4 Key tips for managing stress as a nurse

Whether we like it or not, most of us will speak pubicly at least once during our lives, and some of us will even speak or present everyday! Making a presentation to a room full of people can be a daunting, nerve-wracking prospect - but if you follow our tips found below, you should feel pretty confident of getting your speech right on the day.

All in the preparation

As individuals, we all approach tasks with different values. Some people are proactive, whereas others will react to a task at the last minute. Whether you choose to start preparing weeks in advance for your presentation, or in the early hours of the day before you are due to speak, your preparation must always be thorough.

Never under-estimate the importance of preparation, from speech or script writing through to rehearsing your presentation. Your preparation can be the difference between fully engaging your audience, or making them thoroughly disinterested in what it is you’ve said.

With a great deal of preparation under your wing, you will go into your presentation feeling confident and relaxed – helping body language and overall delivery.

Be disciplined

To speak publicly, you must be rigorous with yourself in a few key areas. Firstly, you must design a speech or presentation that is suitable for the time allocated for you by the event management. There are no excuses for waffling on for minutes after your allocated time is up.

Secondly, rigorously train yourself to convey better body language. Creating a positive visual image of yourself will help engage your audience as they look and listen to what it is you have to say. Study your favourite politicians (if you have any) to see the tactics that they adopt.

Make sure you have confidence in yourself. If you’re giving a presentation or a speech, it’s likely that you have been chosen because of your excellent knowledge in this area. Rise to the occasion by delivering your key points with confidence.

Keep the audience interested

Speeches live and die by their consideration for audience engagement. Keeping the attention of the crowd in front of you is your hardest task as a speechmaker or presenter. Again, body language plays a large role in keeping your audience engaged, but what you are communicating verbally is of equal importance.

Design interesting questions to ask your audience and create areas of interest like puzzles and mysteries to peak their interest. This could be a simple question at the start of your speech that you will promise to answer later. These are all tactics that you can use to give a better, more interesting presentation or speech.

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