Recognition Determine whether or not there will be a prize given to the winner of the event. This may require sponsorship, so take account of it early during budgeting. At the least, the participants should receive a participation certificate and this will need to be designed ahead of time.
The Actual Event Preparation Phase The participants will always get preparation time prior to actual counselling session. This information can be presented immediately before the competition or even earlier, like 24 hours prior to the event. Keywords, like drug names, disease states, a prescription, should be given to each participant so they can prepare for the counselling session. If the preparation material was to be given a day in advance of the event, then this information can either be emailed out to all the participants or even ask the participants to gather together and the information is presented to them. If the preparation material is given immediately before the event, then ensure the participants arrive knowing exactly what time to arrive for this. In general, the amount of preparation time should be no longer than 15 minutes. For a challenging event, the preparation time can be eliminated but this would be a more advanced variation of the event and may not be suitable in many situations.
Participants will need to arrive at least 5 minutes before their actual counselling session. Ensure all the participants are clear as to what time they should present themselves and where they should be meeting. There should be a holding area for the participants to wait just prior to the event and this could be where the participant prepares for the counselling session. Paper, writing utensils, references, and calculator should be available for all participants here. Use a timer to ensure all the participants receive the same amount of time for the preparation time. This would be a place where a volunteer can help out with greeting the participants, the timing and smooth transition from one participant to the next. The Actual Competition After the preparation time, ensure the participant knows where to go for the counselling session. There should be a helper here that informs the participant when to go in and also be responsible for timing of the counselling session. Reminders should be given either by knocks on the door or a bell when there is two minutes left in the session, this way, the participant would have an idea as to how much time there is left. After the counselling session, there should be approximately two to three minutes to allow the judges to provide some immediate feedback. Then the process continues until all the participants have had their chance to counsel.
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