How To Do Presentation In Pharmacy Including Clerkship

Seminar Presentation

A presentation can simply be defined as a discussion about a particular subject under study. This practice is very common in other departments in the school.

They do seminar presentation in their final year in their various course of study. It is embedded in their curriculum. However, this is not so in pharmacy school.

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The first presentation I was involved with was organised by a lecturer as a form of continuous assessment for that course subject. It was a group thing so we all contributed to the research and the group leader did the presentation. This is not necessary for other years to come since it was not part of the curriculum. However, we use to think that pharmacy does not do seminar presentation. Not until we started having series of it.

The number of the presentations I did was far more than what is experienced in other departments. The majority of the presentations were kind of continuous assessment. Clerkship presentation was the only official recognized presentation during the defence. However, it was still part of the continuous assessment and not full courses. Because of this, I decide to pen these down to assist fellow colleagues on the way.

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Many factors determine the topic for the presentation. For clerkship presentation, it normally involves presenting facts about the patient under review. For those other course subjects, the topic may be picked up by the lecturer in charge and distributed among the students or various groups.

Research Writing

If an individual student does the presentation, he must develop everything himself. However, for those in groups, the jobs are distributed among them. They may split up the topic into bits, which each student will develop. The group leader will think of ways to bring all work together to achieve a smooth flow of information.

For the main work, the write-up is devoid of chapters. Instead, we use section with a sub heading. The work includes background of the study, an abstract, objectives of presentation etc. pictures are highly needed. The font and font size should be the same all through.

Aside from that, students are to develop their slide. The slide is a summary of the main work with relevant pictures. The slide font and font size can vary depending on the space available.

For clerkship presentation, the main work involves the patient conditions, the disease the patient is suffering from, the drugs prescribed and the observation of the patient with the drugs. When there is the need for adjustment should be included. Images are highly recommended.

The slide show is also the summary of the main work with pictures to explain everything.

Needed skills include:

• Computer knowledge
• Presentation skills

Equipment needed are:

• A computer
• A projector
• Power point software, which the student should be familiar with.
• Microsoft Word software.

Choosing A Topic

In most case, the student has little opportunity to choose a topic except the one given by the lecturer. However, a topic should be:

• Narrow enough to allow thorough coverage
• Available in primary literature
• Give value to pharmacy students
• Have a literature-based conclusion

For clerkship presentation, the following should be noted

• Choose a case file of a patient with an easy disease
• Study the sign and symptoms of the disease
• Understand the disease
• Observe from the case file if the drugs is achieving its intended purpose at the right pace

Hints

• Present at home with friends timing you
• Check for spelling errors
• Avoid plagiarism
• Never use a pharmaceutical company’s name or logo in your work so that it does not look as if you are promoting their product or damaging their image
• Assume your audience is infinitely ignorant and infinitely intelligent
• Dress well
• Always put a smile on that face. No be street fight.

Presentation

During the presentation, never look up at the screen backing your audience. Instead, always look at your audience. If for any reason you wish to look at what you are doing, consider looking at the computer right in front of you. In case you are not opportune to look at it, then consider bringing in your own work as a guide and not a book you will be reading from it. The only time you may turn towards the screen is when you wish to illustrate a point.

• Introduce yourself and your topic. Explain the reason for the topic and how it will benefit all in attendance. For clerkship presentation, review disease states and drugs being used. State the importance of each drug for the different disease conditions suffered by the patient. If any drug is not relevant, include it in the presentation with valid reasons. In the case of adverse drug reaction, indicate it.
• Conclude and defend your conclusion.
• Keep to time. It is even better to leave before time than taking up allocated time.

After Presentation

There may be series of questions from the students and lecturers. The number of questions can be limited or unlimited. However, you can plan for questions with some of the friends. This is to prevent receiving difficult questions. To increase the chance of them asking questions and not the other students, the man roving the microphone can be contacted for assistance. However, most at times, the lecturer determines the choice of students that will ask a question.

Confidentiality

Never during your presentation, including the identity of the patient in clerkship presentation. This includes names, medical records, date, or birth etc.

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