Starting in your 4th year of medical school and on through residency, fellowship, and faculty years, you will be expected to do presentations for your fellow students, residents, fellows, and faculty.  These presentations may range from an informal presentation during patient rounds to a journal club presentation, to a full fledged noon conference or grand rounds presentation.  As you move through your career start saving articles of interest and ideas, so you can be better prepared when it's your turn to make a presentation.

Journal Club

Noon Conference

Grand Rounds

The purpose of Journal Club is to develop skills in critically reviewing and interpreting the medical literature of your field. It also allows departments to assist residents and fellows in working through biostatistics, critical appraisal, and becoming a life-long learner by staying up-to-date on the latest scholarly material. Departments and/or residency programs may develop Journal Clubs as part of the resident/fellow scholarship process. Faculty members are an integral part of this process through their participation in the critical analysis of material to be reviewed.  Featured below are tips to assist you in the Journal Club process:

• Selecting an Article - Look for the three R's: recent, relevant, and research. Decide on an objective for your journal club article, what are you interested in?  Have you come across a recent article of relevance in your field?  Before sending out the article, read the complete document looking for basic validity.
  • Thinking through the following questions will help you as you prepare for your Journal Club presentation:
    • What was the main outcome of the study?  What did they do in the study?
    • Why did they do it?  Why is this knowledge needed?
    • How did they do it?  Does it make sense?  Is it well constructed and free of bias as much as possible?
    • So what?  What should you take away from this article for future practice?
• Confirm the time allotted for your presentation.  You are usually give 10-15 minutes for initial presentation of scholarly article.
• Confirm presentation format.  Will you need to have PowerPoint slides?  If so, refer to tips for slides under Abstract section.
• Discuss your article with your mentor or faculty member assigned to Journal Club. 
• Be ready to discuss with the audience.
  

Whether you are a faculty member, a fellow, or a resident, you will likely be called on to make a noon conference presentation at some point.  Noon conference presentations are a integral part of the resident's didactic training and have a clinical focus around particular diseases or diagnoses.  This guide offers some tips on preparing for your noon conference presentation:

• Getting ready - Be sure you have a topic chosen or conveyed to you well in advance.  Begin a search of the literature or place your request to the library for a search as early as possible.  You may already collect literature in your field, but a quick keyword search or browse through top journals will bring up any new studies that may need to be added.  
• Creating your presentation - Keep the focus on the educational aspects of your topic.  Your audience will have varying levels of knowledge on your presentation's subject matter.  Convey what they need to know both for exams and day to day practice.  Below we have outlined suggested sections for your presentation:
  • Objectives of your presentation
  • Definition of topic and breakdown of various sub-sets
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Diagnostic criteria - clinical, imaging, labs, etc.
  • Treatment
  • Prognosis - if applicable
  • Summary
• Presenting - Structure your presentation around cases or practice questions, which will keep your audience involved and interactive.  Limit time for each section to 5-10 minutes. Highlight the most important points.  Do not drown them in the minutia of your specialty (unless they are all specialists too) just give them what they need to know for their daily work.  Stay near a microphone and stay within your time limit.  Audiences not only want to be educated, but they also want to get a break from their day, eat lunch, and take back knowledge they can use in the future. Just like you, they all have lots of things to do!

Grand Rounds is a formal presentation of medical knowledge usually given by a seasoned faculty member.  Topics may be requested of a Grand Rounds speaker or they may be asked to speak on their specialty area, giving them latitude on how to approach the presentation.  Grand Rounds will follow the basic presentation information provided above for noon conferences.  In addition, speakers should keep the following in mind:  

• Start with a through literature review - you are the expert here, you need to be sure you have all the latest information to discuss.
  
• Be interactive - even though your audience is a mixture of fellows, faculty, residents, and students, they are all still here to learn from you and the same learning principles will help hold their attention.  Using cases, prep questions, and discussion will keep your audience active, involved, and interested.
• Practice your presentation.  Grand Rounds are often attached to CME and recorded.  Your presentation should flow well and keep to the time allotted.
• Thank your audience. These are busy individuals who are taking time out to see your presentation.