Indonesian
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Soon after arriving in the UK from Romania to continue her medical training, Cristina Costache became a local representative for the junior doctors (now referred to as residents). In 2017, she attended the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) where colleagues asked her to propose a motion to the conference. She is now a member of BMA Council and several other BMA committees and groups, and mentors newly elected young doctors on BMA committees, helping them to improve their confidence in speaking at conferences and contributing to meetings. Here she shares her advice.
My first experience of public speaking
Ahead of the BMA’s ARM, the resident doctor representatives have a meeting to discuss and allocate motions to residents that might want to speak. During that meeting in 2017, another resident doctor, Latifa Patel, who is now chair of the BMA’s representative body, turned to me and said, “You haven’t chosen a motion. Do you want to speak on this one on doctors’ mental health?”
I found that opportunity exciting, partially because I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t want to say no. I had to learn how to speak in front of everybody, and quickly. Lots of searching on YouTube for tips on public speaking followed – then I didn’t know that I could watch ARM recordings online to see how motions are put forward and debated.
It was nerve-racking. Speaking against consultants as an F1 definitely isn’t easy, but I did it. I’ve also since been diagnosed with autism, which explains my battle with trying to mask in a totally new culture and language, another reason why my younger self is even more deserving of a pat on the back.
I benefited from an unofficial mentor
I was born and brought up in Romania, and that is where I studied medicine, in Romanian. Although I studied English at school, it wasn’t until I came to the UK in 2016 to continue my training that I really started using it regularly and for work.
At that time there wasn’t a ‘buddy’ system for first time attendees at the ARM. But Helena McKeown took me under her wing, and as well as offering me the opportunity to propose my first ever motion, she unofficially mentored me, giving me the benefit of her years of experience speaking at conferences and contributing to committees.
After that first speech she told me, “You need to speak once per meeting, it’s the best way to be seen and remembered”. I am very introverted and experience ‘imposter syndrome’, so I needed someone to nudge me to do this.
Few people will step up to contribute voluntarily in a forum of far more experienced people, and there’s a voice in my brain that always says, “But they have so much experience, and speak so clearly, why waste the oxygen?” In reality, grassroots voices – the voices of the more underrepresented groups – are just as valid, and you never know when your point of view will change a decision.
Sometimes you will say something that no one else has the courage to say. Several times colleagues have come up to me afterwards to thank me for doing this. It’s the most fulfilling feeling to have put yourself in a position where you felt vulnerable for the benefit of others and for change for the better.
The advice Dr McKeown gave me on public speaking was brilliant, and now I try to pass that same advice on to newer members or reps, especially those from underrepresented groups. Dr McKeown also not only showed appreciation for my efforts, she commended them to others, which boosted my confidence considerably.
How to improve your public speaking
In surveys asking people what they are most scared of, public speaking comes higher than death. , They say they would rather die than stand at a lectern and speak to an audience in a room.
Public speaking isn’t one of my fortes, but I’m definitely hundreds of miles away from where I began as a 20-year-old medical student who had never done any official public speaking before.
How you improve your public speaking skills will depend to some extent on the type of public speaking you undertake – will you be delivering a prepared speech, speaking more spontaneously from notes, addressing a conference or contributing at a small board meeting?
There are many books and workshops out there to give you the basics. I started at medical school in Romania by joining a public speaking workshop (in Romanian).
My go to tips are:
What to expect from the mentoring process
I mentor reps who have been elected to serve on BMA committees for the first time, both officially through the BMA mentoring programme, but also unofficially. In particular, I offer to support women and international medical graduates who, I feel, have leadership potential but lack confidence, and who often ask for advice on public speaking.
Building informal buddy schemes within the BMA for specific occasions to support new reps has been one of my approaches, as well as encouraging both experienced and new reps to join the official BMA mentoring scheme.
BMA reps will be happy to give informal feedback on your speech or statement, and help you practise delivering it. We all do this voluntarily because we want to support our colleagues and for the greater good of the BMA and the profession.
There’s no one size fits all approach, mentorship is very personal. At the outset I try to meet up with a mentee, or at least chat with them, to find out what they are looking to get out of the mentorship, and how I can help. It’s a voluntary relationship both ways, so it’s obviously dependent on each person’s free time and health, and I’m guilty of having given more to some mentees than others. But I do pester them with check in messages – you never know when they need someone and sometimes a, “hi, just checking in” message comes at the right moment. We’ve all been there.
As a mentor, there’s nothing better than seeing the fruits of your mentoring work. More than once, I’ve contributed to reps growing into very active and powerful national reps whose work has impacted positively on thousands of doctors in all branches of practice.
Whether you meet with them regularly, provide a safe space for them to reach out for advice, encourage them to volunteer to speak at conferences or to stand for a representative position, help them network, or just cheer them on from the sidelines, it all makes a bigger difference than you think.
References
1. Is Public Speaking Really More Feared Than Death?: Communication Research Reports: Vol 29 , No 2
2. The Thing We Fear More Than Death | Psychology Today
About the author
Cristina Costache is a paediatrics registrar in Yorkshire and Humber, and a member of both the BMA National Council and BMA Yorkshire and Humber Regional Council. She is also a PhD student at the University of Manchester.
Cristina Costache was interviewed by Ingrid Torjesen
Share this article
Back to top
© 2014 – 2024 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. Powered by Madgex Job Board Software