By PEACE IJIYERA
DR Miriam Pietrzak-Cieslak has been recognised for 35 years of significant contribution and dedication to rural community service with a Victorian Rural Health Award.
She has been based at Hillcrest Family Medicine Traralgon, for the past 26 years and has become a household name around Traralgon.
With an accumulation of 44 years of experience, Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak’s journey to becoming a doctor began in her home country of Poland. She explained that she had the desire to become a doctor from just three years-of-age.
“It was my dream from three-years-old … I had my one favourite doll which I [practiced] treat[ing] her,” she recalled.
Working to reach her goals, Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak excelled in school doing Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Polish history as subjects.
From there, she went to university and studied medicine in Latin language and attended medical student practices across Europe, including in Germany, Yugoslavia, Holland and Czechoslovakia.
She continued on to post graduate studies in cardiology and received a PhD, writing a thesis on Immunological Aspects in Primary Cardiomyopathy.
She won Poland’s Cardiologist of the Year in 1986 and became a Fellow of Polish College of Physicians in 1993.
For the first 20 years of her career, she worked in hospitals doing clinical work, physician work, cardiology training and general practice in Europe and moved to Melbourne in 1990.
She brought all her expertise to the Latrobe Valley in 1999 and in her 26 years of working in the area, has seen up to three generations of families coming to see her.
Her areas of interest revolve around internal disease, cardiology, geriatrics, chronic conditions, women’s and men’s health.
In 2000, she became a Fellow of Australian College Rural and Remote Medicine and a Fellow of Royal General Practitioners in 2002.
She is the author of 52 research papers that have been published in Poland, America, Austria, Japan and Australia. With all the exams, course work and trainings, she described the journey to being a doctor as “hard work”, though she enjoyed every bit of it and finds her job fulfilling.
To receive the recognition of long service was “unexpected” for Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak, who couldn’t believe how fast the years had gone by.
She attended the award ceremony online and had her certificate posted in the mail.
Celebrations followed with a dinner with her husband and a celebration lunch with colleagues at Hillcrest Family Medicine.
Studying in European countries, Ms Piestrak-Cieslak can speak Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, German and Latin to different degrees. She said this skill has been instrumental in speaking with patients from multicultural backgrounds.
As a specialist in primary care, Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak said the learning never stops. She explained how doctors undertake numerous hours of online trainings and are required to amass a certain number of continuing professional development (CPD) points.
Truly living and breathing all things medicine, Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak said she looks forward to continuing learning and acquiring more knowledge.
“I’ve finished my education theoretically, but I’m still hungry for knowledge, because it’s so many patients and you have more and more complex cases.
“So too much knowledge is never too much, so I always try to do my best to offer to patients.”
Dr Pietrzak-Cieslak said her initial goals of being a doctor spanned further than just finishing university, being a medical practitioner and being recognised for long service. She dreamed of being a “true doctor”; someone dedicated to the job and committed to making a positive impact on peoples lives and health.
She extended her appreciation to everyone who has been a part of her medicine journey and career.
“It’s not only my achievement, it is everybody’s achievement … I’m very proud that I can have this kind of people around me to support my dream.”
