OET Nursing Pneumonia Role-Play: Explain Interrupted Antibiotics

Your goal: You are the nurse in this OET-style speaking practice. Your partner is a patient recovering from pneumonia. Read the two cards first. Then learn enough about pneumonia and antibiotics to explain the patient’s situation, answer each task and give a safe next step in ordinary English.

Original nurse and patient role-play cards

These cards are original teaching material informed by the matching Course 10 book. They are not an official OET paper or a real patient’s treatment plan. Give your partner only the patient card.

How to use the cards: Prepare for up to three minutes, then speak for about five minutes. The patient should reveal the medicine packet only if the nurse asks. The nurse should respond to each reply rather than read a memorised speech.

Understand pneumonia and the medicine problem before you speak

Pneumonia is an infection affecting the lungs. Tiny air spaces in the lungs can become inflamed and fill with fluid. That can make it harder to breathe and can cause cough, fever, tiredness and sometimes chest discomfort. Pneumonia has different causes. In this case, the hospital has already prescribed an antibiotic, so your task is to discuss the treatment this patient was given; you do not need to diagnose the organism from the role card. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections, but they do not work against viruses.

Why might Ms Rahman feel better before the course is over?

Symptoms can improve while treatment and recovery are still in progress. A calmer cough does not tell the nurse exactly what has happened to the infection. The discharge instructions and the patient’s current condition matter. Many patients need time to regain their usual energy after pneumonia. You can welcome her improvement without concluding that she no longer needs the plan made by her treating team.

In ordinary language: “I’m pleased the cough is easing. Feeling better is encouraging, but we should check the medicine instructions and speak to the right clinician before changing the treatment.” The sentence recognises improvement and makes the next step clear without promising that recovery is complete.

What do antibiotics do, and why does the interruption matter?

When antibiotics are prescribed for a bacterial infection, the clinician chooses a medicine and a duration for that person’s illness. It should be taken as prescribed, unless the treating team advises a change or a serious reaction requires urgent assessment. If a patient stops early because of a side effect, the nurse needs to learn what happened and how the patient is now. The next safe step depends on the medicine, missed doses, treatment dates, symptoms and side-effect severity. These details are missing from this role card. Do not invent a dose or tell Ms Rahman to restart the old schedule automatically. Do not advise two tablets at once to make up for missed doses.

For this patient, stopping a prescribed course without advice may leave the infection insufficiently treated, but the correct plan after an interruption must be checked. Antibiotic resistance is a wider concern in how antibiotics are used; it is not a diagnosis you can make from this patient’s story.

What if the tablets made her feel sick?

Nausea and diarrhoea can occur with antibiotics, but the nurse should not dismiss every side effect as harmless. Ask when the nausea began, whether she vomited after a dose, whether she can eat and drink, and whether she has developed a rash, swelling, severe diarrhoea or breathing trouble. This card says only “felt sick”; it does not tell you the reaction was an allergy. If the patient now describes swelling of the face or throat or severe breathing difficulty, the response must change to urgent emergency care. If she is otherwise stable, check the packet and discharge letter and contact the prescriber or pharmacist promptly for individual advice. The nurse can support the call; the nurse should not make up a new prescription.

When is it a symptom problem rather than just a medicine question?

Ask about breathing at rest, worsening breathlessness, fever returning, chest pain and confusion. Severe difficulty breathing, inability to get words out, blue or grey lips, or sudden confusion calls for emergency help. If she is becoming more breathless, develops fever again, or feels worse, she needs prompt clinical assessment even if she already has a medicine review planned. In the card she reports no new fever or breathlessness today; do not say those symptoms are present. Instead, explain what she should do if they occur.

Patient-friendly summary: “Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs. Your improving cough is good news. Because you stopped the prescribed antibiotic after feeling sick, let us check the packet and get advice on the next doses today. Please do not double up while we are checking. If your breathing becomes much worse, seek urgent help.”

Work through the five nurse tasks

1. Find the real reason and check safety first. Ask, “What made you decide to stop?” and “What did ‘sick’ feel like?” Then ask whether she vomited, has a rash or swelling, or feels newly short of breath. Her answer decides whether you can continue a calm medication discussion or need immediate help. Do not assume she simply forgot her tablets.
2. Explain pneumonia in one useful picture. Say that it is an infection in the lungs and can cause cough and difficulty breathing. Then link the explanation to the question: feeling better does not prove that the prescribed plan is finished. Ask whether that answers her concern before adding detail.
3. Make a safe medication plan. The card deliberately leaves out the drug name and dose. Ask to see the packet and discharge instructions. Tell her not to take two doses together or set her own replacement schedule. Arrange prompt advice from the prescribing team or pharmacist about what to do next and the nausea. Never invent a specific tablet count or promise that restarting is right.
4. Give meaningful safety advice. Name a few symptoms in ordinary language. “If you get much more breathless or cannot speak in full sentences, get emergency help. If the fever returns or you are getting worse, contact a clinician promptly.” Do not overwhelm her with a list of unrelated emergencies. If she describes one now, stop practising a routine advice speech and respond to it.
5. Check understanding and close. Ask, “What will you do with the tablets while we get advice? What changes in your breathing would make you seek help?” Confirm who is contacting whom today. A clear close should leave Ms Rahman knowing the next action, not merely hearing “follow up if needed.”

Model response from the nurse’s viewpoint

This is one possible nurse response in connected speech, not a nurse–patient script. Pause at each question to hear the interlocutor’s answer. The model assumes the patient gives the information in the card; if she reveals a severe reaction or worsening breathing, change course.

“It is good to hear that your cough has started to ease, Ms Rahman. Before we decide what to do about the tablets, could you tell me what made you stop them? When you say they made you feel sick, did you feel nauseated, did you vomit, or did something else happen? Have you noticed a rash, swelling, a new fever or any change in your breathing today? ... Thank you. I do not want to dismiss the nausea, and I am glad you told me instead of taking more medicine without advice.”

“You asked what pneumonia is. It is an infection in the lungs. It can cause coughing, fever, tiredness and breathlessness. Antibiotics were prescribed as part of your treatment. Your cough improving is encouraging, but it does not tell us on its own whether the prescribed treatment is complete. The discharge plan, the tablets you actually took and how you are feeling now all matter. Have I explained why we need to check before changing the course?”

“Please do not take two tablets now to catch up. I also would not ask you to start the remaining tablets again without checking the details, because I do not yet know the medicine, the number of doses missed or what caused the nausea. Could we look at your packet and discharge letter together? With your agreement, I will contact the prescribing team or the pharmacist today, tell them what you have taken and how you felt, and ask them for the right next step. We can also ask what to do if the nausea comes back. I will make sure you know the advice they give before I leave or arrange a call back.”

“While we arrange that, please let us know promptly if a fever returns or your breathing becomes worse. If you become severely short of breath, cannot get words out, or suddenly seem confused, get emergency help. You told me there is no new breathlessness or fever today; I am describing what to watch for, not saying that these are happening to you now. What questions do you have about the symptoms or the medication?”

“Before I go, could you tell me what you will do with the tablets for now, who is checking the prescription today and which breathing change would make you seek help? ... Yes, we will check the packet and get individual advice rather than doubling or guessing. If you feel worse before you receive that advice, please contact the appropriate urgent service. Is there anything about the nausea or your recovery that we have not talked through?”

Speaking tips that make this case easier

• Ask before explaining. “Sick” might mean mild nausea or a serious reaction. Your first questions should separate those possibilities.
• Use the patient’s own improvement. Acknowledge it, then explain gently why it does not settle the medicine question.
• Give a reason with every action. “Let us check the packet” matters because the drug and dose are missing. “Do not double up” matters because the patient proposed catching up herself.
• Do not turn a role card into a prescription. The examiner is listening for clear communication and safe handling of uncertainty. You can say what you will check and whom you will contact.
• Leave space to answer. One short idea, a pause, one question. The partner is a patient with concerns, not an audience for a memorised lecture.

Model communication sentences to practise aloud

• Explore the side effect: “When you say the tablets made you feel sick, what happened after you took them?”
• Explain the condition: “Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs, so it can affect your breathing and cause a cough.”
• Respond to improvement: “I’m glad the cough is easing. We still need to check the prescribed treatment before changing it.”
• Answer the double-dose question: “Please don’t double a dose to make up for the missed tablets. Let’s check your packet and get advice for your situation.”
• Safety-net clearly: “If your breathing becomes much worse or you cannot get words out, seek emergency help.”
• Check learning: “What will you do with the medicine while we are getting the plan checked?”

Use these as examples of short, useful speech. Let the patient answer; then choose the next sentence that fits.

Common mistakes and better alternatives

Try the role-play, then change one answer

First attempt: Give the patient card to a partner, prepare for three minutes and record about five minutes of speaking. Listen back. Can you hear the nurse ask about the nausea before giving medicine advice? Does the patient speak more than once? Did the nurse explain pneumonia, address the double-dose question, arrange individual advice and check understanding?

Second attempt: Ask your partner to answer the side-effect question differently: “My lips swelled after the tablet, and I’m struggling to breathe.” Your planned routine medicine conversation must stop. Recognise a possible serious allergic reaction and seek emergency help. Do not continue the prepared paragraph about pneumonia as though nothing has changed.

Revision task: Say the patient-friendly summary aloud in your own words without inventing a drug name or dose. Record it again in shorter sentences. Ask your partner to repeat two things: what happens with the prescription today, and when to get urgent help. Revise whichever one they cannot repeat clearly.

Explore the matching OET Speaking for Nurses — Course 10 for more medication-adherence and condition-based practice. For online one-to-one OET tuition, students can propose lesson dates and times around shifts, subject to tutor availability.

This original role-play is independent of OET and does not predict an official score. Clinical wording was checked against NHS pneumonia advice, NHS antibiotics advice and NHS breathlessness guidance. For actual medication decisions, the patient must follow individual clinical advice.

Source: 69 OET Nurse sp.epub, Jobins Training. Examples labelled original or illustrative were written for this article. Independent exam preparation; no affiliation with or endorsement by the examining body. Practice does not predict an official score.