📘 Part 3: Healthcare and Medical Professionals

This episode's vocabulary

Exceptionally so (adverbial phrase) – to an unusually high degree; extremely. → Are doctors important? Oh, exceptionally so.

Place stock in (something) (idiom) – to have a particular amount of belief, faith, or trust in something. → I wouldn't place much stock in alternative medicine.

Prestigious (adjective) – inspiring respect and admiration; having high status. → Being a doctor is seen as a more prestigious job than being a nurse.

Get a raw deal (idiom) – to receive unfair or poor treatment. → Medical staff, in particular, seem to get a pretty raw deal when it comes to pay.

Indispensable (adjective) – absolutely necessary; essential. → They're pretty indispensable, which justifies a significant rise in salary.

Preserve lives (verb phrase) – to keep people alive; to save them from death. → First aid skills help to preserve lives until the experts can arrive.

Inclination (noun) – a person's natural tendency or urge to act or feel in a particular way. → Biology can be interesting, provided children have the inclination for it.

Burden of responsibility (noun phrase) – a heavy and serious duty or obligation. → Doctors have a huge burden of responsibility for their patients' lives.

Worse for wear (idiom) – in a poor condition after use or a difficult experience. → Even if they do everything right, a patient could still come out worse for wear.

Strain (noun) – a state of mental or emotional tension or stress. → The psychological strain of the job must be incredible.

Handle (verb) – to manage or deal with a situation. → I know that I couldn't handle that much pressure.

Short of (preposition) – not including; without. → Short of some technological revolution, the role of doctors will not change.

Bodily fluids (noun phrase) – liquids originating from inside the bodies of living people. → Not everyone feels comfortable around bugs and bodily fluids.

Save the day (idiom) – to find or provide a successful solution to a problem or difficulty. → The experts can come and save the day.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you think doctors and nurses are very important?

Rory: Oh, exceptionally so. Without them you couldn't have a functioning healthcare service or sector and a lot of people would be suffering as a result.

Maria: Could you give me more details?

Rory: Yeah, I don't know who else could be trusted to treat people and diagnose their illnesses, if not medical staff. I know there are alternative medical specialists, but I wouldn't place much stock in them.

Maria: Who plays a more important role, doctors or nurses?

Rory: Oh, that's a hard question, because at least as I understand it, they do different things. Doctors diagnose and nurses execute the treatments and care. So, you can't really have one without the other, can you?

Maria: And what do you think most people think about it?

Rory: Well, being a doctor is probably seen by most as being more prestigious and well paid, but just because something is seen in a certain way, doesn't mean it has more actual weight.

Maria: Do you think that doctors and nurses are not paid enough?

Rory: I think everyone isn't paid enough what they are actually worth, really, but medical staff, in particular, seem to get a pretty raw deal. Yeah.

Maria: And what evidence do you have for that?

Rory: Well, when you think about all the training they have to do and all they are put through by the organizations they work for, and all the nonsense they have to put up with, and then combine that with the fact they're pretty indispensable, that probably justifies quite a significant rise in salary, or a big one anyway.

Maria: Is it necessary to learn first aid skills?

Rory: Probably, yeah. These days we have a lot more people and people are getting older while systems are increasingly under pressure. So it makes sense that members of the public are prepared to act to help each other out, even if it's just to preserve lives until the experts can come and save the day.

Maria: Has that always been true?

Rory: I'm not sure, but probably not. When there were fewer people and there was less of a burden on the health care system, and there were more resources to support people, then well, these resources would have been more readily available. These days that isn't true unless we're talking about very extreme circumstances.

Maria: Is learning biology interesting for children?

Rory: It can be, provided they have the inclination or the temperament for it. Not everyone feels comfortable around bugs and bodily fluids, do they?

Maria: Will biology be interesting for children in the future?

Rory: I imagine so. But people always have had a diversity of interests. Life would be very dull otherwise.

Maria: Is being a doctor easy or difficult?

Rory: I can't imagine anything more difficult, frankly. It involves a massive amount of training and when you're qualified, you have such a burden of responsibility, and even if you get things right, people could still die or come out worse for wear. The strain must be incredible, and yet they do it. But good for them. I'd know that I couldn't handle that.

Maria: Can this change?

Rory: Short of some technological revolution, no. People will always want and need help with their medical issues and emergencies. That's just the nature of people and life really. We're social and we need each other to get by.