Shadowing Practice: Day at Work: ER Nurse - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hi I'm Will Cristobal and I'm an emergency room nurse.

A typical day in the ER is not really that typical because it's always it's different everything's different every day I mean granted you'll see similar scenarios but each person is different.

So you have the non-critical to the extreme critical.

I mean, for example I'll I'll get a guy with with the laceration.

I will clean it up and the doctor will stitch it up.

Nice. Or someone will come up with abdominal pain.

I'll put an IV line in them.

Get their blood work. Starts IV fluids and give them pain medication to get them comfortable.

Or a guy will come in with complete cardiac arrest the whole team is inside the the resuscitation room and we're pumping were pumping were pushing medications.

Uh, we're putting IV lines and shocking the patient's seeing if we'll bring them back to life sometimes it successful sometimes it's not.

Nursing school is really cool.

Uh... I actually enjoyed it a lot.

At at first it's very nerve-racking because you're interacting with patients, you're touching patients.

I was one of the very few men in the...

in the classrooms, but I mean it was no problem.

The perception in nursing is typically, you think a nurse is a female, when there's a 10 percent in the profession are males.

I mean there's times when I've actually come in, saw my patient, "Hi doctor how are you?" I'm like, "No I'm your nurse." And then when the female doctor comes in it's kinda like, "This is your doctor. I'm your nurse." So I mean it's just really interesting like, the dynamics with patients sometimes and that I actually have to correct them.

And, they always go, "Hey, you never thought about going to medical school?" And I'm like, "No." (I want) I wanted to be a nurse. I enjoy nursing.

I enjoy being at the bedside and taking care my patients.

My career path after high school, I actually, um...

thought about doing physical therapy. I actual want to be in the health field.

I didn't want to be a doctor because I knew it was going to take so much time.

So I thought about physical therapy. So when I was in college I ended up taking classes geared toward therapy and decided I don't really like this stuff, but I still wanted to stay in health care.

After college I just ended up trying to find odd jobs, things to do.

I worked worked for health insurance.

I worked for HR - just trying to fit my personality.

At any rate, I thought it was boring and so, um, one day my uncle, my wife's uncle was like, "Why don't you do nursing?" He was a nurse. And so I said well let me look into it.

I volunteered at this hospital, observe the nurses and everything like that and doctors and decided this is actually a cool gig. I'll do this.

And so I applied to nursing school and luckily I got in.

"So so this is going to bend out like this right. We we have to cock up it a little bit." "There you go." When it's really really busy you may have a critical patient in one room, and then a person that's not so critical turn critical and in the other room and you're trying to balance everything out while at the same time your doctor wants you to you know, discharge a patient in the other room.

So, at at any given time I can have four patients but all four patients can want something all at the same time.

You have to really, like, people cause you have to deal a lot of personalities.

If you enjoy interacting with people, uh, helping people, make people laugh, make people smile.

I mean this is this is a great career for you. I mean, if you love math if you love sciences, I mean this is this is a great career to get into, 'cause you use a lot of that stuff. I mean, you have to. You have to think about disease processes and so you have to think about your anatomy and biology and how the cells work and what not.

The advice I'd give for high school students, volunteer, go to a local hospital volunteer.

It will give you a chance you know, to know whether or not you want to do this, because you'll be in direct contact with nurses. You'll be in direct contact with patients.

You'll be in direct contact with doctors and so you get you get an overall chance, uh, to see exactly what this is about.

✨ Recommend Video

17 sentences

AI - Describe a person you know who would like to choose a career in the medical field

Business EnglishInterview EnglishHigh School Students

180 sentences

38 Minutes of Real Life English Conversation - Intermediate level English Interview

Business EnglishInterview EnglishDaily Conversation

88 sentences

A Day in the Life of a Physical Therapist | Indeed

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 37 sentences and 789 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:02. The speaker talks fast, about 196 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
nurse noun	/nɝs/	Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession.
volunteer noun	/ˌvɑlənˈtɪɹ/	One who enters into, or offers themselves for, any service of their own free will, especially when done without pay.
uncle noun	/ˈʌŋ.kl̩/	The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
pump noun	/pʌmp/	A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas.
medication noun	/mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/	A medicine, or all the medicines regularly taken by a patient.
interact verb	/ɪn.təˈɹækt/	To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone).
gear noun	/ɡɪɚ/	Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
shock noun	/ʃɔk/	A sudden, heavy impact.
cock noun	/kɑk/	A rooster: a male gallinaceous bird, especially a male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus).
biology noun	/baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/	The study of all life or living matter.
fluid noun	/ˈflu.ɪd/	Any substance which can flow with relative ease, tends to assume the shape of its container, and obeys Bernoulli's principle; a liquid, gas or plasma.
nerve noun	/nɝv/	A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics.
scenario noun	/sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/	An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events.
perception noun	/pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/	The organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information.
classroom noun	/ˈklɑːsɹʊm/	A room, often in a school, where classes take place.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
come up with verb	To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 26 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, profession /pɹəˈfɛʃ.ən/, laceration /læsəˈɹeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: medication /mɛdɪˈkeɪʃən/, biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, anatomy /əˈnætəmi/, laceration /læsəˈɹeɪʃən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like nurse, volunteer, uncle.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	enjoy nursing · enjoy interacting
Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction	Will Cristobal · you'll see · I'll I
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now	we're pumping · we're putting · you're interacting
Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary	have to correct · have to cock · have to really

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Day at Work: ER Nurse - Learn English Speaking with Video

AI - Describe a person you know who would like to choose a career in the medical field

How to Talk About Your Job & Career in English (A2-B1 English Podcast)

Job Interview: Nurse at a London Hospital

Dream a Job

EL - What do you do?

All About Working - Vocational Lesson 1 - Job Skills for Students

B1 English Listening Practice – WORK AND CAREER | EP38 #luyennghetienganh

Talking About Career Choices - Speak English Fluently

Bài 4 - Doctors - Bác Sĩ

Luyện nghe Tiếng Anh giao tiếp - Chủ đề NGHỀ NGHIỆP (Job-Career)