📘 Part 3: Medical workers

This episode's vocabulary

Moderately (adverb) - in a way that is neither small nor large in size, amount, degree, or strength.

Symbiotic (adj) - involving people or organizations that depend on each other equally.

To treat (verb) - to use drugs, exercises, etc. to cure a person of a disease or heal an injury.

To supervise (verb) - to watch a person or activity to make certain that everything is done correctly, safely, etc.

To constitute (verb) - to be or be considered as something.

Chunk (noun) - a part of something, especially a large part

To implement (verb) - to start using a plan or system.

To put a human face (on something) (idiom) - to make (something) more appealing, easier to understand, or easier to care about by connecting it to an actual person.

Assistance (noun) - help.

On hand (idiom) - near to someone or something, and ready to help or be used if necessary.

Contagion (noun) - the situation in which a disease is spread by touching someone or something.

Pertinent (adj.) - relating directly to the subject being considered.

To tailor (verb) - to adjust something to suit a particular need or situation.

Treatment (noun) - the use of drugs, exercises, etc. to cure a person of an illness or injury.

To relieve (verb) - to make an unpleasant feeling, such as pain or worry, less strong.

Questions and Answers

M: Are doctors and nurses very important?

R: Well, if you're moderately or seriously ill, then almost certainly, yes. You need people to take care of you, when your body can't cope on its own.

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

R: I mean, that's a bit like comparing apples and oranges, really. They do very different jobs in the cause of looking after people and making them well again. And their relationship is kind of almost symbiotic. Without doctors, nurses have no way of knowing how to treat a person, and without nurses, doctors have no way of supervising and caring for so many people.

M: Are they paid enough or not?

R: Well, can you put a price on saving lives? I'm not sure you can ever be paid enough for that. Also, how do you define what constitutes enough?

M: But in general, do you think that doctors tend to be underpaid?

R: I honestly can't say. Because, I mean, in some countries, they're paid a ridiculous amount of money, and then in others, they're not. So it's hard to generalize.

M: Can a hospital function without nurses?

R: I wouldn't say so. You need someone to supervise and treat patients when doctors are unavailable, and generally speaking, there are more nurses than doctors. So if you take away such a huge chunk of staff from an organization, things are not going to go well for you.

M: What are the differences between the work of a doctor and a nurse?

R: Like I said, broadly speaking, doctors diagnose and nurses treat and supervise. So the doctor will determine what's wrong and how to go about dealing with it. While the nurses implement the orders and put a human face in a relationship on the issue. That's a very broad generalization, of course, but it's probably the shortest, if not the best one.

M: Is it necessary to learn first aid skills?

R: In this day and age, when medical assistance is more readily on hand most of the time? Well, probably not hugely so, but in more isolated and extreme cases, it could be helpful, like in a car accident, when help from specialists, well, like I say, isn't immediately available.

M: And why do you think people become doctors or nurses?

R: All kinds of reasons. It could be a family tradition, or they might even be pressed into it by the family. It could be the money, if it's a well-paid job in a particular country or the prestige, or they might just like helping people, or have a natural gift. There are so many different reasons.

M: And how does working in a medical-related profession impact a person's life?

R: Well, there's sort of two sides to this. It could be extremely stressful and perhaps even dangerous if you're exposed to any kind of contagion, but on the other hand, it might be really rewarding to watch people get better and to be a part of that journey.

M: What qualities are essential for someone to succeed in a medical profession?

R: Well, probably the same as any. Like, a reasonable amount of knowledge in your field and how to apply it, and then a reasonable level of organization and preparation as well. I'm trying to think of anything else that might be pertinent to that. But I think these things apply to all jobs, maybe good hygiene for someone in the medical field.

M: And do you think medical professionals are valued in society?

R: In society? Yes. By the people in charge of society? Probably not nearly enough.

M: Why not?

R: Because it seems like there's a disconnect between the people that are in charge of some societies, and the people that live in them, because they have so much power and money, and the people that live in the societies don't. So they won't value them as much.

M: How can technology influence medical-related professions in the future?

R: That depends on what kind of technology we're talking about here. For example, if it's things like DNA sequencing, it might make it easier to work out what kind of disease you're dealing with, so you can provide tailored treatment options. If we talk about mechanics, you could have machines doing the surgery, which would relieve the burden on surgeons.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

Discussion

M: Right, dear listener! So to answer these questions, we do need to know some vocabulary from the medical field. Very specific vocabulary about doctors, about medicine. So well, which is good, you know, for you. If you have no idea what's it all about, could you please read some articles about doctors, nurses. What's going on in your country, are they underpaid? How much are they paid? What about the future? Maybe some future technologies in the medical field. And fish out some vocabulary items. Like, find maybe like five, six words about this topic that you want to use in your own speaking. Okay? So doctors and nurses are super important. We need people who will take care of us. So doctors and nurses take care of people, of their bodies.

R: Especially when they cannot cope anymore. But if they cannot cope, or if someone cannot cope with something, then they cannot manage the situation by themselves.

M: Yes, and the questions could be about the differences between doctors and nurses, all right? And Rory told us that, well, it's like comparing apples and oranges, so we cannot really compare them. So you can use the same phrase, well, it's like comparing apples and oranges. So this means that we can't compare them, right, Rory?

R: Yeah, I don't think, I think doctors, and nurses do two equally necessary jobs, but they're different.

M: They do different jobs. So do a job, okay? Doctors and nurses do different jobs. Why? Well, because they look after people. They make them well again, but they are responsible for different things, and more specifically, without doctors, nurses don't know how to treat people. Again, doctors treat people, they provide people with special treatment. Okay? So medical treatment and to treat people, kind of to give them medicine, to tell them how to get better. And the noun is treatment. And nurses care for people. What are some of the things that nurses do specifically?

R: I think nurses just keep an eye on, well, how patients are getting on, and take actions to make sure that they stay that way, monitor their progress, this kind of thing. I think that's how it works. I'm not very knowledgeable about how their jobs work, or the ins and outs of these positions.

M: Yeah, we say that the nurses care for patients. They record patients' symptoms.

R: They might, yeah.

M: They conduct physical exams... The tests. They take people's blood. hey perform other health-related testing, and they, nurses listen to patients, they analyze their physical and emotional needs. And also they make sure patients take their medications and they follow their treatments. Okay? So nurses give medicine to patients.

R: I think so. Doctors prescribe the medication, and then nurses would administer this.

M: Yeah. So the doctor decides on the treatment. And nurses help this treatment to happen. The question could be about money. And I love how Rory answered this question. Rory gives kind of like a question back. Can you put a price on saving lives? Like, put a price on something. Say how much this or that costs. You can do the same thing. You can ask a question, a rhetorical question. Well, can you put a price on saving lives? No. You can say that some doctors are underpaid. Not paid enough. Some doctors are paid very well. And when there is this word enough. Is it big enough? Is it enough money? We say, how do you define what enough means?

R: Yeah.

M: What does it mean, enough? Enough for me is enough, but enough for Rory is not enough, you know? So we can also ask this question. Nurses supervise patients. Okay? They supervise and treat patients. So as we've discussed. Nurses give medicines to patients. And nurses are a huge chunk of staff. Staff? Employees. Like a huge part of the medical stuff. So if you take away this huge chunk of medical stuff, then a hospital will not function properly. We say that doctors diagnose. Diagnose. Diagnose? What's the verb?

R: Yeah.

M: And what's the noun?

R: Diagnosis. Or you make a diagnosis.

M: Doctors make a diagnosis. They diagnose. C2 vocabulary by the way. Patients. They examine patients. Then make a diagnosis. Make a diagnosis. Okay? And a diagnosis of diseases. Diseases or illnesses. Like diagnosis of allergies, of cancer, for example. And nurses implement the orders of a doctor. Implement? They put them into action. What are the first aid skills, Rory?

R: First aid skills are any actions that you take on first discovering that there's an emergency situation.

M: Yeah. So. Sometimes people do the first aid skills course. So when they teach you what to do if this happens, like how to help a person before...

R: Well, before the situation gets critical.

M: Yeah, before the ambulance. This... This magical special car arrives. And you can say that, yes, it's useful. Or not really. Today, medical assistance is available at short notice. Yeah? It's just there for us. So not really. Or yes, it's super important. Knowing first aid skills is super useful, for example, in a car accident when there is no help from specialists. Some people might be pressed to become a doctor. So if I'm pressed to become a teacher or a doctor, what does it mean?

R: Or pressed into becoming... It just means people almost force you or strongly encourage you to do something.

M: For example? Give us a sentence.

R: Well, people are regularly pressed into army service, for example, in some countries. Or they're pressed into... Well, like I said, pressed into becoming a doctor. I can't think of another career people are usually pressed into. Maybe a lawyer.

M: Some people might have a natural gift for treating people, for helping people. Some nurses have a natural gift for caring for other people. And about doctors, Rory, you said that they are exposed to what? You've used this strange word.

R: Oh, they could be exposed to a contagion.

M: Contagion.

R: Yeah, a contagion is just something contagious. Like a virus or other kind of disease.

M: Yeah. So a contagion the situation in which a disease is spread by touching someone. So some doctors could be working with dangerously ill patients and they could catch this disease. So we can say that some doctors could be exposed to, could, kind of, have this in front of them, could be exposed to some contagions. Dangerous diseases. Their job is rewarding, dear listener. Rewarding? It gives rewards. Doctors work a lot, and then the patient is healthy. Yeah? The patient was ill, and then they become healthy. Yay! It's rewarding. And doctors and nurses should be valued. They are invaluable people. So they should be valued. If you say that something is invaluable, C1, advanced, extremely useful. When we talk about technology in the medical sphere, we can talk about DNA sequencing. What did you mean?

R: Oh, DNA sequencing is just, like it's the reading of a genetic code, but it tells you just different information about the genes in a particular organism.

M: And then we can talk about tailored treatment. And what's the phrase? Like personally tailored treatment?

R: Yeah, so if the treatment's personally tailored, it just means that it's adapted to suit the needs of the patient.

M: So the treatment chosen just for you.

R: Yeah.

M: Treatment which is tailored for you. Not for everybody, but specifically for you. And then we can talk about machines, robots performing different operations, or machines doing the surgery. So do the surgery, perform an operation. Make an operation, instead of surgeons. Surgeons? Like people who make operations. So maybe robots could do certain things. Can they?

R: Not know, but they could. Potentially.

M: Ooh, yeah. Today, actually, they use robots in hospitals for emotional support. Did you know?

R: Really?

M: Yeah, in certain centres they have... Yeah, yeah. Robots. Like especially for the elderly. Robots take care of the elderly. They provide, like humans, they kind of provide emotional support, they stay with them. You know? Wow. And the question is like, would you trust your life to a robotic surgeon? How about your mental health, huh? Yeah, also, you can talk about it, dear listener. I'm reading onlineengineering.case.edu. Education. Case Western Reserve University. You know? So really super stuff. And, yeah, like surgical robots, dear listener.

R: That's amazing.

M: And in the USA, for example, they're kind of, they're researching it. Yeah, but about the elderly, that robots take care of old people, yeah. There you go. I recommend reading some articles on this, dear listener because we do need some extra knowledge. Okay? Robots in medicine. Medicine of the future. This is your homework. Okay? Go online. You can read in your native language. A couple of articles about the medical sphere. Pretty much like problems, future of... Something like trends in medicine. Read it in your native language, and then you can talk about it. Okay, dear listener? Sweet. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode! Stay healthy! Okay?

R: Bye!

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi