Hello! My name is Josie and I am a year 4 student currently based in Tayside. Last month I attended my first medical conference, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Annual Conference in Liverpool. I must admit, before attending I did not have a clue about what to expect!
In March earlier this year, I submitted an abstract to present my year 3 quality improvement project at the conference, and was fortunate enough to have this accepted. For my LIC (longitudinal integrated clerkship) year I was based at Dingwall Medical Group (DMG) in the Highlands, and carried out a project on identifying and supporting our Armed Forces and Veterans patient community. This was a new and exciting project at DMG, and while I knew little about this patient community, the topic felt important to me and the practice, as it was addressing healthcare inequalities. I was encouraged to present my project by one of the GP partners at my practice, who has a real enthusiasm for quality improvement and is an active member of the college.
At the conference, I presented my project as an e-poster, which included giving a 4 minute presentation, with 2 minutes for questions and discussion afterwards. This was in an exhibition hall, where there were many other poster screens and speakers presenting simultaneously. I really enjoyed this set-up as it allowed for smaller group discussion, and the chance to explore other speakers’ work in between conference events. I was quite nervous beforehand, as I felt quite in awe of all the attendees there! However, once I began presenting, I completely relaxed and really enjoyed sharing my project with my audience. Answering questions was surprisingly enjoyable also, as I it made me realise how well I knew the project from working on it for so long over the past year. It was great to see so many people interested in improving veterans’ health.
Aside from my poster presentation, the rest of the conference was a fantastic experience. The conference runs over two days in different locations every year. Over these two days, I had the chance to listen to other speakers’ project presentations, visit stalls at the fair, and attend a variety of talks throughout the day. There is an opening and closing plenary on each day of the conference, and the closing plenary on the first day was a definite highlight for me. This plenary comprised of talks from three different speakers on personal experiences covering topics of drug and alcohol addiction, female genital mutilation, and ADHD. While these were very emotive and difficult to listen to at times, each speaker was very engaging and inspiring, and I learnt so much about these very important but often taboo subjects.
For similar reasons, a second highlight of the conference was a talk I attended on the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers. This very inspiring and educational talk was delivered by two incredible doctors, a locum GP and A&E registrar, who work abroad with international organisations to provide healthcare and refuge to people fleeing their home countries due to war and conflict. It was extremely harrowing to listen to, but greatly inspired me and increased my awareness of how we might be able to provide better healthcare and support for refugees and asylum seekers settling in the UK.
The conference was a great opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the most pressing issues and areas of progress within general practice across the UK. As a medical student, it can often be quite disheartening to hear of such issues (such as poor retention of doctors, forever-increasing workload, rising patient numbers and availability of GP jobs for qualifying trainees), that may only worsen by the time I graduate. However, for me this was ultimately outweighed by the really inspiring sense of community across the two days of the conference, and a real collective motivation to tackle these issues. The experience has only motivated me to pursue a career in general practice.
I would definitely recommend attending the RCGP conference as a student, especially if you can gain some experience in presenting your work! The RCGP Annual Conference 2025 is running on the 9-10th October in Wales.
If you are interested in learning more about my quality improvement project, or the conference, I am more than happy to be contacted at [email protected]. You can also visit the Armed Forces Covenant website at www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk for more information on veterans’ health.
Josie is a final year ScotGEM student currently based in Tayside