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Your audience is your first priority. If possible, however, it’s also helpful to choose a topic that appeals
to you. What’s something you’re interested in and/or knowledgeable about?
It will be much easier to write a speech on a topic you care about rather than one you don’t. If you can
come up with a speech topic that appeals to your audience and is interesting to you, that’s the sweet
spot for writing and delivering an unforgettable speech.
Write A Thesis Statement
The next step in writing your speech outline is called your “thesis statement.” Remember, as a Nurse
your job also involves educating your patient and family, society, and even your peers. Your thesis
statement is then, essentially, your main point—the most important thing you hope to get across to
them. You’ll most likely say your thesis statement verbatim during your speech. It should come at the
end of your introduction. Then, you’ll spend the rest of your talk expanding on this statement, sharing
more information that will prove the statement is true.
Hook
The first part of your speech is the introduction, which should include a strong “hook” to grab the
attention of your audience. There are endless directions you can go to create this hook. Don’t be afraid
to get creative! There are many strategies that we can use to grab the audience's attention. You can try
telling a story such as relating the topic to your patient’s case, giving statistics such as certain disease
prevalence that signifies the prominence of your topic, or telling anecdotes such as narrating possible
outcomes that are expected or not regarding your topic. Making a joke is also recommended to grasp
our audience’s attention. However, as professional healthcare providers, we should carefully consider
ethics to decide which topics or issues we can make a joke about.
Briefly introduce yourself and who you are to communicate why the audience should trust you. Mention
why you’re giving this speech. Explain that you’re going to cover X main points—you can quickly list
them—and include your thesis statement.
Body
Next, you’ll write the body of your speech. This is the main point that you want to inform your patient
and family, society, or peers. You need to outline what you are trying to convey in your speech. You may
use visual aids to help the audience visualize the main point of your speech. The amount of detail you
may include in the body of the speech will depend on the outline. Your outline doesn’t have to include
the detail part. Your goal is to outline the most important elements so that they will easily be
understood; especially when your audience is your patient and family or the society who do not have
any medical background to digest long and complicated elaboration.
But beyond that, you don’t need to write down every last detail or example in this part. You don’t even
have to write full sentences at this point. That will come in your second outline and other future drafts.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should concisely summarize the main points of your speech. You could do this by saying,
“To recap as I finish up, today we learned…” and reiterate those primary points. It’s also good to leave
the audience with something to think about and/or discuss. Consider asking them a question that
expands on your speech—something they can turn over in their minds the rest of the day. Another point
is that you can share one final story or quote that will leave them with lasting inspiration. Bonus points
if your conclusion circles back around to your introduction or hook.

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