Oral presentation without notes

Today I had to present a new patient from memory. The team split up in the morning, half going to clinic and the other half rounding quickly on patients. I only had two patients to present, one of which was a new patient I had seen yesterday with an intern and still needed to be staffed with the attending. I realized after it was too late that my intern had taken the History & Physical with her to clinic.

Given my previous struggles with oral presentations, I was a little worried about how this presenting-without-notes thing would play out. To my surprise, though, I not only pulled it off but gave a thorough, concise, and conversational presentation (in my humble opinion). What's more is that the senior attending from another team happened to be at the patient's room and stayed specifically to listen to my presentation, so I had an audience.

It felt good to get it right.

Numerous attendings have told me that the best way to improve my oral presentation is to present without notes. That seemed like an impossible task a few years ago but within reach now that I have some more clinical experience under my belt. I'm going to take their advice now and try to present patients with as little help from notes as possible.