It was celebrations all round for three Student Doctors who triumphed at the RCGP Mersey Faculty Medical Student Poster Prize 2023 (link), taking home first, second and third place awards.
Meera Shankar, Thomas Reed and Sarah Gomm entered the prize by submitting research on a Primary Care topic. The evening took place at Anfield football stadium and prizes were handed out by Dr Omon Imohi, Deputy Chair of the RCHP Mersey Faculty and was attended by the School of Medicine’s Dr Harrison, Board Member on the Mersey Faculty of RCGP and GP Theme Lead.
First place went to Year 4 Student Doctor Meera Shankar, whose research on ‘Practicing Pride: a quality improvement approach to enhance LGBTQ+ inclusivity in primary care’ impressed the judges.
Meera Shankar receives her first place RCPG prize certificate
“As someone passionate about plastic surgery which encompasses gender reassignment procedures, I was really interested to learn about care for LGBTQ+ patients in general practice.
“I realised there were easily implementable but effective changes to foster a welcome environment to improve the overall care for LGBTQ+ patients and wanted to conduct a quality improvement project.”
"During my placements in general practice last year and this year, I implemented changes and audited their efficacy by surveying patient satisfaction and staff confidence.
I saw the submission form for the RCGP Student Poster Prize on the student bulletin and decided to give it a go. I titled my project ‘Practicing Pride’ and was thrilled to have been awarded first place for my poster and received an invitation to the RCGP Mersey Annual Awards Evening at Anfield Stadium. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the judges who commended me for an excellent poster, which was really encouraging! I am hoping to expand my project to more centres in Merseyside as I truly believe this project could improve care in general practice.”
Sarah Gomm, year 4 Student Doctor, received second place with her research which asked: ‘What are the barriers that prevent transgender men from attending cervical screening?’
Sarah Gomm is awarded second place
"I was so pleased to receive second prize in the RCGP poster competition.
“My poster presented the barriers that prevent transgender men from attending cervical screening, and suggested changes which could improve their uptake of the screening programme.”
"This included GPs advertising their competence in transgender healthcare; improving patient education on transgender cervical screening and creating a more gender inclusive environment at screening clinics.
It was so enjoyable to celebrate this achievement with the other award winners at the award presentation evening. The venue was amazing and everyone attending was super friendly. It felt great for my small project to get the exposure, and having the poster printed in a room full of GPs hopefully advertised some of the changes they could make to their own practices."
Third year medical student Thomas Reed received third place after wowing the panel with his poster, ‘A comparison of current models for integrated community pharmacy delivery of HIV PrEP and their applicability to England.’
Thomas Reed - 3rd place in the RCGP Poster Prize
"I was honoured to be awarded this prize for my RS3 poster project. It was great to see a spotlight put on academic research opportunities in general practice, and the wide-reaching population impact this can have.”
“The prize evening emphasised local triumphs in general practice and was lovely to come together with colleagues to celebrate and see Liverpool medical school strongly represented. This also highlighted the varied careers available throughout primary care and ongoing training sessions provided by RCGP."
Well done to our winners! Keep an eye out for more prizes and competitions advertised in the student bulletin each week.