Nursing role play: an anxious patient going home after asthma treatment
Published 2026-10-02
A patient can say they understand a discharge plan while still being frightened of going home. This exercise gives you a candidate card, a partner brief and three patient questions. The teaching example below shows one way to open the conversation without giving improvised medical instructions.
Read the English card, take three minutes to prepare, then speak for five minutes. If you are alone, use the patient questions one at a time. This is original English-speaking practice, not an official OET card or clinical guidance.
Nursing · 3 minutes preparation · 5 minutes speaking
Candidate card
You are a nurse on a respiratory ward.
A patient is going home after treatment for an asthma flare-up. The clinical team has given them a written discharge plan. They say they understand it, but seem worried about managing symptoms at home alone.
- Ask what worries the patient most about going home
- Find out which parts of the written plan they understand and which remain unclear
- Discuss the plan in plain English without adding treatment instructions of your own
- Invite the patient to explain what they would do if they became worried at home, using the plan supplied by the team
- Agree on one question to clarify with the care team before discharge
Study partner brief and patient questions
You are the patient preparing to go home.
- You live alone and are relieved to leave hospital, but you fear becoming breathless at night
- You have a written plan, yet you are embarrassed to admit that parts of it are confusing
- At first say that everything is fine; disclose your worry if the nurse asks an open question and gives you time
- Do not accept a generic reassurance; ask how you will know which part of the written plan to follow
- You are willing to review the plan with the nurse and ask the care team one remaining question
Patient questions for solo practice
- I said I understand the plan, but what if my breathing gets worse when I am alone?
- There are several instructions here. How do I know which one matters first?
- Could we check the plan together before I leave?
Practice this case with the timer
A teaching example: respond to the worry first
Illustrative response: “You have the instructions, so just follow them and you will be fine.”
A more useful response: “Going home on your own sounds worrying. Which part of the written plan feels least clear? Let's look at that together, and we can ask the care team about anything we still cannot answer.”
The first version assumes the patient understands and offers reassurance without finding out what they fear. The second invites a specific concern, keeps the written plan in view and avoids improvising medical advice. It is an example written for this site, not a learner's answer, Alexandra's quotation or a scored response.
Listen to your own attempt
- Did you discover the patient's concern before explaining?
- Did you refer to the actual written plan rather than inventing instructions?
- Did you check what the patient would do next in their own words?