Appendectomy at age 19. Prefers tea to coffee. Wound dressing changed this morning. Requires wound review every 48 hours for one week.
Online English TutorOET Nursing · Writing
OET Nursing Writing: the case notes are not your letter.
You are given more information than every recipient needs. The skill is not copying the notes into grammatical sentences. It is deciding what this reader needs, making the purpose clear and organising the letter so they can act.
The useful answer first
OET Nursing Writing is a profession-specific healthcare communication task. You use case notes to write the type of letter required by the task for a stated reader and purpose. OET’s published Writing criteria include Purpose, Content, Conciseness & Clarity, Genre & Style, Organisation & Layout, and Language.
See the real decision
The note can be true and still not belong in the letter.
This fictional case is QuickTalk Tutor practice material. It is not copied from an OET paper.
If the letter is a referral to a community nurse for ongoing wound care, the dressing status and review schedule are directly useful. The old appendectomy and tea preference are true, but they do not automatically help the community nurse perform the requested care.
Please review the ulcer every 48 hours for the next week and monitor for increasing redness, swelling, fever or pain.
The sentence earns its place because it helps the recipient act. That is a stronger test than “it was in the notes”.
Point to every case note you plan to include and finish: “The reader needs this because…” If you cannot finish the sentence, question the note.
Know the format but still cannot see why your Writing result is stuck?
Build My Roadmap for direction, use the Diagnostic to inspect the repeated blocker in your own letter evidence, or use the Fit Call before choosing support.
What OET Writing is looking at
Six criteria. One healthcare communication job.
You do not improve them by adding more medical facts. You improve them by making better communication decisions and controlling the language used to express them.
Purpose
Can the reader see why you are writing and what is required?
Content
Is the information needed for the task and reader present?
Conciseness & Clarity
Is the useful information easy to find, without irrelevant detail or confusing expression?
Genre & Style
Does the language suit this professional document and reader?
Organisation & Layout
Is information grouped and sequenced so the reader can follow the situation and required action?
Language
Are vocabulary and grammar accurate and appropriate enough to communicate the clinical message effectively?
A better way to practise
Sort before you draft.
- Write the reader and purpose.
- Mark each case note Must include, Maybe, or Leave out.
- Explain why every Must include fact matters.
- Draft, then repeat with a different case and reader.
Check your own letter
Four questions before you call the problem “grammar”.
Use an unchanged timed letter.
TRY IT
Audit the decisions.
Do not correct the letter first. Mark the purpose, selected information, paragraph jobs and language errors separately.
Official sources
Use OET for the criteria. Use your own unchanged letter for the diagnosis.
Sources
QuickTalk Tutor examples are original teaching material and are not official OET questions or score guarantees.