DOH - Medicine Presentations!

[Hard24Get]

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Help!

I am on Cardiology, my first medicine elective in years (took 4 years off), plus I have only done surgery/EM/SICU for the last 5 mos.

My IM presentations suck. I can't seem to organize it the way they want, and focusing on one organ system is even more difficult for me. And every new attending/fellow has their own style - I get criticized for being too short or too long, too terse and too detailed. Also, no one pays attention, then they think I didn't mention stuff.... My personality is not jiving with the IM folks, I don't know what they want!

Hopefully some of you medicine "stars" out there can give me some tips on how to memorize and succinctly deliver an attention-holding IM presentation.

Thanks!

 

[Samir Desai]

As a medicine attending at Baylor, I work closely with my students to improve their oral case presentations. I'd like to offer you my suggestions.

First of all, you are right that every attending is different. That's why one of the most important things to do is to determine your attending's expectations. You will find that, for the most part, expectations are fairly similar.

Several years ago, I undertook a survey at Baylor of medicine attendings. I asked them what makes a student's presentation outstanding. From that survey, I created a list of dos and don'ts for medicine presentations. I handed this list out to my students and encouraged them to use the list as a checklist. Before every presentation, I asked them to practice using that list. What I found soon after my students adopted the list was a significant improvement in their presentations.

I turned this list into a group of 30 mistakes students commonly make on oral case presentations during the medicine rotation. It is now a full chapter in a book I wrote called the "Internal Medicine Clerkship: 150 Biggest Mistakes And How To Avoid Them." If you use this chapter as a checklist prior to presenting each and every time, you will definitely notice an improvement. That's been my experience at Baylor as well as some of my colleagues' experiences at other schools.

Check your library for the book - most schools have a few copies. I've also helped students improve their oral case presentations over the phone. In some cases, I've had students present patients to me by phone. I then follow this up with constructive criticism. What I've found is that attendings are quite busy and, though they wish to help students improve, sometimes this ends up taking a back seat to other things. If you would like, you are welcome to give me a call and I'd be happy to help.

And finally to highlight the importance of the oral case presentation, I'll leave you with the following written by Lang:

"much of a student's evaluation is based on oral presentations ..." - Lang NP, et al. Identification of Communication Apprehension in Medical Students Starting a Surgery Rotation. Am J Surg 1998; 176(1): 41-45.

 

[Tired]

Hah! I knew I recognized your name from somewhere . . .

 

[ramonaquimby]

omg - you're like....a celebrity!!! i've def seen your name as an author - i love your stuff!

thanks for popping in at SDN!

 

[Samir Desai]

Thanks for the kind words. It had been some time since I regularly posted but I've enjoyed getting back into the swing of things. The folks here at sdn do a fantastic job. There's some great information here. I'm often impressed with the advice that is posted. I would have loved to have had this forum around when I was a student.