A meeting between Mrs Rose (care provision manager) and Peter (caregiver).

Situation: Mrs Rose has invited Peter to a one-to-one meeting to outline a new form that is being introduced at the Bridge Street nursing home. The form will be used by caregivers to evaluate and monitor the symptoms of residents who are ill, to ensure any deterioration of condition is identified as early as possible. The form is particularly important for residents that have recently returned form hospital care.

Audio: Listen to the audio file here.

Grammar points:

Prepositions of time: on/in/at

Persons: Mrs Rose (care provision manager) and Peter (caregiver) Location: The meeting place takes place in the office of Mrs Rose at the Bridge street nursing home.

Peter:	Good afternoon Mrs Rose, I’m sorry I’m a little late as I had a late lunch at 1.30.
Mrs Rose:	Good afternoon Peter. 2pm, It looks to me as though you’re on time, as usual.
Peter:	Oh that’s good, though I still need to be back in the common room in 15 minutes, John Perry has a telephone appointment at 2.15.
Mrs Rose:	I’ll explain why I wanted to see you. In two months’ time we will be evaluated on our support of residents that require medication, either temporarily or permanently. I spoke with a colleague of mine on Monday and he said that we could improve our provision by introducing a form for assessing the symptoms of ill patients. Especially those recently returning from hospital.
Peter:	That sounds like a good idea, though I’m not sure what I would need to look for.
Mrs Rose:	That’s the reason for this form, it provides pre-set questions to cover the most common symptoms.
Peter:	t looks very, well, comprehensive.
Mrs Rose:	It is, but with each patient, care givers will be told which sections to complete based on the most likely symptoms. The idea is that the form can be completed in around five minutes by the caregiver, and appraised by one of our nurses in a couple of minutes.
Peter:	When should we complete the form?
Mrs Rose:	I will be asking caregivers to complete any necessary forms at the start of their shift. In some cases, this will need to be repeated at set intervals, though a nurse will specify if that’s the case.
Peter:	What kind of questions does it ask?
Mrs Rose:	Without looking at the whole form, I can show you a sample of questions and show you how to complete the form.
Peter:	Ok, that sounds reasonable.
Mrs Rose:	As you can see the form is divided up into sections, with each section containing a few questions. To answer the question, you simply tick one of the three boxes next to it.
Peter:	Why are there three boxes?
Mrs Rose:	It allows you to report different conditions very easily. The titles for the conditions are ‘No change’, ‘Gradually’ or ‘Suddenly’.
Peter:	So gradually means you have noticed the change over a long period of time, say an hour? While suddenly means the change has been, lets say, in a few minutes?
Mrs Rose:	Yes, that’s correct Peter. The questions also represent a more severe condition as they go down. The colour coding indicates what type of action you should take if you tick a particular box.
Peter:	Oh I see. In pain the questions deal with normal or no pain, new or increased pain, and very severe pain in specific parts of the body. It all seems to make sense.
Mrs Rose:	If you look through the form you will see it covers things such as breathing, consciousness, pain, temperature, skin colour, vision, falls, mobility, and a whole range of other symptoms. At the end of the form there is a section to provide additional information, which includes any action that has been taken. This final section is very important when a change in symptoms has been identified.
Peter:	Are you sure we can complete this form in five minutes?
Mrs Rose:	Yes, I think so, as you will receive full training on using the form before it’s introduced. Today is just to give you a short overview and to keep you informed of the change.
Peter:	When will it be introduced?
Mrs Rose:	In two weeks, as long as we cover everyone’s training by then. The first training session will be on Monday.
Peter:	Is there anything else Mrs Rose, as I need to leave in a few minutes?
Mrs Rose:	No Peter, that’s all for today. Please leave when you need to, as I know you always like to be on time.