This episode’s vocabulary
Nurse
noun — (the title given to) a person whose job is to care for people who are ill or injured, especially in a hospital.
Nursing home
noun — a place where very old people who are ill live and receive medical treatment and care.
High-dependency unit
noun — the part of a hospital that provides a high level of care and treatment for patients who are seriously ill or who have just had a major operation.
Patient
noun — the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed.
Prolonged
adj. — continuing for a long time.
In the course of something
collocation — during an event or period of time.
Line
noun — the type of job someone does.
To overwork
verb — to (cause someone to) work too much.
Jovial
adj. — (of a person) friendly and in a good mood, or (of a situation) enjoyable because of being friendly and pleasant.
Harrowing
adj. — extremely upsetting because it is connected with suffering.
Critical care unit
noun — the part of a hospital that provides continuous treatment for people who are seriously ill, very badly injured, or who have just had a major operation.
Questions and answers
Oh, wow, I actually know the perfect person for this. My friend Steve is a nurse and has been for the better part of a decade, if not longer, now that I'm thinking about it, actually. We've been friends since high school. But of course, his career has been shorter. He's been a nurse since he started doing a course for the university, and arguably before, since he worked in a nursing home, which is sort of like nursing in the hospital, at least it is, in my opinion. He doesn't do that now, though, he's just been promoted to a position in something called the high-dependency unit, which I think means he deals with patients who are extremely ill and need a lot of care for a really prolonged period of time. Usually, I don't ask my friends why they chose their careers. It's just never come up in the course of our friendships. And it's probably not any of my business, to be honest. But I do know that Steve chose to do this because he spent time looking after his grandfather when Steve was a teenager, not when his grandfather was a teenager. And that got him interested in nursing and looking after people. And apparently he's quite good at it, which is enough to encourage anyone to keep going in any line of work, to be honest with you. He and I are friends, so obviously I'm very happy to know him, though I always worry about my friends, who are doctors and nurses, they always seem really overworked and lacking in support from the people in charge. I know I wouldn't want to do that work, but I'm glad there are people like Steve who do this kind of work. If I didn't know him, I think I'd definitely be poor for it. He seems to be quite a jovial person, even when it comes to his work, which could be quite a harrowing experience at times, especially if you're dealing with people in critical care. So good for him. And I'm glad that I know him.
And do you often meet this person?
Not as much these days, because I'm all over the place.