In May 2012, Andres Barkil-Oteo, MD, MSc, then a fourth-year psychiatry resident at Yale, chaired a panel at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meeting in Philadelphia. The panel, on public psychiatry education in residency programs, was well received and attracted an audience that included medical students, residents, residency program directors, and state-level health officials.
The presentation was a rewarding experience, and Barkil-Oteo strongly encourages trainees to take advantage of similar opportunities at national meetings of professional organizations.
"Going to APA was a wonderful experience. Being around thousands of psychiatrists from across the country crystallized this idea of a large community of my peers," Barkil-Oteo said. "Presenting a topic you are passionate about is a unique opportunity to instigate immediate, real-time discussion. I got great experience and met a number of potential collaborators for future projects."
Peggilee Wupperman, PhD, who completed her predoctoral internship in clinical and community psychology at Yale, shared a similar first experience presenting at a national conference. During her internship year at Yale, Wupperman presented at the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Her presentation was on the connection between deficits in mindfulness and variability in borderline personality disorder features.
"The experience gave me an invaluable opportunity to make contacts that were helpful to my career, including one that led to a postdoctoral fellowship," Wupperman said. "Organizing the material gave me a head start on authoring an article that ultimately appeared in the Journal of Personality Disorders."
Barkil-Oteo agreed that organizing panels and making presentations at national meetings is one more way to build skills that can prepare future psychiatrists and psychologists for the job market.
With his successful experience at APA behind him, Barkil-Oteo is submitting a proposal for this year's APA annual meeting in San Francisco and another for the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in New York City.
Since her internship, Wupperman has presented at more than a dozen conferences. She encourages current trainees to submit proposals. "The experts in the audience asked great questions and engaged with my work. The experience at the conference really boosted my confidence."
When preparing abstracts for submission, Barkil-Oteo recommends reviewing the programs from previous conferences to get a sense for new and inventive topics. "Annual conferences often have tracks dedicated to resident-led sessions or topics related to training programs," he said.
Barkil-Oteo is currently an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale. Wupperman is now an assistant professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York.
Current Yale residents who have questions can contact Andres Barkil-Oteo at andres.barkil@yale.edu.