Medical Voices

Asthma & Inhaler Technique: The Language of an Annual Asthma Review for OET Speaking & IELTS

Medical Voices

Show Notes

Ryan hasn't had an asthma review in two years, and his inhaler technique has quietly drifted without him noticing. Practice Nurse Ngozi Eze is about to find out exactly where it's gone wrong. Nadia and Tom cover ten essential asthma review terms: asthma, wheeze, shortness of breath, trigger, inhaler, reliever/preventer, spacer, peak flow, asthma attack, and action plan. Each term is defined and demonstrated in a realistic annual asthma review — talking through triggers, checking the reliever/...

More from Medical Voices

Oct 20, 2026

In Episode 22, Nadia and Tom are at Elmwood Surgery for a GP consultation about persistent knee pain. Mrs. Whitfield describes her symptoms while Dr. Okafor works through a structured pain history — onset, character of pain, severity, radiation, timing, and what makes it worse or better. 10 essential pain-history vocabulary terms used naturally in a realistic GP consultation. A core episode for anyone working in clinical English or preparing for OET Speaking or NMC OSCE. Vocabulary: Pain hist...

Oct 13, 2026

It's 2 AM on Whitfield Ward. A ward nurse picks up the phone and calls the on-call doctor about a patient whose observations have changed. This is the first Medical Voices episode where both characters are clinicians — and every line teaches SBAR, the structured handover framework hospitals worldwide use for a deteriorating patient. If you're preparing for OET's inter-professional speaking tasks or an NMC/AHPRA OSCE escalation station, this is the episode. Vocabulary: SBAR · Situation · Backg...

Oct 6, 2026

An elderly patient is due a routine MRI, and his daughter has one urgent question: on a day his capacity is fluctuating, who actually gets to decide? Dr. Rao walks the family through informed consent, capacity, and best-interests decision-making — in plain, reassuring language. This is one of the most legally sensitive conversations in medicine, and one of the most exam-relevant: capacity and consent appear in every NMC OSCE blueprint and across the doctor profession of OET Speaking. Vocabula...

Sep 29, 2026

Mr. Fenwick had a single fall in his kitchen three weeks ago — and he's keen to downplay it so as not to worry his daughter. Dr. Chaudhry isn't about to let that happen. Nadia and Tom cover ten essential falls-assessment terms: fall, loss of balance, dizziness/lightheadedness, postural hypotension, mobility aid, home environment review, polypharmacy, bone density, activities of daily living (ADLs), and falls clinic. Each term is defined and demonstrated in a realistic GP follow-up — taking a ...

Sep 22, 2026

Mr. Sullivan walks into the Emergency Department with chest pain that's never felt like this before — and Staff Nurse Pillai has only minutes to take a structured history, get him monitored, and start ruling out the dangerous causes. Nadia and Tom cover ten essential chest-pain triage terms: chest pain, onset, radiation, associated symptoms, shortness of breath, ECG, troponin, cardiac monitor, rule out, and pathway. Each term is defined and demonstrated in a realistic ED triage assessment — t...

See all episodes →