3-Minute Presentation Example

"Reflect on your experience of leadership when working as a team member and how this will be useful as a core trainee."

In the below example the presentation was written out in full with key points highlighted in BOLD. This can then be timed robsutly to ensure the presentation is within the three minute mark. The disadvantage of this is it can throw candidates off on the day trying to remember the exact sentence. Therefore some candidates prefer a bullet point list of key points (try both with your presentation and which works for you!).

Presentation Example 

I would like to use 3 examples to demonstrate by leadership skills: firstly in a leadership role, a second clinical example and a final example from outside of medicine.

SHO Theatre Rota co-ordinator

I feel an example that demonstrates by leadership role is in my role as the SHO theatre co-ordinator. On my orthopaedic placement I identified that there was insufficient theatre opportunities and raised the issue with my colleagues. I listened and incorporated these views and showed innovation by creating a theatre rota with allocated theatre time. I set clear and distinct goals with the aim of increasing training opportunities whilst maintaining safe levels of staffing. By establishing a general consensus amongst colleagues I was able to motivate the surrounding team to triple the amount of theatre time for all SHOs and improve our training as a result.

I plan to apply these skills throughout core surgical training; recognising areas for improvement in the department and encouraging my surrounding team towards change; with the aim of improving patient care.

Major Trauma Call

A further clinical leadership example involved a trauma call from a patient who had being involved in an RTA just outside the hospital. With the current hospital not being a trauma center there was no orthopaedic registrar covering overnight; leaving me as the most senior member of the orthopaedic team. In this situation I began by assigning roles within our team; whilst keeping calm under pressure whilst providing initial resuscitation and basic fracture management. I established that ongoing management was beyond by hospitals capabilities showing effective communication by onwards referral the major trauma centre and liaison with own registrar and consultant on call. This allowed us to stabilise the patient with initial treatment before safe transfer to a major trauma centre to receive appropriate care. 

In core surgical training I feel it is crucial to remain calm under pressure and to show effective communication with senior. Whilst always recognising the limitations of my clinical capability. 

Sports Captain

A final example of leadership skills is my role as intra-mural football captain. With a limited number of players it was crucial to recognise individual strengths within our team; whilst preventing fatigue and keep players well rested. I led by example turning up to every training session, arriving early to matches and conducting myself professionally on the pitch.

Surgical training is a difficult and strenuous at times and it is essential to care for yourself and look out for struggling colleagues. Identifying areas of strengths in team members is a crucial skill I have learned from this and plan to utilise this skill throughout my surgical career.