'Understanding Medical English' - Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi
Under the leadership of Professor Kerry Goulston, a group of Australian Health professonals and medical educators (with the support of the Học Mãi Foundation) have conducted classes at Bach Mai Hospital to assist Vietnamese Health Professionals to develop a better understanding of 'medical english'.
In October 2007, Kerry Goulston (Gastroenterologist), Richard Holloway(Gastroenterologist-Adelaide), Jonathan Page (Oncologist-Sydney ), Ron Mackinnon (GP-Sydney), Harley Harwood (Business Consultant-Sydney), Ian McPhee(ICU/Intensivist-Tweed Heads) and Owen Dent (Medical Statistician-Sussex Inlet ) arrived in HaNoi in order to present a education program of 'developing a better understanding of Medical English' to a selected group of Health Professionals at Bach Mai Hospital. On Monday 1 October, the team was welcomed by Dr Nanh (A/Director of Bach Mai Hospital) and Dr Nguyen Dat Anh.
The course would not have been possible without the usual support and help of Dr Dang Van Duong, The Director, Centre of Pathology, Bach Mai Hospital and Học Mãi Coordinator. Two Emergency Department Specialists (recently returned from Australia as Học Mãi AusAID Fellows) had organised the participants of the Course; the contribution of Dr Tu Huu Nguyen and Dr Nguyen Anh Tuan was invaluable.
The ‘Teaching Team’ spent each afternoon in the Emergency Department at Bach Mai Hospital facilitating knowledge of Medical English to the participants. The chief purpose of the course was to improve the spoken English with relation to patient care. Attendance during the Course was excellent, and the feedback was very good indeed.
In addition, Owen Dent gave an hour long tutorial on ‘How to interpret a Journal Article’ - this was very well received and attracted over 50 Bach Mai staff. His offer to coach in Statistics for individual papers or projects by Email was enthusiastically received.
One night, we had an emotional "Reunion Dinner" with those whom had previously been to RNSH and other Australian Hospitals; also Dr Anh, Head of ED, arranged a dinner on the last night and thanked the team for facilitating the teaching program.
The ‘Teaching Team’ also made various observational visits during the week to individual Hospital Departments.
Professor Kerry Goulston
2008 Report
This Program again was held in the Emergency Department, BachMai Hospital, HaNoi. The team was welcomed on the first day by the Hospital Director and the Head of the Emergency Department.
Teachers included: Owen Dent (Medical Statistician), Kerry Goulston (Gastroenterologist), Richard Holloway (Gastroenterologist), Ian McPhee (Intensivist), Jonathan Page (Oncologist), Chris Tennent (Psychiatrist), Phillip Yuille (Radiation Oncologist).
There were 45 participants and so we used 4 separate Tutorial Rooms with whiteboards. The sessions ran from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m. for five days. The attendance was good and due to their work commitments, we arranged 30-35 participants at each session.
Each pair of teachers used different teaching styles – ranging from PowerPoint case scenarios to role playing. Only English was spoken and there was diversity in English Language skills. Some of the participants had attended last year’s program. Some were nurses and there were both senior (Department Heads) and junior (interns) doctors present.
Owen Dent gave separate talks on: ‘the tense of verbs in English’, ‘contractions of verbs’, ‘definite and indefinite articles in English’, ‘colloquialisms’ as well as distributing papers on ‘preparing a paper for submission to a medical journal’ and ‘statistical guidelines’. All of these were very well received. Owen also carried out an evaluation at the end of the Program.
The participants took us out to lunch, the Emergency Department for dinner, and there was a large gathering for the Học Mãi Alumni Dinner.
All in all, the week was deemed worthwhile by students and teachers!
Emeritius Professor Kerry Goulston
University of Sydney