Hospitals

Infirmaries can be interesting and intimidating institutions, but one thing is for certain, the industry is indispensable. We go there to get nursed back to health if we get ill or injured, or go under the knife if need be. In an emergency we can even be rushed there in an ambulance. While many come out with a clean bill of health, some patients never leave these paramedical places. Paging Dr. Alonso. Please report to ER ASAP. We’ll make sense of hospitals on this week’s episode of FYI! 

Transcript

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[Music] infirmaries can be interesting and intimidating institutions but one thing is for certain the industry is indispensable we go there to get nurse back to health if we get ill or injured or go under the knife if need be in an emergency we can even be rushed there in an ambulance while many come out with a clean bill of health some patients never leave these paramedical places paging Dr Alonso please report to ER ASAP we'll make sense of hospitals on this week's episode of f why I welcome to for your info English you got it[Applause][Music][Applause][Music][Applause][Music] hello hello hello Amigos welcome to another exciting edition of FYI and today we are going to the hospital let's start out by making sure you pronounce the word correctly Hospital say it with me hospital no hospital well it's no laughing matter some of this vocabulary could save your life I hope you never have to use a lot of these terms but today we're gonna discover all kinds of things that have to do with health care and the medical industry I'd like to send a special shout out to Issa one of my students who also works in the healthcare industry we'll dedicate this episode to yuisa and if you want to join Issa and be a part of my Curious Community it's real simple all you have to do is go over to patreon.com slash Alberto Alonso and you can join our curious Community we have a great group of people who meet once a week and we have a review class but if you're in my Interstellar level you have a weekly review class and a monthly private class with me as well as PDF documents and bonus episodes and you'll also get early access to all my posts let's put it this way if you listen to the episode of FYI and you're hungry for more then you've got to go over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso plus the PDFs are extremely useful because I imagine you don't know all the vocabulary I'm going to cover in each episode but you can follow along and then you can see how much of it you got with our worksheets and as you know every week we look at a different topic and I'm always eager to receive new topic ideas from you guys so if you have any suggestions let me know we're in our fifth season now and it's not like I'm running out of ideas but I'm always open to hearing new ideas as I always say some of the greatest episodes have been suggestions from my students and speaking of my students I'd like to send you all a shout out especially my super duper students Lena Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria Mila and Alex and don't forget about my Interstellar students Carmen Paco David Edgar and as I mentioned before Isa if you guys want extra content every week and more importantly if you want to be a part of a curious community of cool people then you should consider joining us and and if you can't afford it or it's not your cup of tea that's okay as well you can always listen to the free episode that comes out every week and if you're very patient I release the bonus episodes but usually for example right now we're in season five I'm releasing bonus episodes from season three and season four so you have to be extremely patient and speaking of patient hey that's a great segue a patient should be patient it's the same word and when you make it plural my patients have a lot of patience it sounds like the noun I love when we can play with words and have fun with them and you can imagine there are tons of jokes that have to do with patience and their patience but let's kick off with our intro as we always do because I like to sprinkle a lot of cool vocabulary a lot of palabrones as you call them in Spanish I I guess you could call them an English Million Dollar Words those words that when you use them people are pretty impressed I started out by saying infirmaries now it's not very common to call it an infirmary that sounds more Antiquated or it sounds like military style as I said we call them hospitals but just make sure you're pronouncing it correctly I said they can be interesting and intimidating institutions and I don't know about you guys but I often get intimidated when I'm at a hospital and there's a big difference between being in the hospital and at the hospital if you're in the hospital you're a patient if you're at the hospital maybe you're visiting somebody or you work there and we're going to talk about all the professionals who work at these amazing places and keep them going 24 7 365. then I said one thing is for certain the industry is sensible impressed indivle I think you also say indispensable well then that's easy indispensable I said we go there to get nursed back to health and to get nursed back to health means somebody takes care of you until you're better it makes sense the word nurse is infermera so if you nurse somebody back to health you're taking care of them until they're healthy again then I mentioned getting ill or getting injured remember you can say to get ill or to get sick and to get injured is just don't mix it up with an injury which is the noun or you can go under the knife if need be and I've only gone under the knife twice one time to put some screws in and another time to take the screws out I hope I don't go under the knife again and this is a very scary intimidating way of saying to be operated on and notice I said to be operated on he was operated on last week the doctor operates on his patients so don't learn the word operate without learning the preposition on which also goes with it have you ever been operated on have you ever gone under the knife answer using a full sentence and allowed and this way you're practicing these structures and anytime you hear some vocabulary that you haven't heard or something that stands out to you pause the podcast and repeat it aloud you can always go back 15 or 30 seconds and listen to it again again if you have the PDF documents you don't have to do that it's all right in front of your face then I said in an emergency we can even be rushed there in an ambulance so look at that an emergency an ambulance if you notice I put them together there's no pause it's not an emergency it's an emergency it's not an ambulance it's an ambulance and it's not ambulance it's ambulance that you is pronounced like u y o u and that's the verb we use we say he was rushed to the emergency room or to the ER we're going to look at a lot of abbreviations in the bonus episode today plus we're gonna look at some Dark Twisted hospitals too and of course as always some fun facts and I wrapped up the intro saying while many come out with a clean bill of health and if you have a clean bill of health this is an idiomatic expression that means you're healthy you're in Tip-Top shape but some patients never leave these paramedical places and obviously some people don't survive maybe the surgery went wrong it was a botched surgery or maybe they were just terminally ill when they they got there and then you heard the typical PA the public address system that you hear in the hospitals you heard the chime and then I literally held my nose and said painting Dr Alonso and to page is to try and contact somebody I remember we used to have pagers and that was something where you would send somebody your phone number saying call me so that's what they say they page doctors and no I'm not a doctor I'm not an MD a medical doctor there's another acronym for you and I used a couple more here I said please report to ER emergency room ASAP remember in English we don't say ASAP we say ASAP or ASAP so are you ready to take a look at hospitals well let's define a hospital what exactly is a hospital I'll read it word for word a hospital is an institution that provides Medical Care and treatment to individuals who are suffering from there's a really good one to suffer from who are suffering from illnesses diseases or injuries hospitals are typically staffed by medical professionals including doctors nurses and other health care providers the main objective of a hospital is to provide medical care to patients including diagnostic services treatment and Rehabilitation so that's pretty straightforward there's no mystery to it but there's no doubt we've always had a fascination with hospitals or at least medicine or health care I know when I was a kid I was fascinated by ambulances but it was weird because I also feared them so it was kind of a respect that I had for ambulances I couldn't stop staring at them but I didn't want to go too close either but we just have to turn on our TVs there have always been medical shows think of mash this is a classic show about a military Hospital one of these mobile hospitals and that show was a huge hit then you got house Doogie Hauser ER with George Clooney and don't forget about scrubs which we can learn some good vocabulary there a doctor has to scrub their hands before they go into surgery they also have to wear their scrubs it's a good way to remember that it means the medical clothing those green clothes they wear and another way to say to wash to rub so just remember this sentence the surgeon put on his scrubs and then he scrubbed his hands oh and I was talking about TV shows there are tons of movies as well that that have to do with medicine doctors and the Health Care system so there's no doubt that we've always had a fascination with this industry well if you think about it what are they doing in hospitals especially if they cure you it feels like they're doing Miracles right so there's a Certain Magical element well it's science but if we give it a little romantic twist it could be magic I mean think of those witch doctors that was a a mix between Magic and medicines and herbs so when did hospitals start good question the earliest documented institutions that aim to provide cures were ancient Egyptian temples in ancient history hospitals have been found in Greece Rome and the Indian subcontinent oh and Persia as well and in ancient cultures religion and Medicine were linked so there's that magic thing I was talking about and think about it your word for priest is so you guys know all about that in Spain we give these doctors almost like a god-like quality we deify them and in the end they're just people like us people who studied a lot the first time they found these military hospitals was in ancient Rome but anytime you want to find where things started the Cradle you've got to go to Greece or Egypt and the Romans always had something to do with everything too now the Greek temples were dedicated to sick people but they didn't look anything like modern hospitals today and the Romans didn't have hospitals like we have today either public hospitals if you will those didn't exist until the Christian period this wasn't until the end of the fourth Century there was something called the second medical Revolution and this coincided with the founding of the first Christian Hospital in the Eastern Byzantine Empire and within a few decades hospitals just like this one started becoming ubiquitous at least in Byzantine society and then like everything it evolved it started to grow and develop and find itself and it continued to grow from the 5th Century to the 15th century they are old as dirt and then European exploration that's right you guys Europeans you brought hospitals to the colonies in North America Africa and Asia so Europeans were important in spreading this idea of hospitals of places where you could cure people and Saint Bartholomew's Hospital which is in West Smithfield London was founded in 1123. it's widely considered the oldest functioning hospital today and it was originally a charity organization but it continues to provide free care to londoners as it has for the last 900 years and then there's a place in Sri Lanka called mihintal hospital and this was established in the 9th Century A.D and this Hospital served monks and the local community so there are a lot of Firsts in this world and I don't want to bore you with the history but what I'm getting at here is the idea of curing people and nursing them back to health has been an issue since the beginning and hospitals used to be small little institutions usually started by a church or a charitable organization but now there's been a lot of consolidation in the industry and you're seeing a lot of big hospitals you're seeing chains of hospitals and as you guys know in the United States ha hospitals health care I mean it's big business today they're saying that people who are sitting on the board the board of directors people with no medical experience are making medical decisions the only thing they're thinking about is cutting corners and to cut Corners means to save money wherever you can in an article I read they said that a lot of times upper management has zero experience and they're the ones making these huge decisions so the hospital and Health Care industry has become a huge business and it's even being criticized for losing its way money is important I get it we call it the bottom line in any business but also when you're dealing with people people are more important than money you can't put a price on somebody's Health well in the United States we do but that's another story I feel very lucky to live in Spain and to have free health care but in some some countries it isn't an unalienable right as we say in the United States you can't afford to get sick these days and that has a double meaning and just to give you an idea the median pay the average pay of a health care CEO in 2018 this was now five years ago six years ago was 7.7 million dollars and notice I didn't say fail I said CEO we say all three letters so you're seeing a lot of overpaid Fat Cats you're seeing overworked staff who are at the same time underpaid and the hospitals are understaffed because they don't want to hire the amount of people they need and I don't want to say anything here against doctors or nurses aides but I feel like nurses are the backbone of any Hospital Hospital nurses or as we call them RNs RN stands for registered nurse hey I said we're going to take a look at some of these acronyms in the bonus part but we've already looked at three or four of them in this part well nurses are considered one of the most trustworthy and ethical professions in the United States in the year 2020 nurses were voted number one as the most trustworthy and ethical profession and they've won that for 18 years 18 years in a row the nursing industry has won the most trustworthy and ethical profession that means they beat out doctors policemen firemen teachers even clergy clergy are people who work in the church and not only are they trustworthy but they're in shape what what does that have to do with anything well nurses can walk an average of eight kilometers during a 12 hour shift they don't stop and they do it all with a smile on their face and if I'm not mistaken there's a really high demand for nurses in the United States let me just give you an idea of some of the salaries as of 2020 California is the best paying state for nurses to work in they have an hourly wage of 54.44 that translates into a hundred and thirteen thousand two hundred and forty dollars so if you're a nurse in California you're making six figures six figures means anything over a hundred thousand but that's the highest paying State what about South Dakota that's the lowest paying State well the nurses in South Dakota make twenty eight dollars and 63 cents that turns out to be 59 540 annually so if you're in considering a career change you might want to be a nurse in California but being a nurse is not easy you've got to pass exams you've got to learn so much about medicine about people about everything and it's hard work as we just said I mean seeing sick people every day has to take its toll on you and you know that expression to take its toll you say basar factura you might know it from a song this love has taken its toll on me she said goodbye too many times before there's my musical moment you know I've got to have one in every show also we couldn't talk about nurses without talking about Florence Nightingale she is a Pioneer a British nurse who was considered to be the mother of modern nursing she had influence on how nurses were educated and viewed by Society and she helped shape the healthcare industry during the Crimean War she introduced Concepts such as hand hygiene that's a concept that's still used today fresh air for patients and many other sanitation practices which we still use today so not only can you feel her Legacy nowadays but she also saved many many soldiers lives during the Crimean War she lived from 1820 to 1910 and she was born in Italy although she was raised in England so I said a British nurse but I guess I should have said British Italian nurse britallian and she established the first scientifically based nursing school this was in 1860. it was appropriately named the Nightingale School of Nursing and it's located in London speaking of Institutions where learning is going on there are many teaching hospitals and I remember I always used to get confused as a kid I would say what do you mean University I thought it was a hospital and I looked into it what's the difference between a teaching hospital and a quote-unquote normal hospital well teaching hospitals can actually provide better care than General hospitals hey wait that was the name of a very famous soap opera too General Hospital well there was a report that came out in 2014 by the Journal of the association of American medical colleges say that five times fast and they found that major teaching hospitals provided care for minorities and patients with more serious injuries than General hospitals and in a more recent report they found that mortality rates are lower at teaching hospitals plus they're up to date on all the most recent research of course they've got to teach their students they've got to be on The Cutting Edge so I didn't know that I would think the opposite I would say a general hospital is safer or more effective than a teaching hospital but it's quite the contrary I guess it's also the luck of the draw it depends on where you go who takes care of you and what your ailment is your ailment is another way of saying your sickness your problem here's a fun fact for you why are hospital rooms so I don't know plain I mean there's nothing going on there it's kind of like four walls it's very sterile they could be a little more inviting sure but then they're harder to clean so when they design hotel rooms they design them with absolute simplicity so cleaning is easier because remember everything has to be cleaned and disinfected in a hospital daily and hospitals don't close and did you ever notice how it's always a little colder in a hospital I always feel like they have the AC on full blast on full blast means turned all the way up well there's a reason for it think about the air bacteria spreads more in warm air it can't survive in cold temperatures we'll learn many more fun facts in the bonus part along with some cool idiomatic expressions let's take a look at some of the Departments before we get going you've got the waiting room which I think that's basically the same in Spanish la sala despera the waiting room then you've got your different departments so you've got your OB GYN what OBGYN yeah obstetrician Gynecology you've got Cardiology which my Uncle Nick was a Pioneer in Angie geoplasty he's a very famous cardiologist who developed along with his Partners a Cutting Edge technology called angioplasty so Cardiology has always been close to my heart okay okay I'll stop you've got Internal Medicine Urology pathology is conjunctivitis bronchitis bronchitis the good thing is there's always some Latin in there just be careful with the pronunciation but I'm sure you'll recognize these just by me saying them so Urology pathology neurology Orthopedics Rheumatology Psychiatry oh and I wanted to talk about the difference between outpatient and inpatient if you're outpatient it means you don't spend the night at the hospital it means you come come in they take some tests maybe they draw some blood and send you on your way it means you don't stay in the hospital if you're inpatient it means you are staying overnight it makes sense outpatient inpatient you've got your anesthesiology I can't even say that word it's where their anesthesia experts and I hear they make a killing then you've got your nurses your nurses aides your doctors your surgeons your delivery people your janitorial staff there are so many people working together to keep hospitals running 24 7 365 and not just running running smoothly in an uncertain environment oh and don't forget about the operating theater what yeah they call it the operating theater you can also say the operating room I think it's a little less dramatic and while mistakes do happen because to ER is Human Health Care Professionals are working tirelessly to get you back on your feet to nurse you back to health and sometimes it can be a thankless job nurse nurse can you fluff my pillow I doubt nurses are there to fluff your pillow by the way but as a nurse said at Emory in Atlanta Emory Healthcare used to be called Emory University I know it very well because that's where my uncle worked he's retired now and Rebecca a nurse at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta Georgia said hospitals are not perfect we can't fix everything we can't take all of your problems and make them go away we're just human beings trying our best to help but the reality is we can only do so much we're gonna wrap up this first episode I sure hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of today's f y ah[Applause][Music] thank you