Medical English: Functional Language Basics

English for Medical and Healthcare Professionals (ESP) UNIT TWO

• Focuses on the human body, patient management, and functional language in health care settings

Topic 1: Functional Language in a Medical Setting

• Functional language in the medical field involves specific language, vocabulary, and structures
• This is for healthcare professionals communicating effectively in their work environment
• Functional language supports effective history taking, diagnosis, patient care, collaboration, and documentation

Examples of Functional Language

• Language for patient interaction includes greeting, establishing rapport, asking for medical history, and giving instructions
  • Example: "Hello, how are you feeling today?" and "Could you please raise your right arm?"
• Vocabulary examples related to pain include itching and sharp pain
• Common medical conditions are migraine and hypotension
• Describing severity uses terms like severe and acute
• Language for documentation and reporting includes patient records, notes, and abbreviations like blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR)
• Language for team communication includes discussing cases and making recommendations
  • Example: "We need to schedule an MRI for further investigation"
  • Example: "I suggest administering some painkillers."
• Language for explaining procedures and consent explains procedures and in consent forms
  • Example: "We are going to perform a blood test to check for infections"
  • Example: "By signing here, you agree to the surgery and understand the associated risks."

Differences in Functional Language

• Functional language in medicine is characterized by its precision

Topic 4: Essay Writing

• The goal is to be able to write an essay on a topic from medicine and health
• You also should be able to use newly acquired terms in medical settings

Key Terms in Essay Writing

• The introduction informs the reader of the topic and indicates how it will be developed
  • Introductory paragraphs may define the topic, provide background, or explain the scope
  • The introduction should indicate if the essay will discuss causes, effects, narration, or processes
  • It's essential that introductory paragraphs are clear, which leaves a favorable impression
• The thesis statement contains the central idea and is in the introductory paragraph expressing the essay's controlling idea in total
  • Thesis statements should be complete sentences and not written as questions or facts
• Topic sentences are in developmental paragraphs and state an idea about the topic and thesis statement
  • The topic sentence controls what other sentences in the paragraph will discuss
  • All sentences should relate to the controlling idea/topic sentence
  • Material from notes is used to support the opinion or attitude expressed in the topic sentence
• Developmental paragraphs explain, illustrate, discuss, or prove the thesis statement
  • Each body paragraph discusses one aspect of the main topic
  • The controlling idea in the developmental paragraph echoes the central idea in the thesis statement
• The concluding paragraph restates the thesis and summarizes main points, showing briefly how development relates to the topic and thesis statement
  • Essays should come to a conclusion with suggested solutions based on facts and data
  • Readers should sense closure so they know there is nothing else coming

Topic 5: Note-Taking and Note-Making: Clinical Notes

• Note-taking is recording information captured from another source
  • It allows one to record the core of information to release having to memorize everything
  • Notes are from transient sources

Note-Taking and Note-Making Differences

• Note-taking records key ideas when first exposed
  • Note-making rephrases the original idea in one's own words
  • Note-making is about wording while note-taking comes straight from the source
  • Note-taking is faster than note-making
• Note-taking often involves someone else’s language, while note-making is slower and involves one's own language

Note-Taking Methods

• Outlining is a frequently used note-taking method
  • Note takers quickly grab main points and create bullet points
• Guided notes use teacher-provided templates for students' notes
• Cornell notes divide the page into three sections: notes, cues, and summary

Issues with Note-Taking

• Note-taking usually happens while listening, so the objective is to grab key points quickly
• This can result in poor comprehension when reviewing notes later and forgetting of the content
  • Note-making involves reviewing, combining, and synthesizing ideas you read or hear
  • In contrast to note-taking, note-making is slower while more of one's own language
  • Note-making is easier to comprehend and remember
• Note-making allows building of personal versions of the information that are then actively created
  • Taking time and putting effort into rewording and building content allows for absorption into long-term memory
• In note-taking, there is a good possibility of poorly comprehending the content as it highly uses the original author's language

All Good Notes Should Contain

• Source information (title, author, date, etc)
• Headings
• Key points, examples, names, new ideas
• Triggers
• Further readings
• System of symbols and abbreviations to help with note taking
• Avoiding unintentional plagiarism when using quotes by marking in unique ways

Reasons for Note-Taking

• Note-taking is an important skill, particularly at the college level
• Implants material into the mind with written notes themselves as secondary importance
• It's concluded that note-taking is faster while note-making is slower using more of one's own language
  • Note-making is easier to understand while note-taking is listening to someone

Clinical Notes

• Clinical notes are legally required for healthcare practitioners to document patient encounters
• It's a required form of documentation that describes encounters which include progress, psychotherapy, evaluation, treatment plans, and discharge
• Content varies depending on the field, services, and needs
• General practionners and counselors are just two examples of who write clinical notes
  • This applies to pretty much every area of healthcare if you treat/see patients

Why Clinical Notes Are Important

• Clinical notes improve quality of care for patients
• Helps that primary caregivers can access info, be informed, and make treatment decisions
• Ensure they have relevant up-to-date information for effective care and treatment outcomes
• Used to determine whether clinical decisions were ethical and improve the transparency
• Play a wide role in healthcare
• Give a form of protection and ensure getting paid promptly
• Ensure that the practice will receive financial reimbursement

SOAP Notes

• Subjective: Patient's subjective experience of their symptoms and how these impact their life
• Objective: Factual, objective data
• Assessment: Combines previous sections and reaches a conclusion
• Plan: Outlines short-term and long-term goals

DAP Notes

• Data: Combination of subjective and objective sections
• Assessment: Practitioner's professional opinion
• Plan: Includes changes to current treatment/medication/or appointments

BIRP Notes

• Behavior: Focuses on their behavior and their symptoms that are recorded
• Intervention: Develops a treatement plan and gives goals that they can achieve
• Response: Focuses on the patient's response to to the interventions and if it's successful
• Plan: Detailed treatment plan for the for future sessions and the goals to achieving between

Conclusion on Clinical Notes

• Formatting structures may differ but the content included is the same
• The key is to maintain clear notes to ensure that communication is effective

TOPIC 2. Interview Skills

• Recognizing what expressions to use in a regular patient interview
• Being able to use the correct interview language

Patient Interview Skills

• Listen to doctor and patient interviews and formulate questions to ask after

Patient Interview

• Its a structured conversation between provider and patient
• The aim is gathering a persons information on their health, history lifestyle and other concerns that could affect diagnosis
• You want your interview to be patient centered
• Ask open-ended questions and ensure you don't ineterrupt them

Key Actions in Patient Interviews

• Empathize with the patient so that understanding is key

Improving your interview

• Talk about prior knowledge and what someone with this knowledge could gain from interviewing with you
• Invite the candidate to consider the pros and cons of this project
• Try reducing information with smaller chunks

Lesson 2. Theories on a job interview

• Define an interview for what it is
• Recall the necessary types
• Effectively answer questions

Job Interview Structure

• Information for the canidate the interviewer to candidate
• Answering questions to the candiate
• An oppurtunity for the canidate to ask questions
• Conclusion

Interview Steps

• Preparing/Researching, and proper rehersal
• During ask questions, watch body language
• After write thank-you notes

Key interview notes

• Remember to bring your qualifications
• Remember to talk out whatever information both have left out

Job interview misbehaviors mistakes

• Dressing inapropriately/Lack of hygiene
• Lateness to the interview
• Talkin too much
• Not bringing CV
• Not asking questions

Further tips on interview

• The acromym STAR:
  • Situation
  • Task
  • Action
  • Result
• The acronym CAMP:
  • Clinical
  • Academic
  • Management
  • Personal
• The acromym SPIES:
  • Seek
  • Patient
  • Initiative
  • Escalate
  • Safety

Important considerations on interview

• Show that you are prepaired
• Make sure you know everything you what to bring

Lesson 5: Reading Skills for Medical and Health Professional

• Explain different techniques
• Apply different techniques
• apply different techniques for faster reading

Reading skills for medical and healthcare

• Reading skills are extremely important for professionals, which will lead them to providing adequate service

Definitions on reading

• You must look at printed texts and understand them properly

Required skills

• Evaluate
• Critical and creative thinking
• decoding

Types of Reading Techniques

• Skiming(looking for the main ideas)
• Scanning(looking for specific ideas)
• Intensive ready(looking to understand)
• Extensive ready(more pleasure)

Methods

• SQ3R survey
  • Questioning
  • First read
  • Second read