The candidate card
Setting
Respiratory ward, England
Candidate
You are a ward nurse in this original independent practice scenario, caring for Mrs Sabina Kaloki, aged 63, admitted yesterday with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis; she is clinically stable and has started prescribed antibiotics. Her treating team's plan is single-room isolation with the door closed, respiratory protection for staff, and a surgical mask for her during essential staff-arranged trips outside the room; the team will review when precautions can end, without promising a date today. TB can spread through the air, and the specialist TB nurse is available today to explain treatment, practical support and contact tracing; active TB requires public health notification in England, and although confidentiality is protected as far as possible, necessary information may need to reach a workplace representative for contact assessment, which the team should discuss with her. Mrs Kaloki feels punished and fears workplace disclosure; ask her to call staff immediately for new breathlessness or coughing blood, and recognise that a complete ongoing clinical assessment may continue after this focused conversation.
Task (interlocutor: patient)
- Explore Mrs Kaloki's understanding of isolation, her main privacy concern and whether she intends to leave the room now
- Explain how the current precautions reduce airborne spread and how the treating team will review them
- Clarify confidentiality and its limits, including public health notification and possible workplace contact assessment
- Respond to her feeling of being punished and offer practical support from the specialist TB nurse
- Agree an immediate plan for precautions and a private TB-team discussion; check understanding and explain when to call ward staff
In the test you get 3 minutes to read the card and plan, then about 5 minutes to talk. This card is original, written for this site; the interlocutor's card is not shown.
Prepare this card, then say it out loud.
Plan your opening and the tasks below. Keep these notes when you move to the AI role-play.
You are a ward nurse in this original independent practice scenario, caring for Mrs Sabina Kaloki, aged 63, admitted yesterday with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis; she is clinically stable and has started prescribed antibiotics. Her treating team's plan is single-room isolation with the door closed, respiratory protection for staff, and a surgical mask for her during essential staff-arranged trips outside the room; the team will review when precautions can end, without promising a date today. TB can spread through the air, and the specialist TB nurse is available today to explain treatment, practical support and contact tracing; active TB requires public health notification in England, and although confidentiality is protected as far as possible, necessary information may need to reach a workplace representative for contact assessment, which the team should discuss with her. Mrs Kaloki feels punished and fears workplace disclosure; ask her to call staff immediately for new breathlessness or coughing blood, and recognise that a complete ongoing clinical assessment may continue after this focused conversation.
Getting your plan ready…
Preparation is free without an account. AI conversation and marking need sign-in; your first role-play is free. Notes are saved on this device when available. This checklist is your plan, not a score.
How to approach this card
- Begin with what isolation means to her and which aspect feels punitive. Ask what specifically concerns her about workplace disclosure, then establish whether she plans to leave the room now; do not assume her anger explains her intentions.
- If she intends to leave immediately, address that before a lengthy explanation. Connect airborne spread to the closed door, staff respiratory protection and her surgical mask during essential staff-arranged trips; avoid suggesting a mask permits unrestricted movement.
- Discuss privacy before offering reassurance that could sound like a guarantee. Distinguish required public health notification in England from possible workplace contact assessment, explaining that necessary information may reach a workplace representative and should be discussed with her.
- Acknowledge the loss of control without describing precautions as punishment. Offer today's specialist TB nurse discussion for treatment questions, practical support and contact tracing; explain that ending precautions depends on treating-team review, with no date promised today.
- Finish with an agreed immediate arrangement for remaining in the room and arranging the private TB discussion. Ask her to explain the precautions in her own words, and tell her to call staff immediately for new breathlessness or coughing blood.
Phrases to adapt
Use your own words; these show the register, not lines to memorise.
- Being separated from others can feel very personal.
- Your concerns about work deserve a private conversation.
- Would you prefer a moment before we discuss information sharing?
- Which part of this feels hardest to accept?
Medical words in plain English
| Term | How you might say it to the patient |
|---|---|
| pulmonary tuberculosis | TB affecting the lungs |
| airborne spread | infection passing through the air |
| contact tracing | identifying people who may have been exposed to TB |
How this card is marked
Two assessors mark the recording on nine criteria: intelligibility, fluency, appropriateness of language and resources of grammar and expression (each 0–6), then relationship building, understanding and incorporating the patient's perspective, providing structure, information gathering and information giving (each 0–3). See the AI Speaking practice guide for what each criterion looks for.
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Next step for Australian nursing: if your pathway requires OBA after OET and NCLEX-RN, explore OSCE practice for Australian nurses at OSCE Australia, run by the same company as OETAce.
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Questions about this role-play
What if she asks exactly who at work will be told?
Do not name a recipient or describe a disclosure as already decided. The card identifies only a possible workplace representative. Arrange for the TB team to discuss what information may be needed and who may receive it, keeping her specific concern central.
What if she thinks isolation proves her antibiotics are failing?
Do not interpret precautions as evidence of treatment failure or success. She has started prescribed antibiotics, but the card gives no treatment-response findings. Ask what led her to connect the two, then separate the purpose of precautions from questions about how treatment is progressing.
How much clinical assessment should I attempt during this discussion?
Keep the conversation focused without presenting it as a complete assessment. Her documented stability does not establish that she has no current concerns. Respond to anything she reports, and recognise that further clinical assessment may continue after the discussion rather than rushing through an invented checklist.
Sources
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