Inefficient programming with jdbc and mysql

Question

I am currently programming an application, that connnects to a mysql database and reads, inserts and changes data in it. I am coding in Kotlin and use the JDBC Driver. My problem is, that for every read or transaction I want to do, I need another method. For example : SelectEverythingFromTable1(), SelectEverythingFromTable2(), SelectEverythingFromTable3(), InsertIntoTable1(), InsertIntoTable2(), InsertIntoTable3()... I am currently doing it this way because of course every Table has different columns and I am loading the data into different classes.

Here For example two of my current methods, which are basically the same, but load from another table:

fun loadAllPatients () : List<Patient> {
        var stmt: Statement? = null
        var resultset: ResultSet? = null
        val patients = mutableListOf<Patient>()



        try {
            stmt = conn!!.createStatement()
            resultset = stmt!!.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM patient;")

            if (stmt.execute("SELECT * FROM patient;")) {
                resultset = stmt.resultSet
            }

            while (resultset!!.next()) {
                patients.add(Patient(resultset.getInt("patientID"),resultset.getString("first_name"),resultset.getString("last_name"),resultset.getDate("birthday")))
            }
        } catch (ex: SQLException) {
            // handle any errors
            ex.printStackTrace()
        } finally {
            // release resources
            if (resultset != null) {
                try {
                    resultset.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                }

                resultset = null
            }

            if (stmt != null) {
                try {
                    stmt.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                    println("error")
                }

                stmt = null
            }

            if (conn != null) {
                try {
                    conn!!.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                    println("error")

                }

                conn = null
            }
        }
        return patients
    }

 fun loadAllEntries () : List<Entry> {
        var stmt: Statement? = null
        var resultset: ResultSet? = null
        val entries = mutableListOf<Entry>()



        try {
            stmt = conn!!.createStatement()
            resultset = stmt!!.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM entry;")

            if (stmt.execute("SELECT * FROM entry;")) {
                resultset = stmt.resultSet
            }

            while (resultset!!.next()) {
                entries.add(
                    Entry(resultset.getInt("entryID"),resultset.getInt("patientID"),resultset.getInt("therapyID"),resultset.getInt("status"),resultset.getString("comment"),
                    resultset.getInt("creator"),resultset.getInt("employee"),resultset.getDate("creation_date"),resultset.getDate("start_date"),resultset.getDate("end_date")))
            }
        } catch (ex: SQLException) {
            // handle any errors
            ex.printStackTrace()
        } finally {
            // release resources
            if (resultset != null) {
                try {
                    resultset.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                }

                resultset = null
            }

            if (stmt != null) {
                try {
                    stmt.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                    println("error")
                }

                stmt = null
            }

            if (conn != null) {
                try {
                    conn!!.close()
                } catch (sqlEx: SQLException) {
                    println("error")

                }

                conn = null
            }
        }
        return entries
    }

Is there any way I can do this more efficient, or am I doing this the completely wrong way? I am very new to working with databases, but I am not finding much information about this topic in the internet, thanks for your help.