Tips on Delivering Effective Presentations

We all have to give presentations throughout our careers. Usually you start off presenting to each other or your department as a medical student.

At Portsmouth, we often get our juniors to present to the department at our weekly meetings and I'm sure you've been given similar opportunities.

You may have taken the chance to present at regional or national meetings. You should stay on the lookout for these chances. Even though they may seem to be frightening events, you will usually be listened to sympathetically and the event will be marked in your CV forever

Communication skills are a key component of what makes us effective doctors. Presentations are a reasonable test of your communication skills and most selection processes now involve some form of presentation that you will be asked to deliver.

ST interviews and consultant interviews will commonly require you to produce a short (5-10 minute) presentation. It is often your first chance to make an impression on the selection panel. So it is important that you prepare well for it

There are some general rules that you are probably already aware of, but are worth highlighting again

	Have a structure to your presentation, with an introduction, middle and end
	Be clear on the main messages that you want to deliver and keep your presentation ruthlessly focussed on delivering those points. Don't deviate if it does not help you deliver those messages
	Don't read from your slides - know your talk
	Don't have busy slides and don't apologise for you slides
	Your talk should have a maximum of 1 slide per minute
	Your talk should be a talk that is helped by your slides - keep the audience looking and listening to you as much as you can