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You have to have an ace up your sleeve during away season. Something that can make you stick out from the crowd. For me (Jay), it was doing a presentation on a topic regardless whether it was required or not. Actually even hoped that it wasn’t required. I feel that it made a huge difference in the long run for me. Definitely was a able to leave a positive impression on the majority of individuals in the program by doing this. Here are some tips on how to crush your presentations on your aways. (This can help all students no matter which specialty you’re interested

(Also note, some programs every student is required to do a presentation at the end of their rotation, which is what I (Cole) experienced. So it’s good to be able to stand out from the crowd.)

1. Pick your topic

The first step is to pick a solid topic. When choosing your topic, you should make sure it is on something that is high yield for the residents. So I know what you’re thinking. How to find out what’s high yield ? This is a much easier question now that I am a resident. But I remember struggling with this as a medical student.

So I have three suggestions that should be readily available to most medical students. 

1. Choose an interesting case that you were involved in. That way you can get the xrays/CT scans and possible intraoperative flouro shots (if used). You can also talk about what was done in the case since you were there. And, you can run it by the resident/attending in that case.
2. If you can’t choose a case from that, orthobullets has a section of topics that is ranked by how high yield the topic is. The higher the yield of a topic the greater number of questions that are available on the site. I would make a list of some of the top ranked high yield topics  and choose the one that has recently come up while you are on the rotation. 
3.  If those two above don’t work, then another option is to just ask one of your orthopedic mentors (residents). At the end of the day, the best person to ask about is something high yield is someone who is in the field of orthopedics. They probably can lead you down the right road and may even be able to give you some tips on what to mention. 

2. Gather your info 

You have to remember to make your presentation at the level of a resident or at least an intern. So some of the basics can be skipped or just lightly mentioned. We recommend getting a few different sources for your topic and putting them all together in a succinct manner.  

Find a good review article on the subject, orthobullets review, and a good core book that goes over the subject ( Rockwood and Green, AAOS OKU, Campbell’s Orthopedics, etc.) This should give you a good enough base of knowledge to work with. The next challenge will probably be to be able to pick out the important aspects of the topic. A good clue is if you keep seeing it over and over…. it’s probably something important that you should mention in your talk. 

3. Putting together your slides

This is just goes back to slide etiquette. LESS WORDS MORE PICTURES. Don’t make your slides to wordy. Don’t overdo it with your animations. Sometimes simple is good.  Make sure everything looks neat and not rushed or thrown together. So all the basics tips you’ve probably been told since college. One major key to doing these presentations on away presentations is keep this talk under 10 minutes. There’s never enough time in the day and residents are always on the go. But they will usually be willing to spare 10 minutes for a student who’s showing they want to put forth some extra effort. (Some programs limit you to a 5 minute presentation).

Hopefully people leave your presentation having learned at least one thing.

4. Inform the staff that you want to do this

So sometimes rotations require students to do a presentation before the end of the month. Doing the presentation in situations like this does not give you the chance to shine as much as if you came up with it on your own. At least in my opinion. You kind of get lost in the shuffle if every other student does one as well. But it really gives you a chance to shine if you are the only person or one of the few who gets this done.

So start with the chief of the service. Let them know you want to get this done and when would it be best to do a 5-10 min talk. They may say at grand rounds or after morning rounds. Just make sure you’re ready whenever it is. Next step you should try to get as much faculty there as you can. So be active at letting the chair, director, attendings, etc  know you are giving a talk and you would like them to be there if they can make it. Even if none of the attendings can make it to your presentation, remember word travels fast. So put your best foot forward even if it’s just the residents. The right people will find out how things went one way or another. 

5. Get up there and shine 

Ok… Now it’s game time. Get up there and know your stuff. Good body language is key. Look confident. Smile. Be professional and well dressed. Yes… throw on your favorite suit while you give this talk. Especially if it is at something like a Grand Rounds Conference. If you still have to look at the slide to know what’s on it…. you’re not ready. You should have rehearsed this PowerPoint in the mirror at least 5-10 times until you know it cold. Make sure the timing is right at 5-10 mins and nothing more.

Also, don’t rush. I’ve seen presentations done where I wondered if the presenter was going to pass out or if they were able to get a breath in. They rushed through all of the slides trying to reach their time mark.  Be careful with adding questions to the talk. Don’t want to make it seem like you’re “pimping” the residents. It can get pretty awkward if they get the questions wrong. Lol. You got it from here … Get up there and shine. Make the NailedIt Crew Proud. 

6. Extra: Case Presentation Tips

Gather the history and physical for the patient you are presenting, important images and important labs. Also take note of whatever associated injuries that may have (ex: if you have a polytrauma patient). Some operative notes may help as well. For example, if you are presenting a joints case, you can typically find the size of the components in the operative note.

Specific slide tips:

• One slide for patient H&P. As little words as possible. Example;
  • AA. 48 M s/p MVC. 
  • R tibia shaft fx. Closed, NV intact. 
  • Assoc: R pneumothorax, SAH, SDH
• Slides with images. Describe the images
  • “ Here we have an AP, and lateral in skeletally mature patient, showing ___”
  • “ Further advance imaging was obtained and here is an CT, axial cut___” etc
• Talk about what was done
  • “We took him to the OR for ___. Intra- op images showing us getting a reduction using clamps.. Etc”
• Add some high yield review slides on your topic that cover the info (classifications, high yield info, etc)
• Add an article that talks about your topic
• End 

Written by: Jay Fitts, MD and Wendell Cole, MD

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