What to wear to present pedi grand rounds??

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oldbearprofessor

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This group could use something a bit on the lighter side. I've been dishing out advice, mostly irrelevant advice, but advice nonetheless, for 5 years and it's time to get some advice back.

I'm about to give pediatric grand rounds. I do this regularly at my institution or elsewhere. I probably give a pedi grand rounds 3-5 times/year somewhere or another. You may even be there and not know it was an SDNer that was putting you to sleep. :p

Some key questions about this.

1. White coat or coat and tie??
2. If coat and tie, cute tie or serious one?
3. If white coat, what color shirt?

Thanks guys, YOU owe this to me - I want your best effort here!

OBP

PS: I'm aware that, in the history of the world, NO ONE has ever given a grand rounds (or a sermon) that was too short!

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Good luck on your grand rounds. What is your presentation topic?

My opinions:
1. No white coat, yes suit coat and tie
2. stylish pediatric tie OR regular tie

Have fun!
 
Good luck on your grand rounds. What is your presentation topic?

My opinions:
1. No white coat, yes suit coat and tie
2. stylish pediatric tie OR regular tie

Have fun!

neonatology.....sorry, I won't make it that easy for folks here to figure out who I am....

Just assume that the BEST grand rounds you hear on neonatology in 2007 was given by....OBP

so no cartoon ties? How about animals? Save the children? http://www.2002ties.com/ties/indexfiles/school.html

help me pick the perfect "Grand rounds" ties....Remember, father's day is coming up! Nothing says "father's day" like a tie - I can drop hints for my kids. :)
 
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I love the Save the Children ties! I'm only an M2 who's been to pedi grand rounds exactly once, but I would love to see a presenter wearing a "pediatrics tie."

Incidentally, if you buy the ties directly from Save the Children, they use the profits for a bunch of good causes--I've gotten people to buy me several for birthdays, holidays, etc.: http://shop.savethechildren.org/savechild/dept.asp?s%5Fid=0&dept%5Fid=3002

If you want to be daring, I really like the "Helping Children" one. For a more conservative (and seasonal!) look, Seasonal Flowers is good. And for a compromise that people won't know is a pediatrics tie from far away, the "My Favorite Doctor" one would work nicely.
 
I love the Save the Children ties! I'm only an M2 who's been to pedi grand rounds exactly once, but I would love to see a presenter wearing a "pediatrics tie."

Incidentally, if you buy the ties directly from Save the Children, they use the profits for a bunch of good causes--I've gotten people to buy me several for birthdays, holidays, etc.: http://shop.savethechildren.org/savechild/dept.asp?s%5Fid=0&dept%5Fid=3002

If you want to be daring, I really like the "Helping Children" one. For a more conservative (and seasonal!) look, Seasonal Flowers is good. And for a compromise that people won't know is a pediatrics tie from far away, the "My Favorite Doctor" one would work nicely.

thanks - I lost my last "Save the Children" tie so I'm in the market to buy more.

Come on - there are 2 members and 9 lurkers on pedi now. I'm calling you out! Help a guy out here....

First time I EVER gave grand rounds anywhere was 19 yrs ago. My wife picked out a new suit for me. :love: We still talk about that...she was pregnant but came to make sure I didn't screw up!
 
Navy blue sport coat, khakis, light blue shirt, and yellow/fun bow tie.

Facial hair and a medium build make a solid case for the bow tie. A large or skinny build and being cleanly shaven, however, are not features that support the fashionable bow ...in my opinion. If these are more descriptive, I'd opt for the standard style tie (same color) with the rest being the same.
 
You can always folow the grand rounds tradition here in my program. Short sleeved aloha shirts is the professional form of dress here (not too loud though, maybe 3-4 colors at the most). Before you present, you get greeted with a kiss and a lei, hopefully from some cute female faculty.

Inregard to your specific questions:

1) Tie schmie, coat schmoat
2) Refer to answer 1
3) Refer to answer 1 also

Regards and aloha,
Nardo
 
You can always follow the grand rounds tradition here in my program. Short sleeved aloha shirts is the professional form of dress here (not too loud though, maybe 3-4 colors at the most). Before you present, you get greeted with a kiss and a lei, hopefully from some cute female faculty.

Sign me up! I doubt you have much trouble getting guest speakers.:D

Sorry hudsontc - I fit the description, but am not going with the Bowtie. Just not me.:scared:
 
Fun ties are the best. Nothing says "I'm about to put you to sleep" as fast as a standard navy suit, light shirt and conservative tie. The more interesting the tie and the better able one is to see it from the back rows (where all students must sit), the better!
 
Fun ties are the best. Nothing says "I'm about to put you to sleep" as fast as a standard navy suit, light shirt and conservative tie. The more interesting the tie and the better able one is to see it from the back rows (where all students must sit), the better!

Too late, that's exactly what I wore...."Big Children's Hospital" is a conservative place,:rolleyes:


But I finished 15 minutes early - that always helps keep them awake.:)

But I have several more chances at GR in different places soon. The Chief pedi resident was wearing a "Save the Children" tie as was the housestaff director, so I guess it's time to go buy some!
 
Fun ties are the best. Nothing says "I'm about to put you to sleep" as fast as a standard navy suit, light shirt and conservative tie. The more interesting the tie and the better able one is to see it from the back rows (where all students must sit), the better!


These two suits will definately keep the audience awake

orange_suit.gif


and

IMG_2220.jpg
 
I wore a light blue shirt, george bush red power tie, and a freshly laundered, fully buttoned white coat. I also combed my hair that morning.

(This is the guy who wears scrubs in continuity clinic in protest of the existence of continuity clinic.)
 
I am just a student, but have given lots of lectures to med students, resident, and attendings as I always seek out an opportunity to do so. Regardless, I have several little rules and approaches to presenting, whether it be presenting a research article and explaining how it fits in with current practice, to more informal discussions talking about a case. Lectures tend to be a bit boring and your audience will decide how much they want to pay attention from the first couple of minutes, I always re-read through my slides, and practice them a bit, nothing is worse than having a slide that has too much information, or going through slides too quickly, where the audience thinks you may just try to rush things. I always try to include a high level of "entertainment" as possible to make the presentation interesting, and to take moments to stop and review a little bit, or even to explain information on a slide in two or three different ways, and sort of give a running commentary. The best presentations have emotional content i.e. funny or made you wake up, teach you something new, and spur discussion after the presentation. Like a magician I try to "turn" my audience midway through the presentation, by presenting something new or counter-intuitive, and I try to include new information that I think some attendings don't even know. But, in terms of clothing here is who I would use clothing during the presentation:

1. You could wear a very conservative business suit, starched white shirt, mono-chrome conservative tie, this makes your audience sit up straight a little when you walk in the room, you say, "I am going to present a topic that is little understood in clinical medicine today . . . " something to make it a story, instead of let's look at 35 slides and go over dosages of all possible drug combinations of how to treat meningitis, ok . . . Then you make a joke, everybody laughs because it comes from someone who is acting very conservatively, and you have the audience hooked, why is this guy who started so serious making jokes, what is he saying? Or you could lighten up the topic by mid-way through stepping away from the podium, say you want to talk about an interesting case that you had, what people really get is a little intermission where they can listen to you talk, a live person, you can even make it interactive by asking harmless easy to answer questions. It is always useful to put stuff in perspective too, i.e. this treatment may be coming to our ICU soon. Always have alot of energy at the begining of the talk as this energy is transmitted to your audience if they think you aren't excited to give the talk they won't be excited either. I would avoid pictures of your family and home because it gives the audience a sense that you would rather be with them, and they start thinking about time with their families. Give the audience brownie points in the begining i.e. the first 3-4 slides should cover information they know by heart, it makes them feel smart and more able to tackle all of the other information, and make comments with easy slides saying as we all know. . . this builds a comraderie with your audience i.e. if a cardiac surgeon says, "as we are all acutelly aware, the impact of hypertension on cardiovascular health is quite substantial, when patients come to me for a CABG . . . " as opposed to, "our group of cardiac surgeons is investigating a new technique which you are probably not aware" This makes everyone feel part of the team, and for one hour they think like a cardiac surgeon, neonatologist, etc . . .

2. I would advise against wearing a white lab coat because it looks to sterile, it looks like you need to feel like a big powerful doctor and wear you white lab coat everywhere, or that you are rushed and need to be back in the clinic.

3. Casual attire, i.e. shirt, with tie, not TOO distracting people shouldn't be looking at your mickey mouse tie during the talk and this be the only thing that they remember. I would always wear a boring tie (not a bowtie) as if you are too flashy you will alientate some of the audience, and never wear a funny tie if you plan on doing some jokes. The benefit of casual attire is that it makes the whole show more relaxing, if you dress without a suit, then don't just recite what is one the slides, but be the guy who had the informercials who tried to sell Juice-A-Mattic, make hand gestures and sell your information to the audience, i.e. if there was one thing I wished you would learn from this talk it would be that in the special case when you have a patient or here is something I wished I knew about earlier. If you do dress casual be prepared to work the audience, i.e. as above taking time to go into the audience a talk for 4-5 minutes. I would recommend wearing a solid blue starched shirt that is freshly ironed, a conservative tie.

I also use graphic heavy i.e. special slide animation in powerpoints, very picture heavy, very diagram heavy. Best background IMHO is purple or dark blue with light yellow font, best contrast, easier to read. My strategies work one student told me that my presentation was the "best ever" compared to all her lectures in medical school and they she was surprised that she stayed awake and actually learned something. Out of probably 12 presentations done to date, 10 the attending said it was "very good" or "good" or "excellent" and students always said that that was "very good" and asked me follow-up questions on the way out, usually I get a good discussion going at the end, and people say "huh" that is interesting, the ones that I only got a couple good comments were the ones I only had like 2 days to prepare, I usually spend 1 to 2 hours each night for a week working on said presentations, practice does help and be sure to edit your slides at least twice! But remember, always at the begining tell them how excited and happy you to tell them about the juice-a-matic or what have you;)
 
I actually base alot of my talks on how a magic act is done, (see the movie the Prestige), and you know how it works! People would say that I am silly for doing this, but have wanted to pass it only anonymously, here goes:

1. The Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary (I am going to talk today about metabolic acidosis and anion gap, something we all see on a daily basis is quite important to have a grasp of *med students wake up (do I need to know for step?), residents raise an eyebrow, attendings fall asleep* You can also start out with a clinical scenario that you will return to at the end of the presentation.

2. The Turn. The magician makes his ordinary thing to do something extraordinary. "It is extremely important to find the cause of a metabolic acidosis itself than treating the acidosis, which at mild levels above 7.2 may actually have beneficial effects, patients don't die from acidosis, they die from the underlying etiology of the metabolic acidosis, i.e. DKA . . . Before we had rapid blood electrolyte measurements we did X" Med students intrigued, residents intrigued, attendings start to scratch heads.

3. The Prestige. This is the part with the twists and turns where lives hang in the balance and you show your audience something shocking. "The anion-gap is based on serum albumin and phosphate, the normal range for anion-gap is based on a serum albumin of 4.0, but many of our ICU patients have an albumin of 2.0 or less, this rough formulae (3 x serum albumin) gives a rough range of the normal aniong gap, which might be responsible for non-AG DKA being reporte here . . . Med students still soaking it up, residents scratch head, attendings get interested.
 
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