Medical student Miranda Rooney can't wait to join the fight against coronavirus after her final exams were brought forward.

Key points: WSU said students responded "within minutes" to the opportunity to fast-track their exams

WSU said students responded "within minutes" to the opportunity to fast-track their exams The students would help free-up experienced doctors responded dealing with COVID-19 patients

The students would help free-up experienced doctors responded dealing with COVID-19 patients They will be joining 40,000 retired medical professionals re-instated earlier this year

Western Sydney University (WSU) has fast-tracked its medical exams for students who wish to start working in hospitals before they officially graduate.

Ms Rooney, 23, is a fifth-year medical student in the midst of studying for her final exams at WSU and was eager to help a "struggling health system".

She was due to become a doctor next year but she "can't just put it on hold" anymore.

"Pandemics generally … they make you feel quite helpless, scared about what's going to happen to everyone," Ms Rooney said.

Ms Rooney said taking her exams early was "a good way to feel useful".

WSU's Dean of Medicine Annemarie Hennessy said almost all of her students responded "within minutes" for the opportunity to fast-track their exams.

The students won't be fully-fledged doctors but will instead be hired as "assistants in medicine" to work in non-COVID-19 wards.

Professor Hennessy said they would be freeing up more experienced doctors to deal with the pandemic by doing routine medical care for patients.

She said the fifth-year students were already familiar with working inside hospitals and were already doing minor procedures during their regular placements.

They will be joining more than 40,000 retired nurses, doctors and pharmacists who were re-instated to join the country's pandemic response.

Ms Rooney has been based in Lismore for the past year, taking part in the university's rural health program.

"We've already had quite a bit of training … with procedural things like putting in cannulas and our knowledge of what to do in emergencies," Ms Rooney said.

Her placements were interrupted because of the pandemic and so she was eager to reclaim the experience she was missing out on.

"I felt like my learning had been on hold," she said.

"I wasn't really seeing patients because the doctors weren't comfortable having someone else in the room as a transmission risk."

For 21-year-old Celine Garrett, taking her exams early was a clear path into the health system where she hoped to be a surgeon one day.

After seeing the medical students in Italy graduate early, Celine Garrett was eager to join the medical frontline. ( Supplied )

She recently did a month-long placement in Vancouver, Canada and said she was treated more like an intern where she was on call for 30 hours and saw her own patients.

After seeing the news in Italy where medical students were graduating early, she jumped at the chance to take more responsibility to help Australia's pandemic response.

"We all wanted to help and alleviate the burden on the medical system," Ms Garrett said.

"[This] essentially provided us with an opportunity to enter the workforce, get more responsibility and get thrown in the deep end."