Hi. Welcome to engVid. I'm Adam. In today's video, I'm going to talk to you
about going to a hospital or a clinic in an English-speaking country. Now, hopefully, you will never need to know
any of the words in this video because nothing will happen to you; but life is life, things
do happen, sometimes accidents happen, sometimes things occur unexpectedly, so you may need
to go to a hospital or a clinic. A hospital - big building, lots of doctors,
lots of equipment. It has an emergency room or an emergency department. A clinic is more like a small doctor's office,
and you can walk into... Go into a walk-in clinic, meaning you don't
need an appointment. If you have something urgent and you need
to speak to a doctor, then you can go here to take care of whatever it is. Now, this is all assuming that you are ambulatory. Now, all of you know "ambulance"; an ambulance
carries you to the hospital. If you are ambulatory, it means you don't
need an ambulance; you can go on your own two feet. You are mobile, you can stand, you can take
yourself to the doctor. Okay? Now, I'm going to talk about this in two ways. First, I'm going to talk about the administrative
aspect of going to the hospital, and then I'll talk about the medical aspect. Now, I'm assuming that if the situation is
an emergency, someone will go with you. Now, it may be a friend of yours who's also
not a native speaker, it may be a roommate, it may be a classmate from your English school. So, everybody should know this stuff; you
may need to help somebody, somebody may need to help you. Again, hopefully not, but be prepared. So, you're going to go into the hospital or
the walk-in clinic and you're going to check in. Just like you check in at a hotel, you check
in at a hospital. You will go and deal with the admitting staff. "Admitting" means they take you in; they admit
you, they do all the paperwork, they get you set up or your friend set up to be taken care
of. You will fill out a lot of forms; name, information,
maybe medical history if that's what they need to know. If there's a situation that you've had in
the past, they need to know this. You will fill out all this information, and
they will start to process you. Excuse me. They will process you, and you're ready to
go or your friend will be ready to go. If you need an x-ray, they will schedule an
x-ray to check if you have any broken bones anywhere in you. If you need something like an MRI or a CAT
scan, where they do a full body diagnosis and look inside, that's not going to happen
at the emergency room because there's always a line up for that. That's not emergency services; if you need
it, they will schedule it for a week later-if you're lucky-a month later, etc. Now, it's very important, if you're going
to travel overseas, that you have insurance. This is something that you pay for that, if
anything happens, all your medical expenses are given back to you. But check your policy. Your policy is the insurance that you signed
for; that you paid for. It has all the different rules, it has all
the different conditions - make sure you understand these very clearly because it happens often
that somebody comes to Canada, or to the US, or to another country, they need to go to
the hospital and then they get a bill. The hospital says: "Okay, here. You owe us $5,000." Medical expenses can be very, very high, so
you may have to pay upfront, meaning you have to pay at the hospital at the time for anything
that they do to you. If you have to go to surgery, you may have
to pay $50,000 or whatever the situation. So, be prepared to be able to pay upfront. Now, if you think: "Well, that's what insurance
is for. Insurance will pay for all this stuff." Some policies, yes, will pay the hospital
directly; some will not. Some will reimburse you. You will be reimbursed when you go home and
fill out all the paperwork in your home country. So make sure you understand what's going on. If you get to the hospital and you don't have
a credit card with you, you might be in some serious trouble; they might not let you leave
the hospital until somebody comes and pays for you. Okay? So, this is all the administrative stuff. Now let's look at what actually happens, medically
speaking; doctors, nurses, etc. Okay, now let's look at the actual action
that's going to happen when you come to the hospital. So, first of all, you will be looked after
by the attending nurse, or doctor, or resident. A resident is still a student; he or she is
still working towards a specialization or just towards their final certificate. So, it'll be the attending nurse, or the on-call
nurse or the doctor. Okay? That's the one taking care of that shift-okay?-at
the hospital. Now, if you came in an ambulance, then the
paramedic will have already started the whole process in the ambulance; but if you're walking
into the clinic or the hospital, you will be looked at by the attending doctor or nurse. So, the first thing they will do is perform
triage. So, we use this verb. "Triage" is the process of separating all
the injured, or wounded, or sick people in order of priority. Okay? Whoever needs to go in first will go in first;
whoever can wait will wait. So, this process basically looks very quickly:
"Are you bleeding?" Then they have to go stop the bleeding. If you're not bleeding, and your heart is
pumping okay, and your brain... And you can still function and speak, then
you can wait; it's not that bad, and you may have to wait a few hours, but you will eventually
get in. Those who need care fastest go in first. So, this begins with a diagnosis. The nurse or doctor will look at you, they
will try to understand the situation; if you're having pain, if something's broken, if you're
bleeding, if you're hurt in whatever way - they will figure out what the problem is and what
the treatment should be. And, from there, you start your process of
being treated. Okay? Diagnosis leads to treatment. Now, most of the time what they will do first
is take your blood pressure to make sure that it's not too high; that you're not going to
have a heart attack any second. Right? If your blood pressure is sustainable; if
you can sit and wait for a while, then you'll sit and wait. If your blood pressure is too high, they may
need to take you in right away and bring it down, or do something else. They may hook you up to an IV. So, an IV is, like, a needle. It goes into your arm, so that's why it's
called "intravenous". It goes into your vein, and it feeds you most
likely saline solution - water with a little bit of salt just to make sure you're okay. It's, like... Keeps you alive, like food, but I'm not going
to get into the details. So, they'll hook you up to an IV. Sometimes they may have to hook you up to
a catheter. If you have trouble and you're, like, peeing,
for example, and you don't want to do it all over the floor, they'll hook you up with a
tube, you'll go into a bag, and you'll wait until it's your turn to see the doctor. If you're bleeding, then the first thing they're
going to do is stop the bleeding. If you lose too much blood, you can pass out
and worse things can happen. So, first thing: Stop the bleeding. Disinfect the wound. So, if you're cut somewhere and you're bleeding
from it, they have to clean it with alcohol or whatever other disinfectant - make sure
it's clean. And if it's really gushing... "Gushing" means bleeding very fast and a lot. If you're gushing blood, they have to stop
it and then they may have to staple the cut or stitch the cut. Staple, like a stapler, like pieces that:
"Chicka-chicka-chicka-chick". And they take the skin and they close it,
and they staple it. Or stitch with, like, a needle and thread,
and they close it, stop the bleeding, and then take care of it after. And then put on dressing. "Dressing", like gauze, like the white stuff
that goes around and makes sure everything's okay; doesn't bleed anymore. If it's a very serious emergency, they may
have to rush you into the operating theater where they will perform surgery. If they need to open you up to get inside
to fix something, then they'll take you to this place. It's called the operating theater; sometimes
it's called the surgery, the surgery room, etc. If they ask you to just go and sit, because
you may be sitting for a long time but you are in pain, they'll give you a painkiller. Now, they may give you a pill or they just
may just give you an injection; a needle - morphine or something like that. Or they'll just give you a sedative. A sedative helps kill the pain, but it also
helps calm you down so you can relax, and just sit on the chair, and when it's your
turn you will be called in, a doctor will look at you, assess the situation, and take
care of you. If you're going to an emergency room, bring
a lot of patience with you. It doesn't matter how much pain you're in;
somebody else might be in more pain, and they... He or she will go in first. Be prepared for that. If you're really bad, you'll go in quick;
if you're not that bad, you will wait sometimes for many hours. Okay? So this is the initial process. Now, whether it's a hospital or clinic, it
doesn't matter. If you're bleeding, you're probably not going
to the clinic; you're probably going to the hospital. They have more equipment, more staff. If you have a lot of pain inside somewhere,
but you can still walk, you can still think clearly, you can just go to the clinic... To the walk-in clinic, and ask to see the
doctor there. Okay? Now, I'm going to give you a few expressions
that are useful for you to know in case this ever does come up. Okay, so now I have a few expressions, here,
that are useful for you to know; to keep in mind. Again, hopefully you don't need to use them. But before you go travelling, make sure you're
very aware of your own medical history. Certain things should not be a surprise. So, here, for example, I wrote: "I'm having
an asthma attack." If you have asthma and you're going travelling,
make sure you know all the vocabulary associated with asthma, because it's a realistic possibility
for you to have an asthma attack. Most of the things, here, are based on the
idea that you're going into a hospital emergency room unexpectedly; something surprising happened,
and you need to be prepared. If you have a medical history, make sure you
know the vocabulary associated with that history. Okay? So, very simple... This... These are all very basic expressions just
to get you...Get you going with a doctor, basically. "I have a sharp pain here. I have a sharp pain here. I have a blunt pain here". "Blunt", it's not really painful, so that's
why I didn't put it. You have a pain or you have a sharp pain. "Sharp pain" means like a knife or a needle
went into you somewhere, and just point. Or if it's inside... If you think it's somewhere inside: "I have
a pain in my stomach." Okay. Basically, as soon as it's a pain, it's not
visible, then the treatment will, of course, be very different; they have to find out what's
causing that pain. Okay? If you're feeling a different... A weak way... "I feel dizzy". "Dizzy" means, like, you feel like you're
spinning-right?-and you might pass out anytime. "I feel weak", like no energy, something's
not right. Again, this is probably something sudden and
it's a little bit scary for you, and that's why you went to the hospital. "I feel nauseous". I know it doesn't look like it, but it looks
like... It sounds like that: "noshus". It means you feel like you're going to throw
up. Or you could just say: "I feel like throwing
up"; vomit. Okay? Something inside is not good, and you... Like that. You know? Hopefully not, though. "I'm having an allergic reaction." Now, some people don't even realize that they're
allergic to something. So, for example, you go to a seafood restaurant
and you try something new that you've never had before, but you're allergic to this. Especially something like shellfish, scallops,
oysters, things like that. And you try one and suddenly your face blows
up; it gets all swollen. So, you've never had this before, you get
very scared, you go to the hospital, and you say: "Something's happening. I'm having an allergic reaction." They will probably give you a shot, like,
anti-allergen, and it will hopefully help you out, there. "I see stars." So, sometimes if something happens and you
see, like, little white spots - if you just say: "I see stars", they will understand what's
going on; you're seeing the white spots in your eyes. Something's going on inside; maybe you're
missing some certain nutrient, or maybe you're just dehydrated. Right? That happens when you're dehydrated, so drink
lots of water. If it doesn't go away, get to the hospital. "I have a cramp." Now, a cramp is a little bit hard, but sometimes
you feel like something is squeezing, like, especially your stomach, it's squeezing really
tight and it's really painful - that's called a cramp. You can also get it in your leg if you're
sitting the wrong way; your muscles, they squeeze together. It becomes very painful. Now, if you have a cramp inside somewhere
and it's not going away, you should probably get to the hospital; it could be something
else. If you have chest pains... You have pain inside your chest-your heart,
your lungs, whatever-definitely get to the hospital. Okay? It could be something very serious. "I think I broke something." Now, doctors don't like when the patients
tell them what the problem is, but at the same time, if you think you broke something,
then you're probably in a lot of pain and that's probably what it is. Either you think you broke a bone... "I think I broke my leg, my arm", whatever. "Sprained" means it's, like, almost broken,
but not broken. It basically means, like, you got a bruise
inside and it's very painful, but... And then the doctor will just set... They will set your bones, put it in a cast. So, like a thing to hold everything in a straight
line and it doesn't move, and then that's how they fix it. "I'm bleeding from..." If it's not very obvious where you're bleeding;
you're bleeding somewhere else - you go in, you tell the doctor: "I'm bleeding from this
or that place", they take you inside, stop the bleeding. So, again, all of these are very basic expressions. If you have reason to worry about something,
be prepared. If you say: "I'm having an asthma attack",
you've probably had one before, otherwise you don't know it's an asthma attack. If you're having a seizure... Like, some people have epilepsy, and like,
their whole body starts shaking uncontrollably - that's called a seizure. Again, this shouldn't be a surprise for you,
especially if you're going travelling. Make sure you have the vocabulary you need
to be able to get the treatment that you need. So, I hope this was helpful. I hope that you never, ever have to use any
of these expressions or words in your whole life, but better safe than sorry. Right? Better to be prepared than see an unexpected
surprise that you're not prepared for. If you have any questions on this, please
go to www.engvid.com; you can ask me in the forum. You can also take the quiz and test your knowledge
of this vocabulary. I hope you like this lesson. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and
come visit me again soon; I'll have some more helpful lessons for you. Bye-bye.
