General News
22 December, 2022
Doctorate honours for former local Mikaela
Former local Mikaela Jacka recently graduated as a Doctor of Medicine, crediting a Maryborough GP for setting her on the path for her dream career. Dr Jacka’s graduation late last month marks the end of a total eight years of study for the born...
Former local Mikaela Jacka recently graduated as a Doctor of Medicine, crediting a Maryborough GP for setting her on the path for her dream career.
Dr Jacka’s graduation late last month marks the end of a total eight years of study for the born and raised Maryborough local, who relocated to New South Wales with husband Ken and three children to study several years ago.
Going to school at the Maryborough Regional College, Dr Jacka later studied to become a pathologist and said a conversation with a local GP set her on the path to becoming a doctor herself.
“I used to work in pathology as a scientist and I felt like I was missing the more clinical side of things, I always wanted to progress my medical knowledge and work more closely with people,” she said.
“One particular thing that really set me on this path was local GP Dr Adele who asked if I’d considered sitting the entrance exam, which I hadn’t at that point.
“That gave me the idea and something to aspire to which really got things moving forward for me.
“Dr Adele and her family were probably the main inspiration for me to pursue this, I’ve always had an interest in medical science and medical work so it just made sense for me.”
Dr Jacka described the medical school study process as “rigorous”, but said she enjoyed plenty of placements in different clinical environments.
“The study process itself was rigorous but I’ve also really enjoyed it, I obviously enjoy the subject content and I’ve met a lot of new people,” she said.
“It can include some pretty gruelling hours and it’s pretty fast paced across clinics, hospitals, emergency departments, surgical theatres, GP clinics and wards across various hospitals and time on campus as well — it’s a very hands on sort of course.”
For the first 18 months of her study in New South Wales, Dr Jacka was travelling from Maryborough each week and said relocating was the logical choice.
“The way the medical education system works you basically just apply to every university and you go where you happen to get accepted,” she said.
“For the first 18 months we still had the Holden dealership in Maryborough and I was actually commuting every week, 20 hours of driving a week is a lot.
“Our three kids have come along for the journey and have been really tolerant the whole time, it’s been pretty amazing how resilient they’ve been.”
Dr Jacka described medicine as a rewarding and challenging career, particularly for doctors.
“I really like hands on surgical practices and learning something new every day, not knowing what you’re going to walk into is a part of the job and depending on what aspect of medicine you decide to go into, can see you delivering someone’s baby to then going on to deliver that child’s baby once they’ve grown up,” she said.
“Those are certainly unique aspects that you don’t necessarily get from other careers.”
In terms of future plans, Dr Jacka said she’s planning to undertake further study and specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology.
“I’ve got a position for a couple of years as a doctor starting next year in Wollongong and beyond that I actually hope to do obstetrics and gynaecology,” she said.
“My last rotation in medical school was actually with the team at Ballarat IVF which was a lot of fun.”