Dartmouth Medical School

Improving Oral Presentation Skills 

Purpose: To target oral presentation skills during case presentations in Surgery, Medicine, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics, recognizing the affect of setting and specialty. 

Objectives: 1) To improve oral communication skills through curricular enhancements in the 2nd year course, On Doctoring, and in all required 3rd year clerkships: Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Medicine, and Surgery. 

Educational Methods: Four specialty-specific Video Cases, reflecting the particular content and behaviors to illustrate poor and better performances in each specialty; Oral Presentation Evaluation Form covering: Presentation of History; Physical Examination and Laboratory Components; Assessment & Plan; Communication style; Professionalism and; a Global Assessment with a 5-point Likert-type scale; Oral Presentation OSCE case. 

Applications: Implemented in 2nd year On Doctoring course; Orientation and/or weekly didactic series of all required 3rd year clerkships.  In addition, Surgery, Pediatrics, Family Medicine and Medicine faculty reviewed specialty-specific video and completed evaluation form to trigger discussions on the importance of effective presentation skills, a process that enhanced faculty members’ awareness of differing expectations for effective case presentation among the specialties. Students were encouraged to ask residents/faculty to complete an evaluation form during their rotation.