Volume 38 Number 5 | October 2024
Part 2: Work Time!
Ali (Nussbaum) Murphy, MHHSA, MLS(ASCP)CM, caPM, ASCLS Director
In part one of this series, we took an idea and created a proposal for a continuing education (CE) presentation, which can be submitted to whomever is looking for speakers (your employer, a local conference, organizations looking for speakers, etc.). In this part, we will discuss the creation of your presentation—pulling materials together, researching the topic, and outlining the presentation. You can start this even before your talk is accepted.
For me, crafting the presentation is the hardest part of the whole process. If I have an idea, I can write a proposal fairly quickly, but doing the presentation work is my hurdle. As a serious procrastinator, I always intend to work on my presentation months in advance, but typically finish with just days to spare. This stage can be challenging, so make sure that you do not wait until the last minute, which will lead to unnecessary stress. Your presentation should be an adventure, not a nightmare!
Hopefully from the first part, you picked a topic that you are excited to dive deep into. There are numerous sources of information: books, online articles, your colleagues, etc. Make sure that the sources are credible, up to date, and relevant for the talk. Keeping a running bibliography is incredibly helpful. If the topic of the presentation is a case study, you should contact the medical facility from which you are pulling the information to ensure patient anonymity, to get access to the medical chart, and have the facility’s blessing to present the information. In some cases, the medical directors must pull all the relevant information and check that your final presentation meets the standards of the organization; it is crucial to know this before you start.
“The slideshow is meant to organize your points, serving as a tool to help you lecture effectively while keeping the audience engaged.”
Researching a presentation might feel similar to schoolwork, and in many ways, it is. Subject matter experts still need to do research to ensure all their content is up to date and meets the current standards of the relevant community. Regardless of how much you know about a given subject, researching to reaffirm your knowledge is essential. Although this research may bring you back to your high school or college days, it is a wonderful tool to reinforce what you know and ensure you are presenting the most valuable information you can.
When creating the content for a slideshow, there are many ways to put it together. You can start a slide deck immediately or rough it out in sections. Outlining is a useful technique because it ensures you will meet the objectives you set in the proposal. Each objective can serve as a header and all relevant content, including references, can be filled under each header. Then, when you are ready to start putting it into a PowerPoint or other presentation tool, all the information is in an organized hierarchy that can be translated into a quality slideshow. Your objectives need to match the verbs used in the proposal. So, if the objective is to define, ensure that a definition is listed. If the verb is to apply, provide enough detail and examples so that learners can utilize the information in other formats.
Now that you are ready to put together a slideshow, it is important to use good etiquette for slide structure. There are numerous philosophies on how to create a good show. A large, clear font is a must. All acronyms should be defined the first time they are used, because not everyone will know their meanings. Any pictures should be relevant and not a distraction from the topic.
Your first instinct when creating a slideshow may be to fill the slides with all the information you want to present. There are two main reasons this is not a preferred strategy. First, it encourages the presenter to read the slides instead of knowing the content, which disengages the audience. Second, it makes the audience lose focus. The audience may focus on reading the slides instead of listening to you. Too many words on the slide may disengage the audience as well. If the slideshow is handed out before the talk, it may dissuade audience members from attending because they feel they can simply read it afterward and still get all the content.
Quality slideshows often have minimal words, good pictures, and no overwhelming slides. A helpful tool within PowerPoint is the notes section. It allows you to keep the audience slides concise while having all the notes available to you as talking points. It can be challenging to remember everything while giving a CE lecture; thus, the notes section should be written like a speech. Focus on writing down key words and phrases to help you remember your talking points without simply reading a script to the audience.
A strong conclusion helps to successfully bring the lecture to a close. Abruptly ending the lecture is jarring and can leave the audience with a bad impression. Make sure to have a conclusion slide or slides that adequately and briefly summarize your key points and objectives. The last few slides should include contact information (if comfortable), a thank you to the hosting organization and the audience, a space designated for questions, and your references.
Creating a quality slide show is the second step (after writing the proposal) toward achieving your presentation goal. The slideshow is meant to organize your points, serving as a tool to help you lecture effectively while keeping the audience engaged. It can go a long way to helping you become an effective lecturer. The final step is to understand the presentation techniques to get quality engagement from the audience.
Ali (Nussbaum) Murphy is an LIS Technical Specialist at HealthPartners in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Photo credit: Unsplash