Medical Terminology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student must be able to prove that he/she has acquired the following learning outcomes:

R1 Basic vocabulary in the health sciences record.

R2 Understanding and oral expression.

R3 Reading and understanding medical articles.

R4 Composition of documents related to the medical profession.

R5 The student will be able to explain diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

R6 The student will be able to present medical data and refer to the specialist.

R7 The student will be able to understand the main points of scientific articles in English and understand their logical structure consistently and with cohesion.

Theorical Content

The basic objective of this course is to bring students to a level where they can use their English for international communication in the fields of health science, focusing on Medicine through specific readings. Therefore, the material for this course is divided into two parts. The first part deals with English from a general Health Science perspective, and the second applies these principles to specific medical contexts.

The first part is divided into five units, each one with six sub-sections through which students will acquire communicative competency in the four linguistic abilities in the Health Sciences to be applied in Medicine. Each lesson within the five units is designed to present, develop, and practice a particular job-related skill. Through specific readings in Medicine, students will be exposed to real-life situations through these readings that will enable them to use the language in meaningful ways. The integrated skills approach will help develop the student’s self-confidence to succeed in professional and social encounters within an English-speaking global community. The four skills of listening, speaking, writing, and reading will be addressed throughout the course in professional contexts through the materials provided in practical sessions which will form the second part of each class. Students will be motivated by the opportunity to practice and develop their English language skills in the following job-related situations, which comprise the general health sciences core of this course:

Unit 1 - Diagnosing: Putting a patient at ease with small talk, taking a medical history, and asking open-ended questions. presenting a case, and explaining medical examinations and procedures to a patient.

Unit 2 - Treating a patient: Giving advice, explaining a case to a relative, explaining causes and treatments, giving instructions, and calming people down.

Unit 3 - Dealing with difficult cases: Describing and identifying causes of pain, being supportive, presenting a case in lay as well as medical terms, and breaking bad news.

Unit 4 - Planning rehabilitation and long-term care: Examining a nonverbal patient, communicating with the next-of-kin, explaining test results to patient and relatives, 10/15 PI-02-F-16 ED. 00 Year 2023/2024 341107 - Medical English explaining the characteristics of long-term care, and giving instructions for physical therapy.

Unit 5 - Referring a patient: Calling in a specialist, referring a patient to another doctor for tests and/or treatment, and giving postoperative advice