A Nurse's Guide to Public Speaking

From The Critics

Reviewer: Kathleen Stevens, RN, EdD, FAAN(University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio)
Description: This short volume outlines concrete steps for preparing and delivering a speech, including organizing the speech, assessing the room and audience, relaxing before the speech, and dealing with one's fears.
Purpose: The purpose is to assist nurses in their development of an effective speaking communication style. It addresses the increased demand for nurses to effectively communicate in managerial and corporate groups as well as in such venues as before community groups, advertisers, and political and business groups.
Audience: The intended audiences are all nurses who present formally and informally: novice and expert speakers, clinicians, and students. The author's experience and education as a freelance health and medical writer, in combination with his collaborative management and writing activities with nurses, add to his credibility on this subject.
Features: Comments from a variety of experienced nurse speakers provide wisdom from lessons learned through their experiences.
Assessment: The book is easy and fast reading and offers a pragmatic outline. The simple and concrete advice is largely sound, although not documented. Neither the content nor style are intended to be scholarly, although the lack of documentation, liberal use of contractions, and gender-biased language contravene the message. Further readings about the content preparation phase of speechmaking would be useful.

Kathleen Stevens

This short volume outlines concrete steps for preparing and delivering a speech, including organizing the speech, assessing the room and audience, relaxing before the speech, and dealing with one's fears. The purpose is to assist nurses in their development of an effective speaking communication style. It addresses the increased demand for nurses to effectively communicate in managerial and corporate groups as well as in such venues as before community groups, advertisers, and political and business groups. The intended audiences are all nurses who present formally and informally: novice and expert speakers, clinicians, and students. The author's experience and education as a freelance health and medical writer, in combination with his collaborative management and writing activities with nurses, add to his credibility on this subject. Comments from a variety of experienced nurse speakers provide wisdom from lessons learned through their experiences. The book is easy and fast reading and offers a pragmatic outline. The simple and concrete advice is largely sound, although not documented. Neither the content nor style are intended to be scholarly, although the lack of documentation, liberal use of contractions, and gender-biased language contravene the message. Further readings about the content preparation phase of speechmaking would be useful.

Barbara Barnum

This book is full of concrete and practical suggestions and covers all the bases. . . Try it on for effect; you are bound to improve your presentations.
—Nursing Leadership Journal

2 Stars from Doody