Testimonials
Read what some of my former trainees have said about How to Teach English to Healthcare Professionals
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Laura While my experience teaching English for healthcare has been fairly minimal, I’ve been preparing medical professionals for IELTS for many years. And when OET became the English language qualification of choice for many healthcare professionals in the UK, I did complete the OET’s Preliminary Provider course and taught a few nurses and doctors on a one-to-one basis. The course has been great. Ros’s knowledge and expertise in clinical communications shines through but she’s also a very charismatic and down-to-earth trainer who has made the materials really accessible. I liked the way the course was broken down into manageable modules and short videos, the use of lots of authentic materials (especially video) to bring sessions to life and the emphasis on practical takeaways for designing courses and materials. As an experienced trainer having taught English for a good number of years already, I think the introductory modules on the patient-centred approach and the different elements of good clinical communications skills (gathering info, examining patients, delivering bad news etc) have taught me the most. I did have to get to grips with the clinical communications models and some of the medical terminology – although this was always presented in a digestible way. If you’re considering working as a clinical communications trainer or are in the field already but need to develop or refresh your approach to teaching, don’t think twice. This is a very comprehensive course and will equip you with an excellent background to healthcare English and some concrete ideas on the different approaches to take in the classroom and how to develop courses and materials. The Clinical Communications Starter Kit that Ros generously makes available on her website is also a resource you will definitely find very useful! It’s important not to let imposter syndrome deter you from entering the profession. Although this was repeated several times throughout the course and Ros herself comes from a teaching, rather than a clinical background, this is still something I need to overcome! The last session of the course which included short interviews from different professionals in the field talking about what they enjoy about the profession and the advice they would give to those starting out, really helped to hammer this home! Laura Plotnek-Jones ESOL trainer UK (June 2026) Matthew I had no prior experience of teaching English in the healthcare sector, nor was I aware of the existence of communication skills as a subject to teach within this field. So, in this regard, it was quite a new concept for me. There were several take aways. The course introduced me to so many ways to get into this field as well as different approaches to the classes. What will echo in my mind most of all is that any teaching material needs to be relevant to their day-to-day lives. Working with these learners I will definitely need to minimize time spent on traditional English language aspects, namely grammar work, and focus more on role-playing real-life situations. I already had some idea of the OET, and this is something I would like to get more involved in. I think that the wealth of resources and knowledge available to us on this course will help me on the way to offering OET training. In fact, as we worked through, I saw how much of the course content easily links to OET preparation. I would certainly recommend this course as I think it has given me a strong foundation on which to build. I had very little idea about where to start and this course has given me so many things to think about. I would also say that although the course is officially a certain number of weeks, when you finish, you still have so much more to work through with all the extra resources. It certainly offers very good value. Matthew Walker ELT trainer Spain (June 2026) Drew As a retired emergency medicine physician, I completed medical school in the United States, graduating in 1982. In my training, we had no specific instruction in clinical communication; rather, it was something we picked up along the way from our teachers, peers, and patient feedback. It was a rather hit-and-miss, trial-by-error process in the '80s in the US. What I enjoyed most about this course was gaining a brand-new perspective on clinical communications, as well as hearing the perspectives of Ros (from Great Britain) and the other participants from around the globe. It was great to see the extensive research that has gone into the most effective ways to communicate with patients, specifically regarding patient-centered communication. What I found most challenging was applying this new research to something I’ve done for 30 years without much formal thought. Previously, my approach was hit-or-miss—I was almost entirely learning from my mistakes rather than learning the principles beforehand to prevent those mistakes. What I found most interesting was the focus on patient-centered care. Although this concept seems obvious, it wasn't traditionally taught as such in the United States. Clearly, patients do much better when they understand the health care provider, when they form a partnership with the health care provider regarding their own care, and when they can give feedback to show that they are aligned with the care plan. And my biggest takeaway is the importance of patient-centered communication: speaking in language that is easily understood by the patient and getting feedback from them to ensure they have bought into the care plan and fully comprehend it. I intend to pursue a career teaching English to healthcare professionals, specifically those who want to work in the United States in the field of emergency medicine. I believe there is a great opportunity for someone with my background to help foreign medical graduates obtain residency training slots in the US. I would urge anyone who teaches English to healthcare providers to take Ros's course. This is especially true for those of us who trained in either medical care or English teaching long ago, before this extensive research had been published. Drew Fenton former EM physician, US/Argentina (Jan 2026) Isabella As a former healthcare professional, my knowledge of clinical communication skills was limited to what I’d learned in medical school. However, as a result of following this course, I now feel better equipped, not only with a better understanding of my target audience’s needs, but also in terms of how I’d like to conduct my lessons. Most of my communication skills were picked up through ‘shadowing’ doctors in my clinical rotations. While we did come across some of the clinical communications models mentioned on Ros’ course, we didn’t cover them to the same extent or detail. I wouldn’t have been able to put a name to certain techniques, let alone explain them to my own learners in any logical or meaningful way. Completing Ros’ course means I am now able to approach them from a teaching rather than a physician’s perspective, and as a trainer, I really needed to understand how to teach these skills in an effective and practical way. Having completed the course, I now feel more confident about what I’ll be teaching, about sourcing and creating materials, and about structuring my lessons. I have a much better appreciation of the use of video content and how to approach it from different angles for different topics. And while I am not an OET trainer, the introduction to OET was really useful. Having a basic understanding of the test will help me structure my lessons, even if not specifically targeted at OET candidates. Finally, I also appreciated how the course itself was structured, something I think I will be able to mirror in lessons with my own learners. I would fully recommend How to teach Clinical Communications Skills. Not only did it refresh my memory, but it also made me aware of areas that were not covered so well in medical school and how to teach them more effectively. I think this course has been incredibly beneficial and has better prepared me for teaching medical English. Isabella Gresswell Medical English trainer, Portugual (May 2025) Agnès Two weeks into the course and I finally realised what had been missing from the care my own mother had received before she passed away. The real trigger had been discovering the patient-/person-centred approach and understanding its far-reaching implications, not only for the patient, but also for their loved ones. I was new to this field and didn’t know anything about clinical communications skills until the day I came across an interview with Ros by Rachael Roberts. Joining this course provided a real opportunity to discover a new teaching environment. English for healthcare really appealed to me and I’d been considering it for some time. Ros’ course was the chance to learn some of the tricks of the trade to enable me to tackle it as a professional. My journey began with dieticians and I’m now very much hoping for my business to develop and for me to work in collaboration with private hospitals in Geneva. The next step will be to complete the OET teacher training course and obtain my Knowledge badge. For anyone considering it, I would tell them it’s a high-quality course containing invaluable advice and information, devised and delivered by a passionate expert. Having access to the modules once the course has ended is essential as it means we can always refer back to the content as well as retrieve useful sources to use with our learners. Finally, the online chats via the (closed) Facebook group have given us the chance to express ourselves, meet other people and create a community. Agnès Huyton, English Objective ESP Trainer, France/Switzerland (Oct 2024) Anne-Marie I had no prior knowledge of clinical communications skills and so Ros’ course was a revelation! The content itself included straightforward explanations and examples, and I now realise that I don’t need a wealth of medical knowledge to teach it. My biggest take away was probably the fact that overseas medical professionals might not have had any communications training and so what seems obvious to me, such as cultural differences, etc. would not necessarily be obvious to the learner. I also now realise that many British doctors and nurses that I’ve come across could also do with a bit more training! I would encourage anyone to go for this course, as it will give you the confidence to feel you can approach and teach the subject. And in addition, Ros provides a huge amount of support. Anne-Marie Hoines ELT Trainer, UK (Jan 2024) Philippa As a qualified ESL teacher with a master's degree in health administration, I'm currently working with adult immigrants in Orlando, Florida, some of whom are health workers. The key takeaway for me was about teaching empathy. Before this course, I had not considered it to be part of language learning or my responsibility as a language teacher. Nor did I think empathy was something that could be taught. This course showed me how important it is to include it in language training for healthcare workers. The materials development modules were the ones I enjoyed most, with the sections about creating materials for accuracy and fluency the most helpful. For example, I have always used role-play in my lesson plans, but I see now that the scenarios need to be much more detailed and authentic than what I’ve been using to date. I will also be more careful in choosing authentic supplementary teaching aids in the future. One thing to note however, if you are taking the course outside of the European time zone: try to make yourself available for the face-to-face video calls. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate as fully as I would have liked to because of my work schedule and the time difference. Overall, I was very satisfied with this course. I’m sure I will continue to refer to its content often in the future. It gave me increased confidence in my ability to help my students. Philippa White ESL Teacher, USA (Jan 2026) |
Angela Prior to joining the course my knowledge was primarily related to the healthcare sector through my work as a market researcher, aware of various therapy areas, treatments, dynamics between healthcare professional and patient, etc. My experience was limited to teaching English on the CELTA course, and I had no experience of teaching English for healthcare. Things I loved about the course included the bite-sized video modules, making it very accessible and manageable, the use of authentic video to keep it interesting and engaging, and the live sessions which were a great opportunity to share and touch base with the rest of the group. I also loved Ros’ passion for the subject, as well as her guidance and how accessible she was throughout the course. My biggest take way is the reminder that the patient is at the centre of everything we do. I think keeping that point in mind will be absolutely key when approaching teaching, as we can sometimes lose sight of who we are ultimately doing this for. I encounter this a lot in my daily job as well; pharma companies are very focused on selling their products and targeting the right doctors and can sometimes forget who the products are actually for. I would say to anyone considering this course, to absolutely do it. Whatever your background and future plans, this course will provide invaluable information, thought-provoking content, new perspectives and practical advice that I don’t think can be found anywhere else, neatly packaged in this way. Wherever you are coming from, you will definitely learn something interesting and valuable that will benefit your career or simply your knowledge in the area of English for healthcare. Angela Healthcare market researcher UK/Italy (June 2026) Reena While I’d never taught English for healthcare, I had been a community pharmacist in the UK for a number of years before pivoting to teaching, which meant clinical communication skills already featured in my skill set. However, using these skills and teaching them are quite different. During my pre-registration placements at university, I’d learnt mainly through ‘shadowing’. So, one of my many lightbulb moments came about when realising that identifying how learning effective clinical communication skills, which is challenging enough for speakers of the same language, needs to be prioritised and practised in a controlled environment before learners are unleashed on real patients! The course also placed more focus on how all this relates to the patient's social history, needs and understanding, which wasn't clearly explained at university. Interestingly, although the course I'm currently designing is for community pharmacists, I no longer feel the need to limit myself to teaching pharmacists. The course covers several disciplines extremely well and I now feel more confident using my transferable skills and knowledge. In addition, having recently completed the OET Knowledge programme, I found Ros’s course complemented the training provided by OET with opportunities to spark discussion and share ideas and to receive constructive feedback; all of which gave me the confidence to improve my offer to potential OET candidates. Ros is incredibly supportive, checking in and giving advice on what to prioritise, as well as sending gentle reminders prior to the live sessions. This was helpful as it enabled me to complete the tasks and fully participate during the sessions with the other course participants, who, on this occasion, all happened to be former healthcare professionals! Looking to the future, I hope to be flourishing fabulously and helping even more of my learners achieve their English learning goals, so they can confidently and effectively connect and communicate with other English speakers, wherever they are in the world. Reena Mistry Medical English & OET trainer, Spain (May 2025) Magdalena I appreciated that the information provided in the course was supported by scientific evidence. This is particularly important when teaching skills in a healthcare setting where it's essential to have a clear rationale for the techniques being taught. Having translated Skills for Communicating with Patients by Jonathan Silverman into Polish and attended his workshops in Poland, I already possessed an in depth understanding of clinical communications skills. What I needed was help applying that knowledge to the medical English classroom. How to Teach Clinical Communication Skills gave me the tools and insights I needed to bridge that gap. I found the modules on active listening and recognizing verbal and non-verbal cues were most useful. Also, the sections focused on teaching nurses were particularly relevant to my needs, especially as there is relatively less material available for teaching nurses compared to doctors. However, my biggest takeaway was using video effectively to introduce new topics and engage learners from the start. That said, finding suitable clips is sometimes a challenge, especially when you've watched so many and can't choose between them(!) As for the future, I am planning on joining the OET community and completing my OET Knowledge badge. I will also be developing communication skills courses for healthcare students and professionals in various fields, including nursing, radiography, dietetics, and midwifery. Furthermore, I am sure that being part of the TCCS alumni group will help me develop professionally as a clinical communications skills teacher. The course provided me with a broader perspective and is essential for anyone, whether new to or experienced in teaching clinical communication skills! Thank you, Ros, for making it possible. Magdalena Lewandowska Medical English trainer, Poland (Jan 2025) Daphne Despite having a nursing background, and experience in helping healthcare professionals improve their English communication skills, I still found the course to be extremely helpful and I gained many new insights and tips. I was also reminded of the need to think carefully about communication in healthcare-settings in the interests of patient safety and wellbeing. It is a very specific area, and it’s not enough to just teach English or general communication skills. The course was very useful, with excellent thought-provoking content and lots of additional resources. I really appreciated the discussion around the use of authentic video and the introduction to OET training. As I progress in this field and depending on the needs of my clients, I will no doubt be referring back to these resources. Don’t think twice if you’re considering taking Ros’ course. From a price perspective, it’s definitely value for money, but do make sure to have time in your schedule/private life to allow for a deep dive into the materials. Ros is a wealth of information, extremely supportive and knowledgeable. An expert in this field. I was extremely grateful to be able to join at the last minute. THANK YOU!!!! Daphne Klimmek Business English Trainer, Germany (Jan 2024) Michelle I would very highly recommend taking Ros Wright’s course “How to Teach Clinical Communication Skills”. I did this prior to doing the OET teacher preparation training and found it an excellent primer for the programme. She delves into far more than just exam preparation. The course enables you to teach soft skills and nuances of speech in delicate situations where the show of empathy is critical. Michelle Hanson ESP Trainer, Ireland (Jan 2024) Farnaz As a Business English and ESP teacher, as well as a teacher trainer working with a wide range of medical teams and professionals, I really enjoyed the course. I appreciated the pace of the modules, the interactions with my coursemates, and the opportunity to share ideas and challenges with one another. The modules were very enlightening in terms of raising awareness about the importance of clinical communication. I also sincerely valued Ros’s support throughout the course and her commitment to making the experience as smooth as possible for us. The three face-to-face sessions were amazing, as they gave us the chance to share our personal experiences teaching medical professionals from around the world. This provided great insight into a wide range of cultural differences and how clinical communication can vary across contexts. Having completed the course, I feel more confident teaching my medical students, especially those preparing for the OET exam. I also have a better understanding of different areas within the medical field, which will help me meet my learners’ needs more effectively. I would definitely recommend this course to any teacher planning to start teaching medical professionals or preparing learners for the OET exam. It not only helps you teach more confidently but also raises your own awareness of clinical communication. Farnaz Memari Business English & ESP trainer, Spain (Jan 2026) |
Letitia I’ve been teaching English for Medical Purposes for the last 15 years, and with all the recent changes in education I felt the need to update and upgrade my teaching methods and approach. In today’s paradigm, I find clinical communication skills the core of medical English teaching but until now had only touched upon the topic. The course module that stood out the most for me was the one about creating materials for different purposes, especially grammar using specific medical contexts and structures. I picked up lots of bits and pieces that will complement the materials I already work with such as the topic of health literacy which is new to me, or some of the clinical communications models I’d not heard about before. I also appreciated the 10-point framework provided by Ros; it is something I will use when devising the course materials for my students in the future. Finally, another aspect I hadn’t considered before was needs analysis and the idea of the patient being the main beneficiary of teaching English to medical students. I love the way the course is structured in short videos accompanied by worksheets and transcripts. Ros has a compelling manner of presenting and everything is explained thoroughly and backed by science with references. She offers an immense repository of videos, articles, scientific papers, audio recordings – an invaluable resource for teachers. I also really enjoyed the face-to-face meetings; the stories and experiences of the other participants and the tasks they presented were real sources of ideas and materials for the rest of the group. I am really grateful to have had the chance to participate in this course, I think everybody can benefit from participating. It covers so many aspects of communication, and it opens so many doors to medical English teaching that I am confident that anyone would gain from it. Letitia Goia EMP teacher Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (June 2026) Giuseppina Completing Ros’s course, 'How to Teach Clinical Communications Skills' was a win-win for me. Not only is it proving to be indispensable for teaching OET exam students, but most of the skills covered on the course are also fully transferable to other ESP fields and to ELT in general. Prior to joining the course, I had only taught OET once. And while my student passed the exam on his first attempt, I did grapple with understanding the clinical communications criteria for the OET speaking test. Key to understanding the OET clinical communications criteria is understanding the difference between the patient-centred and doctor-centred approaches, and this is covered in the very first module of the course. I believe that the discussion raised around this topic will not only give my future learners a different perspective, but it will also be evidence-based enough to help me introduce other communication skills that are more challenging to teach, such as empathy. Also proving relevant where the modules covered in Weeks 4 and 5; what I would describe as the “meat” of the course. These modules provide in-depth analysis and practical tips on how to design your own course materials in this field; content that I know I’ll be referring back to in the future. I also appreciated the chance to design my own materials and receive feedback. The success of my first OET candidate motivated me to take a deeper dive into English for healthcare. How to Teach Clinical Communications Skills has filled the gaps in my knowledge and today, I feel much more confident about taking on new OET candidates. I’m also now in a better position to develop my own OET preparation course. Giuseppina Iavrazzo OET trainer, Italy (Jan 2025) Shane I had some general awareness of clinical communication skills before signing up for this course as I’ve been teaching OET candidates for quite some time. Now, having completed Ros' programme, I’m convinced it's a 'must-have' certification for all OET trainers. As an OET trainer, the course provided me with a deeper understanding of the skills required in a clinical setting and how to go about creating authentic materials and tasks for OET preparation. These are invaluable in helping my candidates improve their overall clinical communication competencies not only for better test results, but also in terms of their general life skills. The materials development section of Ros’ programme provided valuable insights that I will use to create more engaging and relevant classroom materials to supplement my course book. As a result of this course, we’ll be adapting our current needs analysis to make it more concise and relevant, as well as including more video content, authentic texts and role play into the classes. Developing candidates’ ability to demonstrate empathy is worth mentioning. This is a skill that candidates in India seem to lack, but something that is crucial for success in OET Speaking. Ros introduced me to communication models for breaking bad news and expressing empathy, and I’ll be implementing these into our current course as well as focusing more on intonation activities and voice modulation to get students to showcase the correct tone. I genuinely enjoyed every bit of this course, and I can already feel the difference in my OET classes; it’s making a ‘real-time impact’ on developing my students’ communication skills. Hats off to you Ros! Shane Jordan InSync Learning & Development OET trainer, India (Oct 2024) Marcia As an OET tutor, I was already aware of clinical communications skills, but Ros’ course gave me the opportunity to delve further into this aspect of the marking criteria for OET Speaking. It also impacted the way I deliver my own courses. Having previously focused on using the official OET materials, I now aim to restructure my activities for students, incorporate more authentic video and work towards producing more engaging and dynamic content. I’ve recently been involved in preparing my school’s application to become accredited as an OET Premium Provider. The section of the course on materials development was really useful for this as it helped me acquire an understanding of methodologies specific to English for healthcare. If anyone is considering taking Ros’ programme, I would suggest planning your time well. Take time to fully grasp the material and don’t rush, because there’s plenty of content to explore. Combining the course with a full-time schedule and extra tutoring meant that time was an issue for me, but I managed! I’m quite passionate about OET and my focus now is to improve my skills as an OET tutor. The fact that I play such an important role in ‘shaping’ someone’s future feels rather heroic, but also somewhat intimidating and I want to be the best that I can be. I would like to personally thank Ros for her instruction and knowledge in the field. My aim is to ‘open up’ and contact more people in this area and the course has certainly given me the boost to do so. Ros’ experience is endless, and I am honoured to now have her as a peer in the field. Marcia Martins OET Tutor, Portugal (Jan 2024) Henry I really enjoyed Ros’ course, How to Teach English to Healthcare Professionals. I found it to be both interesting and informative. Before the course, I had only taught general English and IELTS preparation privately to a few healthcare professionals. But I was encouraged by their level of motivation and engagement. Hence, pursuing this type of teaching appealed. What I really enjoyed most were the online group sessions with Ros and the other students. Here, the course became more ‘real,’ and my rather strong imposter syndrome weakened. It was also a great opportunity to share ideas and ask questions. I would have liked more resources devoted to materials design, because it’s a skill I wish to develop. However, I did enjoy the section on AI, although I need to expand my skillset in this interesting and highly relevant area. For me, the key takeaway is that whatever tasks we set our learners, they need to reflect the real world of the healthcare professional as much as possible, which includes language that may not be perfect or easy to understand at times. This course will give you a solid grounding in how to start teaching clinical communication skills. The realisation of what you have learned will come with practise once you have some healthcare clients of your own. Henry Poole ELT trainer, China (Jan 2026) Sam As a former dental surgery assistant with a national certificate for dental nurses and 10 years’ as a medical translator (including patient medical histories/clinical documents), my knowledge of the healthcare sector is fairly extensive. That said, despite a decade working in ELT, I had never taught English for healthcare or clinical communication. The field itself is huge, but the importance of clinical communication skills and how they can benefit both native and non-native healthcare professionals was my biggest takeaway. I found the content of the course, from both a medical and linguistic point of view most enjoyable. I especially appreciated the modules dealing with clinical communication models and materials development which have given me confidence in my professionalism. And I’m now hoping to start teaching OET and creating courses for clinical communication/English for healthcare. While I wish I’d known beforehand how much time to set aside for study in order to make the most of the course, there was so much information and support given. So, for anyone considering taking Ros’ course, it was well worth it! Sam Former dental surgery assistant, UK (June 2026) |
Interested to chat about the course and how it can benefit you and your learners in the healthcare sector,
then contact me to schedule a free 30-min call.
then contact me to schedule a free 30-min call.