Choosing a summer project was one of the things I was most intimidated by when I started my masters in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research. I thought many of my colleagues arrived on the course with extensive experience and expertise, while I was an intercalating medical student and not quite sure of what I could bring to the table. I knew I wanted to do something focussed on reproductive health, as this is an area I am passionate about and found fascinating during medical school, so I pursued this idea and looked around for supervisors with research experience in this area. Luckily, I was able to find a wonderful supervisor, Dr Hannah Blencowe, Associate Professor at LSHTM, who helped me to refine my ideas to produce a summer project that would be both interesting and useful, pushing me to put what I had learnt into practice. In the end, my project focussed on bereavement care following neonatal mortality in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), an under-researched topic with the potential to have a meaningful impact.

Writing the project was challenging, particularly working out how to do a rigorous literature review and analysis using research methods I had learnt only months before. With the help of my supervisor and the MARCH centre, I was able to develop a study, including a systematic review and meta-ethnography, which elicited really interesting results. I extracted seven themes in bereavement care that seemed to be generalisable: emotional responses, social relationships, staff and systems, religion, connecting with the baby, coping strategies, and economic concerns. From these, I developed a model that grouped them into three broader categories: the individual, the healthcare setting and the community. The aim of this was to help develop bereavement care guidance that is specific to neonatal mortality in LMIC’s, which currently did not seem to be available.

On completing the masters, I was delighted to graduate with distinction, but was quickly pulled back into the world of studying, as I completed my final year of medical school. During this time, I stayed in contact with my supervisor, and we discussed what I would need to do if I wanted to publish. We chose the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG) to publish in, as I remember reading this journal during my applications to medical school and I felt it would be a great target to aim towards, and I gradually started to work on adjusting my study to fit the journal’s criteria. Importantly, I would need a second reviewer to screen and analyse the literature to increase reliability, I would need to cut the word count significantly (down to 2000 words from 10,000), and I would need to edit the structure.

This took time, but the work paid off and during my first year of work as a doctor, I was able to submit my paper for publication in the BJOG. The editors sent back a two page response with questions and feedback, and I was given six weeks to respond to and make edits, before they accepted the final form of my paper for publication. LSHTM supported with funding to allow the study to be open access , and seeing my research released in a scientific journal was an amazing feeling.

Through this, I have gained confidence in my abilities to conduct research, and have published a second study that I worked on during my final year of medical school. Even better, because I am now a published author, my local hospital has helped me to secure funding for further research opportunities in the topics I am passionate about, and I am hoping to pursue a career based around these interests.

For other graduates looking to publish, my advice is to give it a go! Talk to your supervisor, choose a journal, make sure your final product fits their criteria and submit something. Challenges like a second reviewer can be overcome by asking a colleague or course-mate, and I found questions and feedback from the editors weren’t hard to answer as, after writing a summer project, you really do know the topic inside out. Most importantly, even if you have never done something like this before, remember that you have learnt how to conduct high-quality research while at LSHTM, and you can reach out and ask for help from your supervisor, even after you graduate. Good luck!

Read my summer project in the BJOG