Can you a prepare a teaching session for tomorrow!

If there was a time to avoid eye contact this is one of them. You’ve had a busy day, a list of stuff to do awaits after work and something ‘interesting’ happens during the handover and the consultant thinks something is so interesting that YOU should plan a short teaching session for everyone’s benefit. Been there yet?

The natural thing to do in a rush is to google the condition/guideline/clinical sign and ‘COPY & PASTE’

STOP!

Please don’t do that.

You won’t understand what you’re teaching. You’ll read your own slides. The slides are congested with text and everyone is bored. They may say great teaching on the feedback but you know they didn’t really mean that.

So, let’s start again and plan the teaching to be as pain free to your time, your self-esteem and to the audiences.

 Could you say no? I mean you may not want to but would it be the worst thing?

Ok, that failed. You’re doing it. What now? Here are a few things to consider:

1. Turn the whole situation into a funny narrative

Use slides to tell the audience what happen and gain sympathy and produce light entertainment.

Slide one – I was minding my own business and I got cornered and I’m too polite to say no

Slide two – I was asked to produce a short teaching

Slide three – My first thought WTF

You get the picture

Right, I get it, that isn’t going to fly. So let’s talk about a more professional strategy to this problem

2. You don’t need to tell them everything about the topic.

No one is expecting you to be an expert so don’t worry. Pick a few key points you want to get across. They could be related to why this is being discussed and things that would be useful for everyone to know. In fact, that maybe how you want to start. Slide one – why I was asked to talk about this topic. Give the context.

Something I find useful is to do a summary slide or key points and work backwards to avoid information overload.

3. What’s important

Things that will help with their job are always winning points.

You may what to include:

-              Definitions

-              Red flags

-              Discharge/readmission parameters

-              Local guidelines

-              Where to find things/numbers to contact people

4. Pictures say a thousand words

You may have heard the saying, a picture can say a thousand words

Instead of writing a block of text, do a google image search. You could find a very informative diagram which you can simply explain and engage your audience. Why not try using a flip chart. Put your diagram on PowerPoint and use a flip chart to teach. 

5. Did you consider how long you need to teach.

Maybe I should have started with this. How long do you need to teach for? If it’s 5 minutes then why are you planning for a 30 minute lecture? If it’s only 5 minutes you probably only need 5-8 slides:

-              Title

-              Objectives

-              Diagram

-              Related to the department

-              Take home message

Notice I didn’t add a slide for questions. Remember, you are not an expert so don’t let people question you like you are. If they have questions then let those questions be directed to the consultant.

Remember this is post-handover teaching not a regional conference. No opportunities will open for you, there is no prize up for grabs so don’t waste your precious free time on this.

Keep it simple.