Are You Ready?
Step 2 CS patient interviews are especially challenging for people who don't speak English as their first language. Before being able to produce an appropriate diagnosis, you need to identify and assess the symptoms, and before you do that, you need to be able to understand the patient.
How about if you have an angry patient who is speaking very quickly? A lot of patients are in distress, or anxious, and may not be completely coherent presenting a challenge even for a native speaking medical student.
No patient will present their case in medical terminology, so it's important that you are first able to understand everyday, conversational English. An important part of this is having a basic working knowledge of commonly used idioms.
Along with important "immersion" exercises I've created for people to develop an ear and tongue for everyday English, a lot of great websites are at hand to help you increase your idiom vocabulary.
My favorite site is "The Idiom Connection."
Here is an article "20 Embarrassing Phrases Even Smart People Misuse" to show you how it can be challenging for native speakers of English as well sometimes.
If you want help preparing for the Patient Interviews for the Step 2 CS, or conversational English, contact me!
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