Daily English 1267 Types of Nurses

Dialogue/Story

Slow Speed begins at: 1:22
Explanation begins at: 4:02
Normal Speed begins at: 19:33

Complete Transcript

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1,267 – Types of Nurses.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,267. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

This episode is a dialogue between Lillian and Amos about different kinds of nurses – people who help you in a hospital or at a doctor’s office or wherever you find them. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Lillian: I’d like to become a nurse like you. I would have a great bedside manner.

Amos: It’s a difficult job, but I like it. I’m a registered nurse, but there are a lot of different types of nurses. If you’re willing to get an advanced degree, you could become a clinical nurse specialist or a nurse practitioner.

Lillian: I don’t think I want to spend a lot of time in school.

Amos: Then you just need a little more training after your bachelor’s degree. You can be a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, emergency room nurse, operating room nurse, critical care or intensive care nurse, or a home care nurse.

Lillian: Well, I dropped out of college. I just couldn’t hack it.

Amos: Hmm, then you might want to consider becoming a certified nursing assistant. You’ll still need to go through a training program, though, and to become certified.

Lillian: That still sounds like a lot of studying.

Amos: You do want to work in nursing, don’t you?

Lillian: I do, but I thought all I’d have to do is serve meals, talk to the patients, and make them comfortable. That’s what they do on TV.

Amos: Then my advice to you is to become an actor and play a nurse on TV. I think that might be the closest you’re going to get to the nursing profession.

[end of dialogue]

Lillian begins by saying to Amos, “I’d like to become a nurse like you. I would have a great bedside manner.” The expression “bedside (bedside) manner (manner)” is used to refer to the way in which a doctor, a nurse, or some other medical professional helps people who are sick when they are sick. The word “bedside” means being next to or on the side of your bed in a hospital when you are ill or sick. “Bedside manner” refers to how well a doctor or a nurse or someone else can talk to you and relate to you as a patient, as someone who is sick.

Amos says that being a nurse is “a difficult job.” It’s hard to define the word “nurse.” A nurse does a lot of different things. Usually nurses work with doctors who have medical degrees and pass tests that allow them to do certain things with people in terms of helping them become better or helping them get over illnesses. A nurse is someone who also has a degree – goes and studies and passes exams or tests to help people who are sick. But a nurse can’t do many of the things that a doctor can do.

Amos says that he’s a “registered nurse.” There are different kinds of nurses in the United States. One kind is called a “registered (registered) nurse,” sometimes abbreviated with the letters “RN.” A registered nurse is someone who studies nursing as what we would call an “undergraduate” – that is, they go to college usually for four years and then they take an examination and get their permission to work as an RN. Although Amos is an RN, he explains that there are a lot of different types of nurses. He says, “If you’re willing to get an advanced degree, you could become a clinical nurse specialist or a nurse practitioner.”

The term “advanced degree” refers to a degree or an academic certification that goes beyond a four-year undergraduate or bachelor’s degree. So, if you study for four years and you get a bachelor’s degree, and then you decide you want to get something above a bachelor’s degree, you would study an additional one or two years and get, for example, a master’s degree. You could then continue studying, as I did, and get a PhD or a doctorate, or you could get an MD, which is a medical degree that makes you a medical doctor.

A “PhD” is someone who usually does research, who is involved in theoretical issues, who is trying to create new knowledge by studying and researching something. A “medical doctor” is a practical degree, someone who actually takes knowledge, scientific knowledge, and applies it in a real world setting with the person – or as my old professor used to say, “The PhDs design the cars and the MDs fix them.” I suspect most medical doctors don’t agree with that analogy or comparison. Anyway, I’m getting myself in trouble with all the doctors out there. The medical doctors, that is.

The advanced degree Amos is talking about is not to become a doctor, but to become either a “clinical nurse specialist” or a “nurse practitioner.” A “clinical (clinical) nurse specialist” is someone who studies one particular area of medicine that interests him and then gets some sort of degree or certificate in that area. It might be someone who likes working specifically with children, or someone who likes working specifically with certain diseases of the heart. A “clinical nurse specialist,” then, is someone who studies beyond just the required knowledge needed to become a registered nurse and gets extra knowledge about one area.

A “nurse practitioner” (practitioner) is, in some ways, the highest level for a nurse, in the sense that a nurse practitioner is able to do some of the things that a doctor does, such as looking at you and trying to identify (or we would use the word “diagnose”) what’s wrong with you. A nurse practitioner can also give you certain kinds of medicine. I had a nurse practitioner at one of the local medical clinics that I used to go to many years ago and he was very good. He was almost as good as the doctor that I had, and in some ways better.

Lillian says, however, “I don’t think I want to spend a lot of time in school.” Amos says, “Then you just need a little more training after your bachelor’s degree.” A “bachelor’s degree” is what you get after studying in college for four years – after being what we would describe as an “undergraduate.” So when you graduate high school in the United States and you want to get a college degree, you go and study usually for four years, sometimes more, and you get a “bachelor’s degree.”

Amos is telling Lillian that she doesn’t have to study all that much beyond her four-year degree. She could become a “licensed practical nurse,” an “emergency room nurse,” an “operating room nurse,” a “critical care or intensive care nurse,” or a “home care nurse.” These are all different specialties in the field or area of nursing.

A “licensed practical nurse” is someone who works with a registered nurse – someone who doesn’t have the same amount of training as a registered nurse. An “emergency room nurse” is someone who works, logically, in an emergency room. An “emergency room” is the place in a hospital where you go when you need medical treatment or to be seen by a doctor immediately. If you break your leg or burn your hand, you would go to the emergency room so that they could look at you right away. There are nurses who are specialists in that area.

An “operating room nurse” is someone who works with doctors who are doing surgeries. An “operating room” is a place where the doctor will usually take a knife and cut you open or somehow make a hole in your body to try to fix what’s wrong with your body. When the doctor goes inside your body somehow to fix you, that is called an “operation,” and it typically happens in an “operating room.”

“Intensive” or “critical care” refers to when you are very sick, close to dying, and the hospital needs to watch you very carefully. That’s called “intensive (intensive) care” or “critical (critical) care.” Again, there are nurses that specialize or are experts in that one area. There are also “home care nurses.” A home care nurse is someone who goes to your house or apartment or condominium, or wherever you live, and gives you help there – takes care of you there. You may be there because you can’t go to the hospital. More typically it’s for someone who was in a hospital and is then sent home but needs some additional help from the nurse.

Lillian says, “Well, I dropped out of college.” “To drop out of” something means to stop participating in some activity. In this case, Lillian is saying that she dropped out of college, meaning she went to college maybe for a year or two but then stopped before she got her bachelor’s degree. Amos is talking about all of these kinds of nurses that require – many, but not all of them – a bachelor’s degree.

Lillian says she doesn’t have one. She says she “couldn’t hack it.” The expression “to hack (hack) it” means to be able to do something that is difficult, to be successful at a difficult job or task. If someone says, “I can’t hack it,” he means I can’t do it. It’s too hard for me. Lillian says it was too hard for her to go to college. Amos says, “Hmm, then you might want to consider becoming a certified nursing assistant.” The word “certified” (certified) refers to someone who passes a test or is somehow shown to be able to do something. An “assistant” is someone who helps another person.

A “certified nursing assistant” is someone who is not a registered nurse but has studied something about nursing – enough to help nurses do what they do. There are the nurses who do not go to school for four years, who may only study for a year and a half or two years and get another kind of certificate or permission to work as a nurse, but not doing all of the things that a registered nurse can do. A certified nursing assistant is an example of that.

Amos says, “You’ll still need to go through a training program to become certified” – that is, you have to get permission after passing a test and studying. Lillian says, “That sounds like a lot of studying.” Amos says, “You do want to work in nursing, don’t you?” Amos is beginning to wonder whether Lillian actually wants to become a nurse at all, at any level. Lillian says, “I do, but I thought all I’d have to do is serve meals,” meaning give people food, “talk to patients” – that is, talk to the people who are sick – “and make them comfortable. That’s what they do on TV.”

So now we understand Lillian has been watching television and she only sees nurses doing these things in hospitals and doesn’t realize that, of course, they have to study, go to college, and pass examinations to become nurses. Amos says, “Then my advice to you” – what I would suggest to you – “is to become an actor and play a nurse on TV.” Amos is saying well, if you want to do what they do on TV, then you should just become an actor and pretend to be a nurse.

“I think that might be the closest you’re going to get to the nursing profession,” Amos says. A “profession” (profession) is a job that you get paid to do that usually requires some education, training, and experience. A “profession” is a kind of job. We talk about the “teaching profession,” or the “nursing profession,” or more generally, the “medical profession.” These terms simply refer to the jobs that are related to that particular area.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Lillian: I’d like to become a nurse like you. I would have a great bedside manner.

Lillian: I don’t think I want to spend a lot of time in school.

Lillian: Well, I dropped out of college. I just couldn’t hack it.

Amos: Hmm, then you might want to consider becoming a certified nursing assistant. You’ll still need to go through a training program, though, and to become certified.

Lillian: That still sounds like a lot of studying.

Amos: You do want to work in nursing, don’t you?

Lillian: I do, but I thought all I’d have to do is serve meals, talk to the patients, and make them comfortable. That’s what they do on TV.

Amos: Then my advice to you is to become an actor and play a nurse on TV. I think that might be the closest you’re going to get to the nursing profession.

[end of dialogue]

Whatever your profession, you can always benefit from improving your English, and to do that, I recommend listening to the dialogues written by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.

Glossary

background check – an investigation of someone’s past activities, including any crimes committed, usually before offering that person a job

* The school requires the all volunteers have a background check before they’re allowed to be near children.

to be burned – to have a bad experience, especially because one was too trusting

* Nic was burned in his last relationship when his girlfriend lied to him.

negligence – not taking good care of something; having negative consequences from not doing what one should have done

* Their negligence in caring for the home led to very expensive roof repairs.

corporate scandal – when a company and/or its employees are found to have done something wrong after they tried to hide it, especially involving lies, corruption, and stealing

* After our corporate scandal over selling customer contact information to other companies without permission, we lost a lot of customers.

fraudulent credentials – lies about one’s qualifications; dishonest statements about one’s education, experience, and/or skills, used to get a job

* Her resume was so impressive, but later we found out that she had listed fraudulent credentials.

invasive – violating someone’s privacy; finding someone’s secret or confidential information, especially without his or her permission

* Those questions were so invasive! Why did you answer them?

criminal record – written documentation about the ways in which someone has broken the law; an official report of the crimes that someone has committed

* Would you consider hiring someone with a criminal record?

investigator – detective; someone whose job is to research and figure out what happened, or to learn everything possible about a person’s background

* They hired an investigator to help them find their daughter.

driving record – a report showing how long someone has had a driver’s license and detailed information about each time he or she was caught breaking the law while driving

* Whenever we get a speeding ticket, that info is added to our driving record.

credit report – a report showing how much money one has borrowed and still owes, the amount of one’s payments, and detailed information about whether one pays bills on time, used by banks and other institutions

* This credit report shows that Hannah is a responsible buyer who always pays her credit card bills on time.

school transcript – a report showing all the courses that a student has taken at a particular school or university, as well as the grades that student received

* Samuel said he was a good student, but his school transcript shows several Cs and a D.

sex offender list – a list of all the people living in a particular area who have been arrested for hurting another person in a sexual way, maybe by having sex with a person who is less than 18 years old or by forcing someone to have sex

* They almost bought that house, but they changed their mind when they realized that the neighbor was on the sex offender list.

to run (a report) – to tell a computer to create a particular report

* Please run a report on our monthly sales figures.

Social Security number – a 9-digit number assigned to each U.S. citizen and people legally living in the United States that is used for identification, in the form of ###-##-####

* Hospitals help new parents request a Social Security number for their babies.

court record – a detailed report about all the interactions an individual has had with the court system, including the details of any legal trials and the decision(s) made by the judge(s)

* The court records show that several customers have sued that company over the same issue in the past three years.

medical records – a detailed report describing someone’s health history, including when he or she had medical appointments, what was discussed during those appointments, all treatments that were received, and a list of all medications

* When meeting with a new doctor, bring copies of your medical records so that she can be aware of all your health conditions.

character reference – a person who has known an applicant for a long time and can comment on his or her personality, interests, values, and reliability

* The MBA program requires that applicants provide contact information for one academic reference, one professional reference, and one character reference.

Comprehension Questions

1. What does Lillian mean when she says, “I dropped out of college”?
a) She decided not to go to college.
b) She stopped going to college before she earned her degree.
c) She failed her college courses.
2. Where would you expect to find the most seriously ill patients?
a) In the emergency room
b) In critical care
c) In intensive care

Answers at bottom.

What Else Does It Mean?

bedside manner

The phrase “bedside manner,” in this podcast, means the way in which a doctor or another medical professional interacts with patients during treatment, listening to their concerns and helping them feel comfortable: “Dr. Smith has a calming bedside manner that helps her patients relax.” The phrase “table manners” describes how well someone behaves while eating: “The children’s table manners were horrible! They threw food and chewed with their mouths open.” The phrase “all manner of (something)” means many different kinds of something: “We saw all manner of costumes at the party.” Finally, the phrase “in a manner of speaking” means in some ways, or somewhat: “Yes, it was my idea, in a manner of speaking, but Blake also helped to develop it.”

to hack it

In this podcast, the phrase “to hack it” means to be able to do something that is very difficult, or to be successful at something: “They tried to live in the big city, but they couldn’t hack it and they moved back home within a few months.” The phrase “to hack into” means to use one’s knowledge of computers and programming languages to break into a computer system, especially to steal secret information: “Someone hacked into the company’s database and stole our customers’ social security numbers.” The verb “to hack” can mean to cough in a very loud, unpleasant way: “The man sitting behind us at the theater hacked throughout the whole movie.” Finally, the verb “to hack” means to cut something in a rough way: “Who hacked that beautiful tree?”

Culture Note

Where Nursing Professionals Work

Most nursing professionals work in hospitals and in doctor’s offices, but there are other “workplaces” (places where people work) where they can be found. For example, “school nurses” provide basic medical services and treatments for students. If a child gets hurt “at recess” (during times for playing between classes), the school nurse might provide a “bandage” (a piece of fabric or plastic that covers the wound to absorb blood and keep it clean). Or if a child doesn’t feel well, the school nurse takes his or her temperature and decides whether the parents should be called.

Other nursing professionals work in “assisted living facilities” or “nursing homes,” where “elderly people” (old people) live. They might help the “residents” (the people who live somewhere) remember to take their medicine, or they might help them bathe or get dressed. “Rehab centers” (centers for rehabilitation, where people recover from addictions, illnesses, or injuries) also employ nursing professionals to help patients in their “recovery” (the process of getting better and returning to one’s earlier state of health).

“Still” (additional) other nursing professionals work in “hospice facilities,” helping patients who are “at the end of their life” (who will die soon). Their primary “role” (job; what one does) is to help “alleviate pain” (reduce pain and suffering) and “provide comfort” (make someone feel calmer) to the dying patients and their friends and family members.

Some nursing professionals don’t work with patients at all. For example, a “forensic nurse consultant” help police officers and investigators understand the cause of death. And “nurse case managers” do a lot of “paperwork” (dealing with computers and forms), helping patients find the medical care they need.

Comprehension Answers

1 - b

2 - c