From dream to goal in twelve years: in 2012, Bianca Jacobs was one of the first medical students at the University of Oldenburg. Having successfully completed her specialist training, she is now one of the first general practitioners in private practice to have graduated from University Medicine Oldenburg.
Bianca Jacobs has walked through the door of Dr Stefan Krafeld and Ralph Cramer’s GP practice in Lohne hundreds of times – but on 10 July this year, she did so for the first time as a specialist in general practice. This time, the practice team was waiting behind the door with a bouquet of flowers for the 44-year-old to congratulate her on passing her exam. “I had tears in my eyes,” admits Bianca Jacobs.
On that day, she had nearly twelve years of training behind her. Jacobs was one of the very first medical students from Oldenburg and is now one of the first to have successfully passed the specialist examination. It’s been a long journey: “My twins started school in the same year that I began my degree, and all three of us received a school goody bag from my father,” recalls the doctor. Today, the two 19-year-olds are about to sit their Abitur.
Jacobs lives in Goldenstedt near Vechta with her husband and their three children. When she wanted to return to her job as a chemical laboratory technician after her parental leave, she didn’t manage it straight away. At one point, a recruitment officer told her she was overqualified. “That’s when I thought: ‘Well, I might as well study medicine then.’ I used to think I was too daft for it,” she says.
As she didn’t have her Abitur, Jacobs had to sit an entrance exam to be allowed to study at university. Three times a week she travelled to Hanover to prepare for it – and she was successful. Having cleared this first hurdle, she heard about the new medical degree programme in Oldenburg and, shortly afterwards, was among the 40 students who made it through from a field of 1,200 applicants. What followed was anything but a walk in the park: the mother of three commuted for almost two hours by public transport from her home to the university in Oldenburg – and back again in the evenings. Good grades didn’t just fall into her lap. “The question format used to test knowledge in written exams just doesn’t suit me,” she admits. As a result, she even had to retake a written exam on one occasion, even though she had understood the material. In 2019, she graduated and began her specialist training with placements at St Josef Hospital in Cloppenburg, Marienhospital in Vechta and the practice where she now works.
Two constants helped Bianca Jacobs overcome all these hurdles – one of them is her family. “My husband, for example, recorded lung and heart sounds on a CD for me to practise with, and one of the children always made time for me whenever I wanted to examine an ear, for instance,” says the cheerful woman with the large glasses and black curls. The second constant is the Krafeld and Cramer practice. It was there that Jacobs completed her first work placement back in 2012. “I stood here and knew straight away: I can see myself doing this,” she recalls, looking around the consultation room just as she did back then. The then student is thrilled at how much she can learn from the two experienced doctors and therefore keeps returning to the practice. “I was allowed to carry out examinations, take blood samples and give vaccinations – as a student, you can only dream of that,” she says.
“We clicked right from the start”
The positive impression is mutual. “We’re a dream team. The chemistry was right from the start,” says practice owner Krafeld. He and his practice partner, Ralph Cramer, have been supporting University Medicine Oldenburg as a teaching practice since day one. They want to give medical students better clinical experience than they themselves had back in the day. “Back then, we were often treated like a nuisance that you somehow still had to put up with,” says Krafeld. That’s why he now tries to let students do as much as possible themselves and supports their professional development with regular feedback and coaching. In Bianca Jacobs’ case, this has been easy. “She’s interested in everything, gets excited about new things quickly and is incredibly hard-working,” says the GP.
In 2025, Bianca Jacobs will join her former bosses’ practice as an equal partner. Being a GP in her own practice – that has been her goal from the very beginning. “The medical profession itself is brilliant, and nothing beats general practice,” she says. “I could never have imagined, for example, specialising in just one organ.” Instead, she enjoys being able to support her patients over the long term and attaches great importance to communication. “What I always enjoy most is when someone says: ‘That was really nice of you to discuss that with me in such detail’,” she says.
As a ‘country bumpkin’ – as she tongue-in-cheek calls herself – she made a conscious decision back then, and still does today, to set up a practice outside the big city. “You have to love country life – with all the compromises that might entail,” she says. Anyone who does will have no problem working as a doctor in these regions, which are often underserved in terms of medical care.
Although there isn’t yet an acute staff shortage at his practice, Krafeld is glad that Jacobs is now joining the team. “It would have been too late to only start addressing this once we want to scale back in about ten years’ time,” he says. He can well imagine taking on further graduates by then, including, for example, in salaried roles that allow for a good work-life balance. He and his colleague have always been very satisfied with the students from Oldenburg. “There were lots of great people among them, and we’ve offered them the chance to come back whenever they like.”
