Purpose
Public speaking is an essential skill for medical professionals, affecting their ability to communicate effectively with patients, peers, and the broader medical community. This project evaluates the needs and perspectives of medical students and faculty regarding essential public speaking skills.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate public speaking perceptions within the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School medical education community. The needs assessment explored attitudes toward the importance, relevance, and practice of public speaking using Likert rating scales. It was distributed to 681 medical students and 575 faculty members. Response rate was 7.48%. 51 students and 43 faculty members participated. Surveys with 90% completion were included. Data were analyzed using an independent samples two-sided t-test in SPSS29.

Results
Both students and faculty felt motivated to improve their public speaking skills (student=3.76, Faculty=3.53) and rated the importance of public speaking highly (Student=4.39, faculty=4.53). However, faculty exhibited significantly more confidence (Student=2.66, Faculty=3.11, p<0.001), better self-perceived skills (Student=3.13, Faculty=3.76, p<0.001), and greater frequency of both in-person (Student=2.23, faculty=3.46, p<0.001) and virtual public speaking activities (Student=2.09, faculty=3.11, p<0.001).

Conclusion
While both faculty and medical students highly value public speaking, medical students’ lower confidence highlights a key opportunity for medical schools and residencies to provide public speaking training in both in-person and virtual formats. The greater involvement of faculty in virtual settings underscores the adaptation to remote communication platforms, which are becoming crucial in professional and educational contexts. Developing these skills can significantly benefit physicians in academic medicine, community advocacy, and digital media.