Rome  (CNN) - Medical student Chiara Bonini, 26, had barely finished her final exam, before the young doctor was headed for the front line of Italy's coronavirus pandemic.
"I want to give a hand to my city that is living in this dramatic moment, and has a real need for doctors," she said of her hometown Bergamo, one of Italy's hardest-hit northern cities.
Bonini is one of thousands of Italian graduates taking up the government's call for urgent help tackling the deadliest outbreak of the virus in the world.
The European country hit the grim milestone over the weekend of 10,000 deaths, accounting for roughly a third of the 30,000-plus deaths worldwide.

With hospitals under extraordinary strain, Italy has expedited the procedure for medical school graduates entering the workforce -- cutting the hospital exam and increasing the number of doctors being recruited.

For many graduates, it will be their first professional job in an industry facing its biggest crisis in a generation. It comes amid the deaths of 50 doctors, according to Italy's national federation of doctors

The abrupt changes to the procedures for fresh graduates entering the workforce, marks a major shakeup of Italy's education system, said Dr. Alessandro Grimaldi, Director of Infectious Disease at S.S. Salvatore Hospital of L'Aquila.

Currently, students are required to do a residency, where they specialize in a certain area of medicine. But according to Grimaldi, there are between 3,000 and 4,000 fewer residency placements available than the number of students, meaning many travel abroad to work.

Grimaldi likened the money spent on educating Italian medical students who then work overseas, to: "giving a present of a Ferrari to countries abroad every year."
These graduates "would have been such great resources -- especially today," he added.
So as the country enters its sixth week of lockdown, young Italian doctors are being catapulted to the health emergency's forefront.

CNN spoke to some of them.

Bonini was studying for her final medical exams at the University of L'Aquila in central Italy, when the government put the call out for medical students to help out in the north.

She was all set to go to work in her hometown of Bergamo -- until she contracted the virus, she believes from her boyfriend who is also a doctor.

Now fully recovered, Bonini is awaiting clearance to go out and work. Having already contracted coronavirus, Bonini says she feels less afraid about her new job.