There is one aspect of training to be a nurse that never fails to instil me with fear – giving presentations..
- Originally published 2nd April, 2012
According to Jerry Seinfeld, the average person’s greatest fear is speaking in public. This ranked even higher than death which was third on the list.“So, you’re telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy?”.It’s a strange thought but I know what he means, I also campaign a lot for the environment and I have to give a lot of public speeches. The fear is just terrible.
So why are student nurses expected to be good at public speaking? Will it really help us to be better nurses?
During the course of your training you will be required to give presentations usually lasting around 15 minutes. It is often in front of your peers and often in small groups, but no matter what the circumstances are, no doubt you will be feeling anxious.
How do you tackle the fear of speaking in public? Do you have any tips and advice that could help other student nurses preparing to give presentations?
- Follow up article published 14th April, 2021
In my article at the ‘Student Nursing Times’ from 2nd April I talk about stage fright and the often debilitating ways it can cripple you but since that time the gut churning sensations have had a chance to raise their ugly head again.
As I said in the article, student nurses are required to give presentations as part of the continued assessment process. Ostensibly this is to train students to be able to present information clearly and concisely. This could be for an interview, patient handover or even to present research findings. My second assessed presentation was on 12th March and where was my first was an individual presentation this time around I was in a group of 4. Even though I was only talking to an audience of 14 people I had still managed to convince myself it was going to be a disaster. As it happened, everything went fine and I’m pleased to report that I passed the module but that obviously won’t be the last time I have to stand in front of an audience and deliver a coherent presentation. In fact, that time is coming sooner than I thought.
On 1 May I will be helping to co-host the Student Nursing Times award with Nursing Times editor, Jenni Middleton. The prospect of standing in front of hundreds of students, nurses and lecturers gives me the same sensation as standing in front of a firing squad. This is a ‘misfiring’ of the fight or flight response. There are certain situations where feeling terror and an uncontrollable urge to run is a justified sensation. If you see a car speeding towards you, and near instantaneous compulsion to escape would be very beneficial. Getting that same sensation when talking to a room of your peers is less helpful.
A quick search online will reveal thousands of tips and tricks to overcoming nerves but as I was told, the only way to conquer your fear is to expose yourself to it. When I was just starting to do my campaigning work I knew I would be giving a lot of talks and would have to increase my confidence. It was while I was looking for solutions I came across an organisation called ‘Toastmasters’. The Toastmasters were founded in America and they have clubs all over the world. They hold meetings designed to give people the opportunity to give talks to those in attendance. The talks can be on something you know about or on a completely random subject. The purpose is to give you a friendly atmosphere, supportive feedback and to expose you to the feelings of anxiety that you will experience when giving an assessed presentation at Uni. Seek them out and find the time to visit them. I can vouch from personal experience that it does help. I look back at some of the major speaking events that I have been part of and can see that I was certainly felt a lot worse in those early days than I do now but I’m far from comfortable.
However you deal with problems such as stage fright performance anxiety, it may help to realise that we all to some degree feel the same way. As a distinguished Toastmaster told me; “we all have butterflies in our stomach, but we try to make them fly in formation”.
