So, you’ve received the OET Test results you needed, booked in travel arrangements, completed documentation, and accepted an offer at your new place of work. Congratulations!
Our alumni often share how passing the OET Test can sometimes just feel like a first step in their journeys. When they start at their new workplaces, and communicate in a non-native language daily, they understand that there’s still more learning to do.
That’s the wonderful thing about language – all of us learn every day, whether it’s new phrases in the workplace, how to become faster readers, or identifying different tones in conversation. Language evolves and changes, so the learning is never really done.
We know that an English test truly is just the beginning of your healthcare career journey, and while it’s an enormous accomplishment, there’s plenty more learning and adventures on the horizon. That's why we don't stop offering you guidance at language assessment. Our goal is to help you elevate your career and achieve your dreams, which is why we’ve developed the Living the Language guides for doctors and nurses.
These guides are some of our most sought-after resources and are designed to help healthcare workers settle into their new surroundings quickly, feel included, and empowered to engage. Check out these guides for the following destinations and professions:
For Nurses
For Doctors
Each guide covers three broad sections, with specific topics and corresponding strategies and exercises to help you improve your:
- Workplace communication
- Patient communication
- Social communication
Workplace communication
We’ve tackled some difficult scenarios that healthcare workers need to master to help them succeed in the workplace that are specific to nurses and doctors. These include strategies to approach high pressure consultations, recommendations for building rapport with colleagues, participating in meetings, and operating effectively within teams. While some of the preparation you undertook for the OET Test may have assessed you on your comprehension skills within settings like the above, these guides specifically help you use the language skills you’ve learnt to affect outcomes.
When you’ve reviewed this section, you’ll understand how combining the medical knowledge you already possess with confidence, clarity, and calm is a great advantage in the workplace.
Patient communication
The topics that fall under this section are to supplement the practical knowledge you will have learnt in University with softer skills that are valuable within the workplace. Patient-centred care and empathetic communication are highly desirable traits that will prime you to navigate working in new healthcare settings, dealing with a wide range of patients and their families, and providing a model of care that is expected within the operating methods of these organisations and countries.
Ultimately, this section is about equipping you to deliver the best interpersonal care with confidence.
Social communication
As a healthcare worker settling into a new country and workplace, you will be interacting with people from many different areas of society. When preparing to take the OET Test, you will have become familiar with interacting and comprehending in medical settings, but interacting socially and outside of the workplace can be daunting or present unfamiliar scenarios for many. Within the guide, there are several topics to ease you into these interactions and give you some guidelines when it comes to politeness, humour, and phrases that you can make use of immediately.
By exploring this section, you’ll be prepared with some practical learnings to help you thrive outside the workplace in your new destination.
Further learning
As anyone who has attempted to learn a second language knows – you never really stop learning a language. One of the most exciting parts of becoming an OET alumni is having lifelong access to our community and resources.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram and engage with our community on topics that are of interest to you.
Check out some of our other articles that can help you within the workplace: