Communicating accurately and effectively is critical to the safety, care and wellbeing of patients.

1. Online English for Nurses – Getting the Essentials Right
Communicating accurately and effectively is critical to the safety, care and wellbeing of patients.
This course teaches the English that nurses need to communicate effectively in all essential
situations at work, including key patient interactions, clinical pathways, giving accurate
handovers, drugs calculations, pre-operative and end-of-life care.
The course is designed for nurses with an elementary or pre-intermediate (A2-B1) level of
English who work, or are preparing to work, in an English-speaking environment.
The course is easy to use, enjoyable and, above all, practical.
Course Content
1. Introducing yourself and saying what you do
 Welcoming a patient
 Talking to patients and colleagues
 Describing your role and
responsibilities
 Medical terminology: prefixes, suffixes
and base words
 The language used in healthcare,
medical language versus everyday
health terms
 Types of Allied Health Professionals
 Types of doctors
 The body: overview
2. Talking about pain
 Discussing types of pain
 Using a pain scale, pain severity
 Asking about location of pain
 Offering and explaining pain
medication
 Types of painkillers, side effects
 Giving a handover to a colleague
 Talking about osteoarthritis
 Grammar focus: comparatives
 The body: front and back
3. Pressure area care
 Assessing pressure areas - Waterlow
assessment tool
 Intentional rounding - changing a
patient's position
 The body: the lower back
 Offering assistance to wheelchair-bound
patients
 Pressure area equipment
 Handover: reporting a pressure ulcer
 Writing an incident report

2. 4. Injuries and falls
 Medical terms: musculoskeletal
system, medical imaging
 Falls in the elderly
 Doing a falls risk assessment
 Sprains, strains and dislocations
 Grammar focus: verbs of movement
 Using mobility aids - walking frames,
crutches and walking sticks
 Giving advice about the care of a
plaster cast
 The body: legs, thighs and hips
5. Infection control
 Micro-organisms, hospital acquired
infections
 Care plans and clinical pathways
 Dressings – using aseptic non-touch
technique (ANTT)
 Taking a temperature - reporting
abnormal readings
 Taking MRSA swabs, wound swabs and
sputum specimens
 Explaining isolation nursing to
patients' relatives, use of PPE
 Hospital charts: observation charts
(vital signs)
 The body: skin, cells and hair
6. Intravenous therapy and IV injections
 Use of IV fluids
 Calculations: IV fluids and IV injections
 IV equipment
 Doing a VIP score
 Assessing intake and output
 Checking and giving an IV antibiotic
 Hospital charts: fluid balance chart
 Avoiding needle stick injuries
 Hospital charts: IV prescription -
volume and time
 The body: arm and hand
7. Administration of medications
 Types of medication
 Drug calculation
 Checking drugs, dose, frequency,
allergies
 Discussing side effects and
contraindications
 The body: mouth and throat
 Grammar focus: might, may and
should
 Medication and the elderly
 Making polite requests, using could
and would
 The body: ear and eye

3. 8. Breathing difficulties
 Describing respiration
 Monitoring respiratory rate - reporting
abnormalities
 Talking about pneumonia - coughing
and sputum production
 Asthma - using inhalers and nebulisers
 Writing a variance in a clinical pathway
 Oxygen therapy - types of equipment
 Giving warnings - use of oxygen
 Discussing benefits of lifestyle changes
- Quit Smoking
 The body: chest and upper back
9. Pre-operative care
 Explaining pre-operative preparation
 Explaining post-operative care
 Reassuring a patient and allaying
anxiety
 Pre-op checks, taking blood pressure,
pulse
 The body: arms
 Talking about patient confidentiality
 Managing phone enquiries
 Communicating using SBAR
 The body: abdopelvic
10. End-of-life care
 Talking about cancer - melanoma
 Talking about chemotherapy
 Managing unpleasant symptoms
 Listening to patient concerns
 The body: mouth, throat, oesophagus
 Offering spiritual care
 Hospice and palliative care
 Supporting relatives and explaining
physical changes near death
 Places in a hospital, giving directions
and instructions
Inputs: During the course, students watch videos, listen to conversations, read medical texts,
analyse charts and graphs, look at work-related photographs and images, and study vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation focus points.
Exercises: Students take a wide range of exercises to help learn the language they need. The
exercises concentrate on learning the English required in essential work-based scenarios.
Length: Each unit is designed to take 10 hours to complete.
Progress Assessment: At the end of every unit, there is a progress review and test so students
can assess what they have learnt.
End of Course Achievement Certificate: delivered electronically on course completion.