James Hant

March 7, 2019
Product Reflection
McFadden

Product Reflection
My project focuses on inspecting the importance of bedside manner, and although the research I
did and the experiences I had while completing this project are beneficial to myself, the best way that I
can have an impact on the topic is by sharing the information I learned with others. I shared the
information that I have learned and the experiences I had in the form of a presentation in front of a class
of high school students, many of which are interested in pursuing a career in medicine. By presenting to
this group, I hope to have peaked their interest in bedside manner, and I encouraged them to pursue more
opportunities that will expose them to the doctor-patient relationship. Because bedside manner can not be
simply taught, and has to be improved upon with experience, the goal of my presentation was to explain
what bedside manner is, what constitutes good bedside manner, and why bedside manner is important.
While creating the presentation, I had difficulty deciding on the aspects of bedside manner that I
wanted my presentation to focus on. After some planning, I decided to center the presentation around
active listening, clear communication, and allowing the patient to participate in selecting a treatment. I
chose these three aspects of bedside manner to focus on because I felt that they were the most important
to the patient experience. The next part of the presentation focused on why bedside manner is important,
and that portion included how bedside manner can affect patient outcomes, litigation, and the decrease in
empathy that students experience in medical school. Lastly, I finished my presentation by encouraging the
students to identify where the doctor-patient relationship falls into their values, pursue experiences that
would improve their bedside manner, and maintain their sense of empathy on their journey through
medicine.
The most stressful part of completing this presentation was talking in front of the class because
public speaking is not something that is entirely comfortable to me. Fortunately, the group of students that
I was presenting in front of was very respectful and receptive to what I was presenting on which made the
presentation much easier than I anticipated. Additionally, because I knew that public speaking is not a
strong point for me, I practiced my presentation multiple times at home by myself and with my parents as
my audience. By practicing my presentation multiple times before presenting it in front of an audience, I
was confident in my ability to talk about my topic and I was much more comfortable with speaking in
front of an audience.
After giving my presentation, I handed out a survey with four questions to each student. The
questions asked if they felt the presentation was effective in describing the importance of bedside manner,
if they were considering healthcare as a career, if they thought bedside manner is important in healthcare,
and if they will pursue opportunities to gain experience in bedside manner. The responses from the survey
were all very positive and affirmed that the presentation was effective.