Medical English for professionals by professionals.
English for Medicine is a a new way of helping medical professionals looking for medical English proficiency. We are teaching medical English one on one, but always with an experienced clinical professional as the instructor.
There are plenty of English tutors who can give you lessons on clinical terminology, but how many of them have the real-world, clinical experience in hospitals, operating rooms, and medical practice? Dr. Kathleen Woodruff is here to teach you how to use practical medical English, the way you will hear it in the real world of medicine.
Dr. Woodruff was a busy and successful OB/Gyn in Warwick, RI in the U.S. She joined a private practice after completing her residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After sixteen years in private practice, she decided to make a change in life and took off to see the world on a sailboat with her family. It was the experience of a lifetime, and she made the decision to stay out for several years and not come back to practice.
On returning to the U.S., she began teaching English online and quickly realized her medical skills could be a powerful tool for doctors, nurses, medical students and residents looking to study or work in the United States, United Kingdom or any country where English is the primary language. For several years she built her student practice, and is expanding to work independently with more doctors.
What Comes Next?
This website is just the beginning – a basic portal where medical professionals can connect with Dr. Woodruff for medical English tutoring and training. At this early stage, it’s simply an appointment booking portal. But over the coming months it will begin offering rich content to enhance the one-on-one sessions now on offer.
Plans also include small groups sessions and regularly scheduled classes. More details will be shared here as the materials and classes come into place.
How Does it Work?
Unlike some tutoring sites, there are no subscriptions, and no attempts to hook you into paying for monthly commitments for bundles of classes you may not get to use. You also won’t get bombarded with additional promotional materials (though we may toss you a coupon every now and then!), or attempts to sell you more services from new and different tutors offering things you don’t need.
Not everyone needs a set number of classes every week or month ad infinitum, and the subscription model doesn’t fit well for many medical English teaching situations.
Instead, you can just buy the classes you need, and book the time to suit your schedule. You can work with Dr. Woodruff to tailor the content you need to where you are professionally, so you get the most of your time and keep your efforts focused. All class sessions are 50 minutes long – enough time to do some deep dives into a topic without overloading you with new information.
What is being taught?
Medical terminology is only a small part of what a practicing clinician needs. Beyond anatomy and procedure names, topics extend to how to work and function in an English only professional medical setting. Instructional topics and classes can include:
- Medical terminology – it goes without saying there will always be terminology
- Communicating with peers – how medical workers speak to each other.
- Patient communications – understanding how speaking to patients in English is different from speaking to other doctors and nurses.
- Presentation preparation and polishing, for when you have to deliver talks to others.
- Conference preparation – brushing up your skills so you get the most out of medical conferences conducted in English.
- OET Test preparation – covering all aspects of the OET test required in many countries to work.
- Interview preparation – anything from application reviews to simulated interviews and Q&A sessions.
That’s not a complete list, and part of what you do in your early sessions is shape your course content to your professional and personal needs.
Try a Sample Class
If you’re not sure it’s for you, or you don’t know if you’ll like working with Dr. Woodruff, just try our $20 sample class. It’s a small commitment for a 25 minute introductory session, where you’ll get a chance to speak face to face about what you need, and how it can work for you. And you’ll get a feel for her teaching and communication style, and if it will really work for you.