NIHR School for Primary Care Research trainee event (September 2015, St Anne’s College, Oxford)

In this post two of our PhD students Hilary Davies and Sonia Cotton, both funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR), share their experience of this years annual trainee event hosted by the School.

The NIHR School for Primary Care Research is a partnership between nine leading academic centres for primary care research in England. The School’s main aim is to increase the evidence base for primary care practice through high quality research and strategic leadership (http://www.spcr.nihr.ac.uk/). The school consists of nine leading academic centres for Primary Care research; Bristol, Cambridge, Keele, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Southampton, UCL.

We always look forward to the annual National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) trainee event. It is a time when all the trainees (PhD students and fellows) and trainee leads from all Universities within the school come together to disseminate and celebrate work that they have conducted during the year.

The event this year took place over two days in September at St Anne’s College in Oxford. The program for the two days was divided up between workshops, poster presentations and guest speaker lectures. The trainees from the different universities were divided into 3 groups and presented their posters to other trainees, the poster sessions were chaired by training leads. These sessions proved very interesting and a chance for other trainees to ask question and recommend ideas on going forward with the studies. Trainees also have the opportunity to field challenging questions. This was my third trainee event and it was really interesting to see how other trainees have progressed with their studies.

The organisers used the previous years’ evaluations to ensure that relevant workshops take place. This year’s workshops included; dealing with the media, qualitative research, using large primary care databases, obtaining funding and applying for grants and fellowships. The workshops were presented by current and past trainees and other experts in the field.

We were also treated to two fantastic guest lectures by Professors Chris Ham and Graham Watt. Professor Ham discussed the future of the NHS and his key summary points were that the present Government needs to supply adequate funding for Health and Social Care, improved primary care workforce and resources are necessary to meet increasing demands and new models of care should to be developed and implemented for the changing population needs. The emphasis of Professor Watt’s lecture was a question about whether or not academic general practice was relevant or not. He discussed many issues regarding this, but one particular report stood out; “General Practitioners at the deep end”, which explored the experiences and views of GPs working in the most deprived areas.

The food is always a highlight at the trainee event and we were treated to a variety of delicious dinners in the college’s dining rooms. The evening event was held in the dining hall at Somerville College. Somerville College was founded for women when they were barred from attending University and the college did not tie itself to any religious affiliations. Dame Sally Davies gave an inspiring speech regarding the significance and impact of the School of Primary Care research.

Unfortunately, this is my last year as a trainee and I am going to miss the annual event. It has been a privilege to be part of the NIHR SPCR. As well as having a fantastic annual event for the trainees the NIHR SPCR provides a generous training budget. The training budget we received during our time as PhD students has allowed us to attend training courses and conferences both national and internationally, as well as providing the equipment needed to succeed in our research. It has been an honour to be part of the NIHR SPCR.