Guidelines for Presenters at Gen Med Meetings

How the meeting works

  • The Friday meeting is a clinical, case-based discussion
  • The best meetings are those that highlight interesting clinical scenarios that lead to discussion rather than a lecture style presentation
  • The General Paediatric Fellow is the main coordinator of the meetings.
  • There is a five-week cycle. Each of the four general medical units present in turn, followed by another invited unit on the 5th week.
  • Usually the registrar and resident present the material, with their consultant facilitating the discussion.
  • The last meeting of the year is usually a quiz.

Choosing a case

  • Discuss options for cases to present with your consultant at least one week before your presentation date
  • Think about the points of the meeting that you would like to encourage discussion and how you will achieve this
  • Unusual / interesting / exotic / esoteric cases are often presented
  • Common and important paediatric conditions can be just as interesting if the meetingconcentrates on some new aspects of diagnosis or management.
  • Consider presenting cases from outpatient clinics as well as admitted patients.

Tips for preparing

  • Itis useful to have a run through of the presentation with the consultant before you present the meeting to get feedback on your slides and content and edit your presentation. Aim to do this early in the week
  • Do not be overambitious about the amount of material that can be presented in the available time. There needs to be plenty of opportunity for discussion. It is better to risk having too little than too much.
  • For the PowerPoint
  • Keep your font sizes large enough to be read from the back of the room
  • Keepyour main subject headings around 24 to 36 points, with your subheadings and bullet points no smaller than 16 points
  • Use no more than two different fonts throughout your presentation
  • Don't overdo the use of tacky sound effects or text that flies in
  • Keep to 4-5 points maximum per slide Using the Template
  • Summarise key information rather than writing every little detail of the case
  • Please use the standard RCH PowerPoint template for your presentation. This template is available on the intranet by searching "PowerPoint template" from the RCH home screen.

Tips for presenting

  • Talk in a loud, clear voice.
  • A brief presentation of the case, perhaps punctuated by opportunities for audience input can be a good way to start the meeting
  • The case should be used to facilitate discussion of interesting clinical points; examples may be difficult decisions, ethical considerations or management uncertainty
  • Some cases require reference to relevant medical literature however it should be used to facilitate discussion rather than being presented as a comprehensive review.
  • Sometimes a summary table/graph or diagram is more helpful than text
  • Avoid presenting a review of a topic with information heavy slides
  • Some meetings work well with the use of MCQ and audience polling (see tips for use of technology in meetings)

Inviting others involved in the case

  • It can be very useful to invite others who were involved in the case –for example the Emergency Department, ICU, specialist units or radiology.
  • Make sure you give them plenty of warning, and tell them in advance if they are expected to comment on any particular management issues
  • It is best to use specialty teams to facilitate the discussion, or comment on an aspect of the case, rather than ask them to present a content based lecture. They should NOT prepare slides.
  • If someone from radiology is there to present imaging results –tellthem exactly what needs to be presented in advance and keep to the key findings

Discussion

  • Usually the presenting units’consultant will facilitate this.

Summary Slide

  • The final slide of your presentation should be a summary slide of key learning points
  • This slide will be circulated to staff that are unable to attend so should reflect the content of the meeting in take home messages

Saving Presentations

  • After the presentation, please email a copy of your presentation, with all clinical case slides removed, to the general medicine fellow who will upload your presentation to the archive online.