MEDICAL ENGLISH: UNDERSTANDING WRITTEN HEALTHCARE TEXTS
Author: Aleksandra Bildi.
Key words: healthcare texts, information, medical English, reading, students
Reading is a necessary skill when studying languages. Reading means understanding written texts. Many people undervalue reading considering speaking to be more important. Nevertheless reading is studying grammar in the context, new vocabulary and development of translation skills.
Medical students have to read a lot to study well and become a professional in future. Many special medical books and articles are written in English. Reading skill development helps to understand information correctly and think fast. It also improves speaking and writing skills of the students.
The subject of this article is reading. And the object is English healthcare texts.
The objective is teaching students to understand written healthcare texts in English.
Tasks of my article are to:
• consider types of written healthcare texts in English
• investigate types of professionally oriented reading
• choose effective reading strategies
• give practical tips on reading
• provide samples of written healthcare texts Modes that I will use are theory and practice.
There are different types of medical texts students can read during their study. The level of these texts also varies. In this article we will consider four types of written healthcare texts:
• personal information of patients
• instructions to patients • pharmacology references
• nurse’s reflections.
Reading of written healthcare texts is professionally oriented reading for medical students. There are two types of professionally oriented reading referential and informative. Referential reading is searching for known key words and phrases. Informative reading is extracting information from the text and its analysis. This type of reading is important to get knowledge.
The result of the text reading is its understanding. Teaching reading strategies includes the procedure of teaching to understand the text while reading. Critical thinking development is effective strategy for consolidation information from the text in various forms. The strategy includes three phases:
1. evocation (motivate students to read the text, decrease understanding difficulties, activate existing knowledge)
2. realization (focus on intentional reading)
3. reflection (information analysis and interpretation).
Practical tips on reading depending on the reading phase:
1) evocation • read the heading and guess the topic of the text, define key words which can be used
• look through questions or statements in the text and guess what the text is about
• if there are questions in the text, guess answers
• look through the first abstract and guess the ending of the text
• read last abstract and guess previous events
• look through new words and guess the topic of the text
• guess the meaning of unknown words and their parts of speech
2) realization on this stage of reading various tasks to works with the texts can be offered, for example:
• translate into Russian words and phrases from the text
• find specific words and phrases in the texts (the imperative verbs, adjectives describing feelings or pain, nouns describing the ointment indications)
• answer the questions on the text
• match words and phrases in columns
• say if the statements are true or false
• divide the text into semantic parts and head them
• ask questions to the semantic parts
• translate similar text from Russian into English
3) reflection • discuss interesting facts and ideas from the text
• retell the text
• express your opinion/ideas
• agree or disagree statements from the text
• prove the point of view
• highlight the statement which expresses the main idea of the text and prove it
Below there are four samples of the texts (a medical form, a dialogue, an instruction leaflet and an example of the reflective journal). Sample 1. Registration at the hospital (form)
|
Title: (Mr./Mrs./Ms.) |
Mr. |
|
Surname/Family Name: |
Smith |
|
First/Given Name: |
John |
|
Gender: |
Male |
|
Marital status: are you single/married/separated/widowed/divorced: |
married |
|
Date of Birth: (dd/mm/yyyy) |
29/09/1983 |
|
Address House number: |
10 |
|
Street: |
Green Hill Avenue |
|
Town/city: Cork Do you have children? Yes Ages of children: Son aged 10 and daughter 3 Contact No.: 07700 900637 |
|
|
Next of kin: Name and Relationship: Jane Smith – wife Emergency Contact: 01632 908217 |
|
|
Medical history: List any immunisations you have had: None List any health-screening tests you have had: None Do you have any allergies or reactions to None medicines? Surgery: Please list all operations with dates: None What medications do you take? (Prescription and non-prescription medicines, home remedies, herbs) How is your health? Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor What is the reason for your visit today? Back pain |
|
Sample 2. A conversation between a nurse and a patient (dialog)
[N=Nurse; D=Mr Dubois]
N: OK, Mr Dubois, it's important to do these exercises every day to help you.
D: All right; you're the boss. Can I stay in bed?
N: Yes, sir. It's important that you are comfortable. Let's start with your feet. Now keep your heels on the bed and push your toes to the end of the bed.
D: Like this?
N: Yes, that's right. Push your left foot, then your right foot. Good. Now try and rotate your foot in a circle.
D: That's easy. No problem.
N: That's good because this exercise is really important. Can we try your legs now?
D: Oh that will hurt.
N: Well, you are taking pain medication, so it might not hurt too much.
D: OK...
N: Now lift your right leg. Bend your knee just a little. Now move your leg to the side of the bed. That's right. Let's do that again ten times.
D: Ten!
N: Yes, ten. Let's count together. One, two, three, four ... You're doing really well.
Sample 3. How to take paracetamol (instruction leaflet)
REFERENCE 1
Indomethacin
Composition: Indomethacinum 10 g in ointment base up to 100 g.
Properties: The ointment exhibits anti-inflammatory and antiexudative properties. Being a prostaglandin synthesis inhibitor it exercises both keratolytic and antiseptic effect. The excellent resorption of this ointment ensures its therapeutic effect creating high tissue concentrations at the application areas.
Indications: Acute and chronic rheumatic polyarthritis, osteoarthrosis, Behterev‘s disease, degenerative articular diseases, discopathies, neuritis, plexitis, radiculitis, post-operative edema, contusions, thrombophlebitis, hyperkeratolytic eczemas, herpes zoster, arthropathic psoriasis, climacteric keratosis, etc.
Contraindications: Drug allergy, peptic and duodenal ulcer, bronchial asthma, epilepsy, Parkinsonism, during pregnancy and breast feeding, leucopenia, haemorrhagic diathesis (thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy).
Side-effects: Allergic reactions, thrombocytopenia, agranulocytosis. Following long term treatment, however rarely, headache, drowsiness, depressive states, hepatitis and pancreatitis can be observed especially in more susceptible patients.
Drug interactions: Therapeutic effect of Indomethacin decreases, if applied concurrently with salycilates. Probenecid suppresses renal excretion of indomethacin. The effect of Indomethacin is enhanced if applied in combination with glucocorticoids and pyrazolon derivatives.
Precautions: If treatment lasts longer than ten days, follow carefully the patient‘s blood picture (leucocytes, thrombocytes). If applied in combination with antibiotics, anticoagulants or antidiabetic drugs ensure control of proper clinical and laboratory parameters.
Dosage and application: Rub the affected joints or skin areas a few-centimetre-long tube squeeze of Indomethacin ointment, 2–3 times a day. Total daily amount should not exceed 15 cm for adults and 7.5 cm for children.
Package: Ointment in aluminium tubes of 40 g.
Storage: At moderate temperature (15–30oC) in light-protected areas.
Exp.term: 2 years (two years).
Produced by: TROYAPHARM Co
Sample 4. Reflective journal nursing student (example)
I was a young nurse. I was 25 years old, and I worked for four months at the Intensive Care Department at the Neurology Clinic. Everything was still nes and difficult for me. Before that I worked for three years in Germany, in a private clinic in a completely different type of work, on the organization of the patient admission and discharge. One day in the Intensive Unitwe received an elderly gentlman, in a difficult state. The reception was from the Emergency Department, and nobody was accompanying the patient. He was 70 years old. No one asked for him, there were no data, he was left alone.
He was semi-conscious, and he constantly asked his mother. Whenever I get close to his bed, I heard him say, ‘Mom, Mom’. I was so moved that I came to him at some point and said, ‘I’m your mom, and you are my bird’. I started to carefully tale care of him. I would bring some clothes from home. He had, for example, cold feet and I was putting him socks. I bonded with him more than with other patients. I was very sad that he was alone and there was no one. At that time, I promised myself that I would especially protect such ones. There were even more difficult moments of coping with death, and young people. I recall them and remember them all by their name. All of them influenced me to become a better, more responsible person, and look differently on life. When I became the head nurse of the hospital in 1991, I no longer had such an affair with patients, but I often came to the Intensive Unit, I could not separate myself from the Intensive. I had to see people. And now I like to come, I’m always stressful, and again from the beginning I admire the people who work in all our Intensive Units, so shaky and responsible work. I thinl the siters are underpaid for what they do. And after so many years I can only say that nurses and technicians working in Intensive Units can work anywhere.
And now I would like to summarize and draw conclusions of the article.
To understand written healthcare texts medical students should have not only good knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, they also should have a good reading skill, because it is important for understanding texts.
The main task of medical students is to study how to work with texts to understand them reading in the origin. That’s why it is important to do tasks prepared by teachers and follow their recommendations reading and translation skills development.
Original written healthcare texts give medical students an opportunity to connect events and information with their knowledge in medicine.
Thus reading healthcare texts in English medical students can get knowledge and improve their professional competence.
References
1. English for Healthcare [Electronic resource]: Future Learn. – Access Mode:
URL: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/english-for-healthcare/1/todo/52635 (date of application 04.04.2020).
2. English for Nursing 1 Vocational English [Electronic resource]: Padaread. – Access Mode:
URL: http://padaread.com/?book=214377&pg=76 (date of application 04.04.2020).
3. Reflective journal nursing student example [Electronic resource]: Reflectivejournal. – Access Mode:
URL: https://www.reflectivejournal.net/what-is-reflective-journaling-for-nursing-students/ (date of application 04.04.2020).
4. Unit 5. Studying pharmaceutical references [Electronic resource]: Studopedia. – Access Mode:
URL: https://studopedia.net/12_69005_UNIT--STUDYING-PHARMACEUTICALREFERENCES.html (date of application 04.04.2020).
5. Nizyenjkova M.G. Understanding the terminology. Reading: semantic, productive, functional [Electronic resource]: Rosuchebnik. – Access Mode:
URL: https://rosuchebnik.ru/upload/iblock/cd3/cd36d55b707f971ad12bab6dcf6ea0db.pdf (date of application 04.04.2020).
6. Polyakova E.S. Teaching professionally-oriented informative reading in English at a technical university [Electronic resource]: Allbest. – Access Mode:
URL: https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00933342_0.html#text (date of application 04.04.2020).
7. Technologies for teaching different types of informative reading in an English lesson for teenage students [Electronic resource]: Allbest. – Access Mode:
URL: https://revolution.allbest.ru/pedagogics/00814233_0.html (date of application 04.04.2020).
8. Popolzina L.P., Voronchikhina M.V. Reading as an important aspect in teaching a foreign language [Electronic resource]: Izron. – Access Mode:
URL: http://izron.ru/articles/aktualnye-problemy-gumanitarnykh-nauk-v-rossii-i-zarubezhom-sbornik-nauchnykh-trudov-po-itogam-mezh/sektsiya-19-germanskie-yazykispetsialnost-10-02-04/chtenie-kak-vazhnyy-aspekt-v-obuchenii-inostrannomu-yazyku/ (date of application 04.04.2020).
MEDICAL ENGLISH: UNDERSTANDING
Russian words and phrases from the text • find specific words and phrases in the texts (the imperative verbs, adjectives describing feelings or pain, nouns…
Town/city:
Contraindications: Drug allergy, peptic and duodenal ulcer, bronchial asthma, epilepsy,
Original written healthcare texts give medical students an opportunity to connect events and information with their knowledge in medicine
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