(Un-) Cram Your Case Presentation in 6 Ways

Speaking engagements are still few of the hardest things to prepare for. At least for working professionals with a pink collar job who don’t seem to have a uniform work-time schedule.

               

Few words to all nursing students, case presentations don’t end when the schooling is over. For professional growth and well, for requirements’ sake, it carries forward even after getting a paying job. It’s a little awkward for me to use the phrase “paying job” though.

I have started a clinical job in nursing that doesn’t pay much. But yes, case presentations come in even higher level. The only distinction is that, I don’t get graded for my output this time around.

I together with a group of workmates was actually set to present a case study last 14^th of June. Plus that we work in different shifts, we still haven’t come up with a final case of a patient to present. That was supposedly what we had in line to look for from the time we started our job last November but didn’t. Because of course we are still wise to ways of procrastination. Teehee!

We lived through inconveniences of preparation-- including the inadequacy of time, lack of thoroughly decided options, and uhm, a meticulous supervisor whom we thought would give us flop sweats on the day of presentation.

Drafting, finalizing, brainstorming. Group mates from left to right: Gen, Lily, Mae, Myra

Having only 6 days left to work on our case, we cannot for anything best take the leisure of time or to have like nurses-meet-the-avengers sort of power.  

Here’s what we had to do:

Headstart

We get lesser time each day.  There’s nothing we can do otherwise so we firmly set our day 1 for obtaining consent from the attending physician, the patient and her family on the case presentation.

It really doesn’t need one with a dominant choleric type of personality to dictate what is to be done. It only takes one small act of leadership from anyone among the group to begin the work.

Wise Distribution

We arranged the second day for gathering all information as much as possible and assigning each member a task to work on.

While leadership and management styles work differently in each person or group, what is important is to recognize what will work best-- authoritative or lassie-faire especially when on cram.

Delegating, reading, researching (It's always good to combine printed and online references)

Planning

Third day served for planning out how we would want the case presentation to go about.

Whether you’re expecting for accolades or a fair output, there is no good presentation that happens without a single plan or goal of how you'd want it to turn out. Plan out, even for a little. Set a goal, no matter how small.

Inspiration

Day 4 made room for our first day of “The Making” process. Anyone familiar with nursing case presentations would know that it is usually started with a short introduction, and a touch of the patient’s comprehensive health history.

The comprehensive history is for the most part boring during presentations. It is mostly a mere narration of all the information about the patient. So we constructed something that would create a more comprehensible and captivating way of presenting it by coming up with a video reenactment in a documentary film-like format.

The video shoot locations

Like photography, video making is half shooting half editing. And we have encountered more than enough challenges-- who to act as the subject, when to do the video shoot, what editing software to use (and we would not recommend windows movie maker for its unstable file setup) and where to get the balance between work and sleep.

Shooting day. Straight from duty with barely enough sleep. From left to right: Gen, myself, Ariane

Find something that won’t only get you to where you want but will keep you there. Remind each other always of your goal and why no one should give up. It’s not in times like this that counting who has worked the hardest matters.

The production team

Editing and producing. From top then left to right: Ate Darl, Jan, myself, Ariane

Sacrifice

We tuned for finalizing our output and providing what each one had for suggestion on day 5. We gathered in a place that is favorable for our working (with available wall plug, wifi access which became two of our major problems in day 4, and good food, plus good music to set up the positive mood). 

At Trio Cafe'

Everyone has to make his own part of sacrifice by staying up late, passing up a day of rest for the benefit of the group.

Winston Churchill once said, “If you're going through hell, keep going” and that I think inclined us to continue what we started. Each should not give up no matter how impossible things might seem. Even sometimes that means not realizing everything that was planned so you still have to be flexible.

Trust

Finally came day 6, the judgment day should I call it. There was no turning back. The presentation pushed through in, pardon me for a little prate, positive way. Everyone was definitely proud of how it all came out.

The final preparation

Our case presentation was by the way about respiratory failure from acute demyelinating polyneuropathy. We had a refined idea of putting an emotional video for prayer which we took from youtube. Then said a courtesy to the Philippine National Anthem followed by a powerpoint presentation of the introduction, fitted with good visual theme and arrangement suitable for our audience.

Our case

On the Introduction: Justin

On  Anatomy & Physiology: co-red cross instructor, Ivy

On Pathophysiology: yours truly

On the nursing care plan: Alchie aka John Lloyd :)

On the discharge plan and prognosis: Ariane

Next was the creative video documentary film of the patient’s history, plus a moderate innovation in the format of the presentation that includes-- presenting the nursing care plan in a focused charting format, providing a consented and discrete photo of how our patient progressed from her condition.

The idea is to trust in the capabilities of all your group members. It has always been said that two heads are better than one.

Lastly, we didn’t forget to have fun!

The group

The candid shot. What's the sleeping all about?? :)

Celebrations!

Meal get together

Pardon me as well for including our idiosyncrasies and signature pose below:

The "in-love" smile

The "pogi" pose

The "nyora pose"

The feeler pose

             All the memories are worth keeping.

Postscript: The documentary film video mentioned in this post was not included for the patient's privacy. I would also like to personally extend my deepest gratitude to all my group mates and to you who reads this post. Smiles!

Photo Credits:
google (dot) com (slash) images- 1st photo

"I want to write things that people want to feel."

 Photo by Mariana Riccio

No one yet has ever thought the power and influence writing can make; from mere textbooks, to newspapers, magazines, novels, and even the varied types of blogs written in the world wide web.

Some people write for personal purposes like keeping a journal (for daily updates) while others write for business purposes or like maintaining a job whatever that is.

It goes without saying that some people react even to the most ordinary caption we make on photos or whenever we send them a simple hello. Whether they feel enamored, entertained, flattered, or saddened, it still gives a clear proof that they get affected by what we write. Perhaps it's not the printed letters that essentially affect them but the message conveyed behind every words that ignites and captures their human minds and hearts.

Just like when I got myself bored and idle at home one Wednesday afternoon. The temperature felt like it reached 40 degrees Celsius and I couldn’t manage another hour of sitting on the couch. It seemed like being cooked inside a big oven. I stood up and helped myself with a glass full of iced coffee and remained standing before the fridge that was widely open, hoping for an instant relief^^.

As I finished the glass of iced coffee and two other glasses of water I still couldn’t help the high temperature so I took a bath, changed my clothes, and walked a few distance to the high way and waited for a ride to a 15-minute drive mall.

The book encounter

I went window shopping and looked through some place to stay until the heat’s not too scorching outside. Not to mention how I was hugely relieved from the hot weather by the air-conditioned mall. I  had a delectable affair with a regular size of Zagu, a pearl drink that comes in three sizes with prices that fits accordingly, imbued with different flavors such as crème brulee, hazelnut cappuccino, choco caramel (that sound and taste really good and are by far my most favorite flavors of Zagu) and different others exquisitely blended with tapiocas. 

I had the chance to drop by the National Bookstore. I accommodated myself in the novels section, then to the featured books section, to the recipe books section and to the self-help books section, phew! And, okay, here was the real story: as I looked over the shelves I came across a book that said, “Men are good speakers, Women are bad listeners”. I didn’t know if I would laugh at the line or get mad with it, all I know was that it really sucked having have to stereotype one gender as being good and the other as being bad. Or do I have to mention that I perfectly belong to the gender that the line utterly quoted in the negative context?

My big disappointments heightened. I kept throwing in words of disgust leaving a bad impression on the author of the book (but peace to him whoever he is^^). Doesn't the line appear too discriminating on my part as a woman to be able to read something that coins the entire feminine gender as the complete malfunction of the masculine species?

Surely, other women especially the feminists would somehow react in the same way I did, wouldn’t they? The line was like a total crap. I felt there has to be a space for gender equality somewhere in that moment. So junk was that line, ditch was that author. I was pissed off and I was in total mess.

But that was long before I realized on my way home, how that very simple line influenced my emotions and made my day so bad. I was affected by the writing. The author made an impact on me. I thought to myself, writing really makes wonders. How it can turn a perfectly happy mood into an entirely opposite one; and how it can possibly touch other people’s lives.

Unexpected inspirations
    

I became more motivated for that reason, to be able to write things that would surely inspire others. I longed to make feelings work for them through the power of words.

It’s not as though I’ve been eager to do it for monetary intentions but rather the pure thought of influencing and making an impact on others through my write-ups.

On another note, I remember one classmate back in college who used to tell my other classmates how I am able to subtly touch other people’s lives and amazingly inspire them whenever I do speaking in school or whenever I do counseling on them. I wouldn't have known until a someone else told me. I was completely inspired to do more speaking and counseling to others, and who wouldn’t be? 

Humans as we are, it is a natural reaction for us to go far from what we used to do when somebody else we personally know or not appreciates our being able to help and move them in ways that we do. It’s our human behavior to do it in order to appeal to the impressions of others and prove it in our system. Consciously or not, it charges up our batteries when somebody caters to our ego. But right through my heart, to be honest, it just made me realize the sense and worth of the things I have been doing.

To speak and to counsel are the things I always love to do. But to have inspired others by doing these things is something I don’t quite expect. Hence, I thought exploring other ways to inspire people--- this time, through writing. To put into words the stories that represent and encourage them, and to hopefully be able to reach out to others who, if God so will, would be able to read my writings and become my regular readers and if it isn’t much, my blaudience. 

There’s nothing more fulfilling than to be able to succeed in things we love to do. 

No one yet has really ever thought the power and influence writing can make. Whether you agree, partially agree or totally disagree with the former statement, it’s still sure fire that you had something to say in mind; you had your own back talk or opinion perhaps. Thus, you were affected by the writings.

After all, writing is another thing that I’ve been dreaming of achieving. I want to write things that people want to feel!

Image Credit:

Mariana Riccio, maririccio.blogspot.com