Column

Little Things Mean A Lot
Valerie DeFrance

We all use multiple instructors at one time or another and most of the slide driven programs require, or suggest, the use of them. Depending on how well organized you or the coordinators are, slide driven, or canned, programs can run smoothly or be your worst nightmare. Disorganized programs rob the students of valuable learning and may leave you and your co-instructors looking foolish. This month we offer some help to make those canned programs go much smoother. 

Canned programs, such as PHTLS, ACLS, PALS, or perhaps those you have developed, use a slide driven format to provide the didactic portion of the course. While this helps ensure overall consistency in the delivery of the program, it can quickly turn into a technical nightmare. 

To assist you and your co-instructor in delivering a much smoother program, here is a tip that takes very little time, but will make a huge difference in the classroom. 

The problems
Many programs have slide guides that clearly lay out which numbered slides go with which subject. 

The first problem is that the programs are not always laid out in a sequential manner in regards to the slide sets, and may leave you hopping from slide set 1 to set 6, and then back to set 3. With some programs you can change the order to match the slide sets, but this isn't always the wisest course of action. (For the most part, the program designers laid out the subject matter in a way that flows smoothly. PHTLS instructors in the crowd are very familiar with this.) Or, conversely, you have slides that are sequential and match the flow of the subjects, but you decide to change the presentation layout, possibly because of the time a guest lecturer can be available. 

The second problem is that as you handle slides multiple times you may get them mixed up or not be able to easily find them after they are loaded. 

The third problem is that while all the instructors involved are generally expected to load the slides for their subject matter, some guest instructors (can you spell "doctor"?) do not arrive in time to load slides, or may even expect the slides to be preloaded by the coordinator. 

The solution
Use Valerie's Handy-Dandy Slide Tracker, which you can download here for free.

First, ensure that you have enough slide carousels to cover at least one full day of the program. 
Using masking tape and a thick marker, clearly mark and attach a number label to each carousel: Number 1, Number 2, etc. 

Start loading slides with set number 1 in carousel number 1. Try not to load all the slides in one set for one subject across multiple carousels. As you load, fill in the blanks on Valerie's Handy Dandy Slide Tracker.
You may want to make a few extra copies of the completed slide tracker for the other instructors, one to tape to the table you are working from, and, most definitely, one you can hide away for emergencies. 

When using the slide tracker it's easy to see which carousel is needed for any given subject. Give it a whirl, and let me know what you think of it!