A Donald-born doctor studying overseas is urging the Wimmera's undergraduates not to hesitate in applying for university scholarships.
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Since October, Dr John Clark has been studying a PhD in paediatrics at the University of Cambridge in England. His time at the prestigious institution, expected to last four years, will be fully paid for by a Gates-Cambridge scholarship, which he is encouraging other Wimmera residents to apply for.
"I think growing up in the Wimmera often you don't hear a lot about some of the opportunities out there," he said.
"I think a lot of young people have a certain hesitation about whether they're good enough, (when) they're just as good as anyone else that applies for these things. If there were students from the Wimmera looking into the scholarship, I would be happy to support them with that process as well."
The Gates-Cambridge scholarship was set up in October 2000 following a US$210 million (AUD $308 million) donation to the university by Bill and Melinda Gates.
Dr Clark also encouraged Wimmera residents wanting to be doctors to use their regional story when applying for jobs and other opportunities.
"That's something I've done the whole way through, including when I interviewed at Cambridge. I think country people are resilient and have to go the extra steps to get the same opportunities as people in more built-up areas," he said.
"Part of what the scholarship selects for is your leadership qualities and ability to help other people. I think I saw a lot of really great examples of leadership in regional communities. I did year 12 in Donald in 2007, and that was a tough year for the community - a drought year - and I saw people in the community stepping up to leadership roles.
"I think country students can apply themselves well when they do go out into the workforce or for further education. I used my story of being further from the area and building resilience that I was able to apply to other situations."
After finishing his secondary education at 17, Dr Clark, now 29, enrolled at Monash University medical school in Melbourne.
"Paediatrics was something I figured out I wanted to do later on in my medical training," he said.
"Once you've done the first two years (of the degree) which is-lecture based then you're full time in hospitals. I had done some terms where I looked after children, then I went on to be a junior doctor and interacting with kids was the best part of my day."
His training took him to Mildura, Bendigo, Kyneton and Edinburgh Children's Hospital in Scotland before the UK.
Dr Clark said the research his team at Cambridge was undertaking would begin early in 2020. He hopes it will lay the groundwork for future improvement's to children's experiences while in hospital.
"My area of interest in paediatrics is critical care - looking after children in the intensive care unit," he said.
"That's something I did my year in Edinburgh I was in the ICU there. What I'm studying is rapid diagnostics for acute lung infections for children on ventilatory support - a machine doing breathing for them.
"At the moment with the technology we've got in hospitals in the UK and Australia usually it takes us about two or three days to know what bacteria is causing a chest infection in children. I'm hoping what I'm working on with the team in Cambridge might give us a result in about four to six hours.
"It would mean we could better target the antibiotic treatment we're giving children and use antibiotics less. Almost all the children we treat in intensive care end up on antibiotics. They're just so sick and often it can be quite difficult to tell if they've got infections or not, but that contributes to developing antibiotic resistance around the world."
Dr Clark said the team would conduct its study on a group of 100 children.
"Our study is to see if it's feasible to do this and get an early indication of how this might work," he said.
"I think the paediatric community will be very interested in what we find, and I'm hoping when I come back to Australia, some of the skills I learn in the lab I'll be able to take back with me. To my knowledge this particular bit of work I don't think anybody in Australia is doing."
Dr Clark said he had two years of specialist training left in Australia before he qualified to be a consulting paediatrician.
He said he could be contacted via jac302@cam.ac.uk.
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