Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) Blog
Posted by ma403
2 August 2024In March this year, I attended the Southwest Society for Academic Primary Care conference along with Eve Kingston, Sarah Price and Luke Mounce. Eve and I had been accepted to present on work around the OSCA study (investigating non-attendance at cancer referral appointments in people with anxiety and/or depression), with Eve presenting her scoping review and me the OSCA study. The conference was held in Cardiff in the cricket stadium and after a cancelled train, a taxi taking us to the wrong place and power walking it to the conference, we made it – with Luke heading immediately into his presentation which was fantastic! We had a day of really interesting talks and got to hear fellow Exeter Uni researchers presenting their work, including Emily Fletcher and Judit Konya, along with a whole range of other presentations and a very interesting plenary talk.
The next morning, it was time for Eve and I to give our presentations as part of the Mental Health category. For both Eve and I, it was our first time presenting at a conference and we were both feeling nervous. We had had brilliant guidance though from our study team – Sarah Price and Liz Shephard and had practiced a lot, but still quite a daunting process. Eve did absolutely brilliantly, as an undergraduate PTY student, I was full of admiration for her taking the presentation in her stride and delivering it with such clarity and confidence, I can’t say I would have been able to do the same when I was a student! My presentation went smoothly too and I felt particularly that the room was so welcoming and supportive. The questions asked around mine and Eve’s presentations sparked a wider discussion in the room and it was wonderful to hear people’s interest in where the study will take us. As we near the end of the OSCA study, I am very excited to see this too.
