Reflections on the NIHR School for Primary Care Research Showcase

On Monday 18th September we attended the NIHR School for Primary Care Research Showcase at the BMA House, in Tavistock Square, London to present our poster for the OSCA study.

The day was fascinating. We attended several interesting presentations about different research areas in primary care and read a multitude of research posters.

Eve Kingston

A presentation I found particularly interesting was by Dr Pearl Mok, about psychiatric diagnoses and self-harm episodes among children and young people in the two years following onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was intriguing because the study’s population was made up of individuals of a similar age to me – the data showed a significant rise in the number of females being diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and self-harm episodes when compared with males – males stayed close to what was predicted, however the data for females was completely different to the expected values. This was extremely interesting and caused me to consider the reasons as to why this might be the case.

Being new to this field I must admit that I struggled to keep up at times due to the sheer number of acronyms used – fingers crossed I will get more used to this over time! I was truly inspired by each of the succinct presentations I saw throughout the day. I aspire to be able to present and deliver information in a similar way in the future.

Laura Gill

As someone who is new to this varied and expansive world, it felt like an excellent (if a little overwhelming!) introduction. I am still taking the day in and reflecting on all that we heard but one presentation which stood out to me was the penultimate plenary of the day delivered by Dr Lucy Potter who spoke of her experience as a GP and the PhD she is currently undertaking which is focussed on improving general practice for people with severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD), predominantly women. Lucy’s passion was palpable and as someone who has a great interest in mental health and women’s health, I was fascinated to hear about her collaboration with patients, general practices and One25 – a charitable organisation in Bristol who help some of the city’s most marginalised women.

About the authors:

Eve Kingston

My name is Eve Kingston, and I am a third year BSc (hons) Medical Sciences student here at the University of Exeter. This year I am undertaking a professional training year (PTY) research placement, working in the DISCO group on The OSCA Study; exploring associations between anxiety and/or depression and non-attendance at hospital appointments to test if cancer might be causing a person’s symptoms, potentially delaying diagnosis. I am delighted to be working with Dr Sarah Price, Dr Liz Shephard, and Laura Gill. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to see what this year brings!

Laura Gill

I am Laura and I recently joined the DISCO research group, working on The OSCA Study as a Graduate Research Assistant. I will be working on the qualitative stream of the study, investigating attendance at suspected cancer investigations in people with anxiety and/or depression. This is my first position working in research having most recently worked at Macmillan Cancer Care in the Stories team, where I spent a lot of time working with, listening to, and helping empower people to share their stories and experiences of cancer. I am extremely excited to be here and have received such a warm welcome so far, I look forward to meeting lots more of you soon.

Reblogged with permission from Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog, University of Exeter.