Take Care was written to help nursing students and other health care workers communicate better in health care settings, with a focus on improving speaking and listening skills, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The aim was to provide users with the tools and specific communication strategies to build, maintain, or repair interactions that take place on the job. This book is also designed to develop the pragmatic competence necessary to get things done on the job and to understand some of the social situations required by health care workers, like expressing condolences or giving advice.

The individuals most likely to benefit from the material in the book are:

• Nursing students enrolled in community college (e.g., pre-nursing courses or RN students who have a special class)

·         ESL students enrolled in specific CNA or medical assistant classes

·         ESL students enrolled in U.S. universities who are here to learn more about nursing or health care as profession (they may or may not already have a degree in their own countries)

·         Nurses or health care workers who already work in a health care setting but who are not proficient in English and so may be taking an English course sponsored by the hospital or local health system

It is therefore generally assumed that students have some knowledge of common medical and health care terms, so the book does not attempt to teach medical terminology, except in the context of communicating effectively in a health care setting. The various Vocabulary sections in each unit can therefore be used as review or as a new lesson—whatever works best for your students.

Instructors using this book do not need knowledge of the field of nursing or health care because the majority of material covered focuses on the language, not the industry.