Transcript: OET Listening Practice Test – Extra05

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

N:	You hear an optometrist talking to a patient called Aidan Fitzpatrick, who has been experiencing blurred vision.
F:	Hi Aidan. I’m Dr Salkeld … could you start by telling me about what’s been going on with your vision?
M:	Sure … Well, I guess it must’ve started a while ago, but I didn’t really notice it properly until about two weeks ago. I was working in my garden, and I noticed that I was having a hard time reading the instructions on the gardening products that I’d just bought. I normally stick to the one I’ve been using for years, but I thought it’d be nice to try something different. Anyways, it kind of felt like everything was fuzzy around the edges, and I just couldn’t see the letters clearly. After talking to my daughter, she mentioned that I’d been using increasingly more light to read at night and even pulling things closer to me to read. I hadn’t even noticed! So I went out and got some of those glasses they sell at the pharmacy and they helped, but my doctor said that it’d be better if I came to see an eye doctor … Well they made things less blurred, anyway, I guess. My vision’s still not crystal clear or anything when I use the glasses, but I wasn’t really expecting that. I still notice that I’m squinting to see things … it’s mostly when I’m trying to read something close-up, like small writing. I’m better when things are at a distance … I don’t know if it’s related – but I’ve also noticed a pretty persistent headache … I guess it’s kind of at the sides of my head, I suppose. It comes and goes, but it’s definitely worst when I’m having trouble seeing something. When it gets really bad, I just take a fast-acting ibuprofen, and that tends to sort it out.
F:	Ever had any vision problems before?
M:	When I was little, at some point in elementary school, I think I had glasses, but I’m sure I broke them and we just never got round to having them replaced. My brother has glasses that he’s been wearing for years. I don’t really know a whole lot about what’s wrong with his eyes … maybe he’s shortsighted? But that reminds me, my brother thought I should mention that a couple of months or so ago I was really pretty ill. I was suffering from sinusitis. And, anyway, I left it pretty late to go and see the doctor about it. Kind of thought that it would just sort itself out. Anyway, it lingered for a while, so when I told my doctor he gave me some antibiotics, and it cleared up pretty quickly after that. Well, for the most part … although I still feel like I have a cold. Other than that, I’ve been in really good health for the last few years. I take my health really seriously. I’m not sure if the doctor told you, but I used to be quite overweight, but I lost it all after a bit of a wake-up call some years back … I had what you guys call a myocardial infraction … it was pretty scary, and I was quite overweight at the time, and really stressed out about my job. Since then, I’ve made a real effort to look after myself properly.
F:	I’m glad to hear it. So, in terms of your blurred vision, what do you think might work for you?
M:	Well, I don’t particularly like the idea of wearing glasses all the time, but touching my eyes freaks me out so contact lenses are definitely not an option. I guess the best thing might be to just have glasses that I wear all the time so I don’t keep forgetting to put them on when I am out somewhere and not at home. I’ve actually never had an eye test, so I should probably schedule one of those as a next step.
F:	I think that sounds reasonable. Let’s do some tests to check out your eyes and go from there.

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

M:	Hilary Johnson? Hi, do come in and take a seat. I’m Dr Smith and I’m a senior obstetrician here … So, Hilary, you’ve been referred to us by your midwife. I have her notes with me here, but could you tell me in your own words why you’ve been referred?
F:	Yeah, no problem … umm, I think I’ve been referred to you because the midwife said she found some glucose in my urine sample and was worried about diabetes. If I understand correctly, I could have diabetes during my pregnancy, but if I do, it’s not likely to continue after giving birth? I’ve noticed that I’m craving sweets and cakes all the time at the moment, and I’ve just been letting myself eat whatever, so I’ve put on a bit of weight, and I don’t think it’s all just baby weight, either … I’ve never had a problem with diabetes before, and I’m hoping it will turn out to be something else. My aunt actually has Type 2 diabetes, but she’s always eaten a lot of sugar, so I think that might be a factor. She just controls hers with diet now and doesn’t have to take any medication.
M:	Oh, okay. Thanks for letting me know … I see from your notes that you’re 24 weeks pregnant now. How has your pregnancy been up to now?
F:	Oh, I’ve been so lucky! I got the usual sickness early on – well, you know, stomach pain, but not actually being sick – I think that’s pretty common, and it settled after the first trimester. I’ve been taking some medication because I also had pretty horrible heartburn, and it seems to take care of the problem … and also I’ve started to get a bit of back pain in the last week or so … I’d say it’s like a throbbing feeling. But other than that I’ve been pretty fortunate. I suppose I’ve been gradually getting more and more tired since the start of my pregnancy. I’ve just put it down to the extra energy my baby needs, but it could also be because I haven’t been sleeping very well. Also, sometimes the nausea stops me from making something healthy for dinner, which is annoying because I know I need to eat healthily. I take a prenatal, though, to make sure I’m getting the right nutrition.
M:	Well, it seems like you’re managing to deal with most of your symptoms well.
F:	Yeah, this is my first pregnancy and to be honest I didn’t have a clue what to expect, but so far so good. It’s only this glucose thing that’s got me worried. I imagine it’s just a one off, but I guess it’s best to get it seen to.
M:	Certainly, and I’m pleased you’re here so that we can get things sorted. So we’ll need to book another appointment to carry out some tests.
F:	Okay, so when will I have to have this because I’m a bit busy at work at the minute?
M:	Well ideally as soon as possible. Can I ask what you do for a living?
F:	I’m a high school teacher, and it’s just getting to that time of year where the kids are gearing up for their examinations. So I can’t afford to be taking too much time off during the day. I’m actually a little bit stressed at the moment as well. I’ve had to do a lot more work over the past few weeks … I think it’s just that time of year. I’ve been a teacher for four years now, so I’m starting to develop ways of coping with the madness. With that in mind, if our next appointment could be at five-ish or later, then that would be perfect.
M:	No problem, just make sure to let the receptionist know your preferences. When we find sugar in preliminary tests, we offer an oral glucose tolerance test, which is what we’ll do when you come in next. Do you know what that involves?
F:	Well, I asked a few of my friends about their pregnancies, and my friend Beth said that she had the same thing and told me about that test. She said that she had to come into the hospital and drink a sugary drink and then have a blood test to tell if she had diabetes. Is that right?
M:	Yes, that’s pretty much it. Here is a leaflet that explains the test so that you can have a read about it when you get home. Do you have any other questions for me?
F:	No, I don’t think so. I’ll go away and read this and see what the test says. Thank you for your help today. M: You’re welcome. I’ll see you once we have the results, and we can take it from there.

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

Question 25

M:	Did you want to talk to me, Miss Tanaka?
F:	Oh … yes, you see, I just wanted to let you know that my father … well, as you know, he’s recently been diagnosed with dementia … most of the time it’s not an issue, and his spats never last long. It’s just that I wanted to prepare you – sometimes he’s really not himself.
M:	Ah, okay, Miss Tanaka, I think I understand. Can your father become aggressive?
F:	Yes … I mean, I think it’s just that he gets frustrated sometimes. He can’t remember things, and I think it’s scary for him. He was never, ever like this before his dementia, and those periods, well, they really don’t reflect his true character.
M:	Of course, thanks for letting me know.

Question 26

Doctor:

Well, you’ve got what’s known as a bunion.

Labour can progress differently for different people. In some circumstances, if labour is longer than expected and if we detect that the baby is distressed, then we may have to consider an emergency caesarean section. It’s a procedure that we perform in theatre, and it is carried out under spinal or epidural anaesthetic, so that you don’t feel anything, but you will be awake. A screen is placed across your body so you don’t have to see what’s being done. We make an incision in your tummy and womb, just under your bikini line, to remove your baby and then stitch up the wound. It takes around 40 minutes, and your birth partner can be there at all times. Does that make sense?

Question 27

M:	In September, we’ll have a lot of new patients, as the first year university students will all register during freshers.
F:	Yes, we were really run off our feet last year, weren’t we?
M:	Yep. It was a madhouse.
F:	Do you think we should hire agency staff to help out for the first couple of weeks this time around?
M:	Well, I think part of the problem was that last year, Dr Igwe and Nurse Fletcher were both away – Dr Igwe went to Costa Rica, and Nurse Fletcher had the flu.
F:	Right! I remember. Well, we can’t do much to prevent staff illness.
M:	No, but we can ask people to avoid booking time off in those first three weeks.
F:	Okay, I’ll send an email out today.

Question 28

F:	Good morning, Mr Henderson. Dr Ray has recommended that you get a flu immunisation shot before you are discharged. I’ve got the injection ready to give to you. Are you allergic to anything?
M:	I’m only allergic to latex and penicillin. I don’t know if I want the flu shot. The last time I got the shot, I got sick.
F:	I’m sorry that happened to you. What kind of symptoms did you have after that last flu shot?
M:	I got a runny nose and a headache. My arm felt like so someone punched me.
F:	Sometimes the flu shot can cause reactions like a sore injection site and headache. Other common symptoms include being tired, muscle and joint aches, shivering and fever. All of these symptoms can be seen with the flu, but the shot can’t give you the flu.

Question 29

M:	Good morning, Mrs. Bowder. I’ll be your doctor taking care of your cut there. What exactly happened?
F:	It’s embarrassing really, you see, I was just trying to chop some tomatoes for dinner and the knife accidentally slipped. Oh, I’m so clumsy, I hope it doesn’t hurt too much to stitch back up!
M:	Well, we’re going to numb the area now with a shot of lidocaine. You’ll feel a poke of the needle and a slight burn, but afterwards the area should be numb and you’ll feel nothing during the procedure. We should be finished in about 10 minutes.
F:	Oh good! How many stitches will I need? How long will they have to stay in? I’m really conscious about my hands, so I hope I don’t have a scar.
M:	I will only know for sure once I finish suturing, but by my estimation, you might require at least four to five sutures. They’ll have to stay in for five to ten days and you will need to come back in to get them removed. I’ll do my best to try and line the edges up to create as little scarring as possible, but I can’t guarantee there will be nothing there!

Question 30

M:	I haven’t treated anyone with COPD before; what would we need to do differently?
F:	One of the most important things would be to make sure to prescribe oxygen at levels between 88–92%.
M:	Okay … so why would that be necessary? If he’s having trouble breathing, shouldn’t we prescribe higher oxygen levels? Most patients receive oxygen at levels between 94–98%.
F:	Well, in healthy individuals, a rise in carbon dioxide would result in an increased drive to breathe in order to eliminate the excess gas.
M:	Right.
F:	However, in some patients with COPD, this response is blunted and their main mechanism for respiratory drive is controlled by the level of oxygen in the body instead. If the level of oxygen given to a COPD patient is increased too much, it can actually reduce the stimulus to breathe and cause hypoventilation, resulting in an increase in CO 2 .

Part C Extract 1

MP3 – Youtube

Transcript

M:	Cystic fibrosis is a condition that causes mucus to be thicker and stickier than it should be. Dr Tadita Hussein specialises in cystic fibrosis treatment, and is here to share her thoughts on caring for people with the condition. Tadita, can you tell us a bit more about patients who suffer from cystic fibrosis?
F:	Absolutely. Sufferers tend to carry two to five times as much salt in their bodies as those without the condition, so you can see why their mucus is thicker than average. Treatment for these patients is usually quite time-consuming and repetitive, patients are often require to stay in hospital for long stretches and, as the symptoms of the condition begin to present very early on in the patient’s life, many of my patients are young people, and so we tend to see lots of patients with cystic fibrosis finding these hospital visits frustrating. In fact, throughout the UK, about 80% of patients with cystic fibrosis who are hospitalised report feeling at least minimal levels of depression.
M:	How about young patients who aren’t currently hospitalised? What can be challenging about their treatment?
F:	Well, patients can be required to take around 30 pills a day to keep cystic fibrosis under control, so it’s understandable that teenagers and young people, who just want to be free and independent, might resent this ordeal if they think they can get away with it. One of the most difficult things we have to contend with is the fact that, if patients stop taking their medication or doing their daily breathing treatments, their condition won’t immediately worsen. Instead, it will gradually become more severe, until they contract a serious infection which puts their lives at risk.
M:	So, what approaches do you use when treating patients with cystic fibrosis?
F:	Well, we’ve found ‘distraction therapy’ to be extremely useful. We’re incredibly lucky to have received a donation of a number of virtual reality headsets, following their success in a number of treatment trials. We use the virtual reality headsets to transport the patient to outdoor settings, often corresponding to the activities they’re required to do with us. When they complete breathing exercises on a stationary bike, for example, the VR headsets display a virtual outdoor bike ride. Our patients find it helpful to pretend to be somewhere else during treatment, and it’s often easier for us to administer breathing treatments to patients using these headsets, as they’re more relaxed when they’re not focused on the actuality of the test.
M:	So what sorts of changes have you seen in your patients as a result of these methods?
F:	One of my patients, a 24-year-old man with cystic fibrosis who was in hospital waiting for a lung transplant … well, he found treatment very difficult at first. He was preoccupied by his need for a transplant and frustrated by feelings of powerlessness. He would often resist treatment. We started using the virtual reality systems with him as soon as we got them, and it took a while for him to get on board, but when he did, it was like someone had breathed new life into him. Not only did he stop hindering his treatment, he actually began to look forward to it. He’s even started helping us to think about other ways we can improve the experiences of our patients, like improving social interaction.
M:	Yes. I understand that there are difficulties involved in patient communication.
F:	Mmmm … We’re looking into the possibility of instant messaging functions between patients and even virtual games that they can play against each other. Unfortunately, patients with cystic fibrosis have to be kept apart to avoid cross-infection. It’s just one more cross to bear for our patients, that they can’t talk to those going through the same thing. Our patients get plenty of interaction with myself and the rest of the staff, but we’d like to make sure they have access to a network of fellow sufferers, too, for support and advice.
M:	I see. That all sounds quite futuristic! Are there any other advances on the horizon for the treatment of cystic fibrosis?
F:	Well, there’s a new drug that’s been in the news recently; it’s a combination of lumacaftor and ivacaftor, you might know it by the brand name Orkambi. The drug works by improving the level of water and salt in the body, thereby reducing the thick mucus that causes illness and respiratory issues in those with cystic fibrosis. Even more exciting and futuristic, though, is the possibility of gene therapy – where the genetic mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in individuals is replaced with a healthy gene. This would effectively cure those with the condition and significantly extend the lives of thousands of people and remove the need for lengthy stays in hospital.

Part C Extract 2

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

Doctor:	Hi everyone! My name’s Dr Hubert Johnson, and I’ve been asked to speak to you about my experiences in the healthcare industry concerning something that effects all health professionals – improving efficiency. It seems to be a given these days that practices will struggle with a lack of efficiency. We’ve actually found that this expectation, in and of itself, can reduce efficiency and increase delays even further!
	In a recent survey, when patients were asked why they arrived late to their appointments, 30% said that they had assumed that the previous appointment would run long. Patients expect to be kept waiting, and, to some extent, we expect that patients will be kept waiting, and so the first thing we need to address is our attitudes and the attitudes of our patients.
	So let me start by telling you about the efficiency I observed in a practice I visited a couple of weeks ago. At this practise, patients could not make appointments online, but they could either phone up or make an appointment in person. There were never more than two receptionists working in the morning, and the practice generally scheduled 80 appointments each day. Patients who were not attending a follow-up appointment were required to make their appointment on the day of. Can you imagine what that practice was like in the first couple of hours they were open? The receptionists were inundated by calls and walk-ins trying to schedule appointments.
	As you can imagine, patients who had seen what the practice was like in the morning expected that if they didn’t have the first slot of the the day, they’d be delayed by at least 10 minutes. So, naturally, they arrived to their appointment 10 minutes late. One of the most important things you really must address in your practice, in order to improve efficiency, is the way you present your practice to patients. If they believe that you are always running late, guess what? They’ll be running late, too.
	Now, let’s think for a moment about what needs to be done on the patient’s end before an appointment can take place. You might be thinking that there are only two steps to the process: one, the patient books an appointment, and two, the patient arrives at the practice in time for their appointment. Well, we healthcare professionals often forget that there’s actually a step that comes before this: firstly, the patient must decide that their issue is significant enough to warrant an appointment.
	So, about a decade ago, my practice was really struggling from a lack of efficiency. I was working extremely long hours to try to accommodate everyone, and I was becoming increasingly frustrated with conducting appointments that didn’t seem strictly necessary. I got to thinking about how I might be able to help patients to reconsider their initial assumption when booking appointments and to treat minor issues at home. At the same time, I did not want my patients to feel unsupported. I decided that I would begin to give weekly presentations in the evenings about self-care. As I tended to see a multitude of patients coming in for similar issues that they could actually treat themselves, each week I focused on a different common theme. The presentations lasted for just 1 hour, but I found that they resulted in seven fewer unnecessary appointments each week.
	These days, of course, I no longer have to give a physical presentation. Thanks to modern technology, I simply upload instructional videos to our practice’s website. We also email these videos out to patients periodically. We can and should make use of technology as a tool in our practices, to help us to improve efficiency. However, it’s important to note that while many, perhaps even the majority, of your patients will be capable of using technology to arrange their appointments, there are many people uncomfortable or unable to use technology, so you must always make sure that these patients are accommodated, too. Providing your patients with more options, rather than replacing old options, is often the best practice for improving efficiency. Now, let’s move on to look at a practice that used technology in a surprising way.

Curriculum

Transcript: OET Listening Practice Test – Extra05

Part A Extract 1

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

Part A Extract 2

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

Part B

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript

Question 25

Question 26

Question 27

Question 28

Question 29

Question 30

Part C Extract 1

MP3 – Youtube

Transcript

Part C Extract 2

MP3 – YouTube

Transcript