lucas said he is particularly interested pursuing a career in surgery.

The workshop had three stations that students rotated between - a critical care scenario, a paediatric community setting, and a university pathways discussion group.

At each scenario, different medical disciplines were involved to show the students what each role did in that particular setting.

This included occupational therapists, nutritionists, speech pathologists, physiotherapists, nurses, doctors, specialists and allied health assistants.

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