Medical Vocabulary for English Learners

Hello, my name is Emma, and in today's video I'm going to talk to you about medical vocabulary.

So, this vocabulary is very good if you - it's very good to know if you like to watch TV

shows or movies that have - you know, that are about medical dramas or about doctors

or about what happens in a hospital.

I love those kind of TV shows, so these are expressions that are helpful for that.

They're also very good for when you're watching the news or reading the newspaper because

these expressions do come up a lot, or if you work or are ever in a hospital.

So, these expressions are great ones to know when you're talking about medical English.

So, let's get started with some of our expressions.

The first I want to talk about is the word "condition".

When we're talking about medicine, we are often talking about "condition", okay?

By "condition", I mean how somebody is doing.

So you might have somebody doing well, you might have somebody who is not doing well,

who is very sick, so when we're talking about how a person is in terms of their medical

status, we can talk about their "condition".

So, I have a bunch of different expressions that have to do with "conditions" when we're

talking about medical vocabulary.

So, one condition we can talk about is "unconscious".

"Unconscious".

I want you to notice that we have "un" at the beginning.

"Un" means "not", or it can mean "not" in this case, it is "not".

"Not conscious".

Unconscious.

So it's three syllables and when someone is unconscious, it means that they've been injured

somehow, maybe something hit their head, maybe they had a heart attack or a stroke, so something

bad has happened to this person and their brain is not working as it normally does.

So, a person who is unconscious might seem asleep, okay?

Maybe their eyes are closed, but they're still alive, and they're not sleeping, they're just

very, very sick.

So, when you're unconscious, you might seem asleep but the difference is that when you're

sleeping, you can wake up.

When you're unconscious, you're not waking up, okay?

So we often talk about unconscious.

What's the opposite of unconscious?

Well, that's "conscious".

Right now, I am conscious.

I'm not unconscious.

I'm moving, I'm talking, I'm alert, so I'm conscious.

If you're watching this, you too are conscious, so we have unconscious and conscious.

Now, if somebody is unconscious and they are very lucky and they start to get better, they

can "regain consciousness".

So this means they can wake up from being unconscious.

They can become alert and they can become responsive.

So, so far, we have the words "unconscious" and "regained consciousness" or "conscious".

What are some other conditions we might talk about, or you might hear on a medical TV show

for example?

Well, you might hear about "critical condition", "serious condition", or "stable condition".

So, what do those words mean?

We use them a lot in English.

If someone is in critical condition, it means it's very, very serious.

They are very, very sick, okay?

And there is a very good possibility that they may die.

So, if somebody is in critical condition, it does not look good for them, okay?

There's a good possibility they might die because they are very, very ill.

So, in the newspapers, they often, after an emergency happens, the newspaper will often

say, you know, this person is in critical condition, and it means they're very, very

sick and we don't know if they will live.

A little bit less serious than critical is in "serious condition".

If someone is in serious condition, they're very, very sick, or very ill as well, but

it's... we don't know what's going to happen.

Maybe they're going to get better, maybe they're not going to get better.

We don't know, because right now, they're very, very sick and it could go either way,

okay?

Maybe they survive, maybe they don't.

So in serious condition, it's kind of more of a question mark, okay?

It could go either way.

There's a good possibility the person will survive or not.

So, "critical condition", "serious condition", you might also hear about "stable condition".

Stable condition means that a person and their sickness is not changing, okay?

So, they are not getting worse.

They are stable.

So, they are not, you know, when emergencies happen, you want a person to be in stable

condition.

That's a good condition to be in, because they're not getting worse.

We also have two expressions here, or three expressions, about conditions.

So, sometimes you might hear somebody talk about "taking a turn for the worse".

What does it mean to take a turn for the worse?

Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?

When someone takes a turn for the worse, it's a bad thing.

It means that you thought they were going to get better, but they're not, unfortunately.

So, taking a turn for the worse means a person's condition is getting worse.

It's not getting better.

And we use "take a turn" when we're more surprised about it, okay?

So, you know, "How's Peter doing?"

"Oh, you know, he's taken a turn for the worse, unfortunately", okay?

Our next expression: "Going to make it".

So, we often say this to mean somebody's going to live, okay?

So, after an emergency, if you say, you know, "He's going to make it", that's very good.

He's going to live.

He's going to make it.

Now, the opposite of this is "He's not going to make it".

Not going to make it.

"Not going to make it" means the person or animal or whatever it is is going to die.

So, "make it" means live, "not make it" means death.

So, in a hospital TV show, "going to make it" is always a positive thing.

All the doctors get really happy when they see that, or the family does, and "not going

to make it" is a way to say the person is not going to survive.

So, here're some expressions.

Now, let's look at some more.

Okay, so the next word you might hear in a hospital, if you work there, or you're watching

a medical TV show, is the word "vitals", okay?

It took me a long time to understand what vitals were because I heard the word all the

time, but I didn't actually understand what it was.

So, what vitals are is when we talk of vitals, we're talking mainly about four different

things.

We're talking about a person's temperature; so do they have a fever, what's their temperature?

Are they too cold?

Are they too hot?

We're talking about their breathing, okay?

Are they breathing too fast, or too slow?

You know, are they having problems with their breathing?

We're talking about their pulse, okay?

And we're talking about their blood pressure.

So these are the four things that we usually are talking about when we are talking about

vitals.

So, in a hospital, you'll hear about the nurses, the nurses often will take a person's vitals

okay?

So, they'll take the patient's vitals to make sure that the person is okay.

So, we've covered vitals.

The next expression I wanted to cover, or the next word, is "diagnosis".

Diagnosis, okay.

So, what is a diagnosis?

A diagnosis is what a doctor will tell you is the problem, okay?

Or the sickness, or the disease.

So, when a doctor identifies what is wrong with the person, the doctor is diagnosing

them.

So, for example, the doctor diagnosed me with high blood pressure.

The doctor diagnosed me with hypothermia.

The doctor diagnosed me with a heart attack, with cancer, with a stroke, okay?

So, it's the conditions a person has, what the illness or disease is.

And though we call that the diagnosis, so if you're ever in the hospital and you want

to find out what's wrong with you, you can always ask, you know, "What's the diagnosis?"

and the doctor should tell you and identify the problem.

We also have a word that's similar that means something different and that's "prognosis".

Prognosis.

So what is the prognosis?

When we're talking about a prognosis, we're talking about the future and what the doctors

think is going to happen, okay?

So, do they think you're going to get better, or do they think you're not?

What's the prognosis?

What's the future?

So, when we talk about prognosis on TV shows and medical dramas, you'll often hear about

oh, the patient, their prognosis is good.

It's going to be a good future for them.

They'll probably get better.

Or you might hear the word "poor prognosis".

So the word "poor" here, it doesn't have to do with money, it has to do with - it's negative,

it's bad.

So, a poor prognosis means the future is not looking good, okay?

The person is going to get sicker and may potentially die.

So, "poor prognosis" is not good, and a "good prognosis" is a good thing, okay?

So we're talking about the future outcome.

So, I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

We've covered a lot of different words.

What I invite you to do is come check out our website at www.engvid.com and there you

can do a quiz to practice everything you learned.

I also recommend you watch an English medical TV drama.

See how many of these words come up, okay?

Or another thing you can do is look in the local newspaper, okay, if it's in English.

How many of these words do you see?

Do you see them talking about somebody in critical condition, or somebody in stable

condition?

So, it's really good when you learn these words to actually apply them and be on the

lookout to see where they come up.

I also invite you to subscribe to my channel.

There, you can find a lot of other great resources on a whole variety of topics.

So, thank you for watching and until next time, take care.