OET Reading Practice Test 1

Part A: Workplace Texts

AHand Hygiene Protocol. All clinical staff must clean their hands with alcohol-based rub or soap and water before any direct contact with a patient. Hands should also be cleaned immediately after removing gloves, as gloves do not replace the need for hand hygiene. Where hands are visibly soiled, soap and water are required rather than alcohol rub. Rings and wrist watches should be removed before washing.

BMedication Storage. Insulin vials that are currently in use may be kept at room temperature for up to 28 days. Unopened vials must remain refrigerated between 2 and 8 degrees. Never freeze insulin, as freezing destroys its activity. Each vial should be labelled with the date it was first opened so that staff can discard it once the 28 day period has passed.

CFalls Prevention. On admission, every patient over 65 is assessed using the falls risk screening tool. Patients scoring as high risk are given a coloured wristband and their bed is fitted with an alarm mat. Call bells must be placed within easy reach at all times, and footwear with a non-slip sole is recommended for any patient who is mobile.

DSharps Disposal. Used needles and other sharp items must be placed directly into the yellow sharps container at the point of use. Do not recap needles by hand. Containers should be sealed and replaced once they reach the marked fill line, and never filled beyond that line. Report any needlestick injury to the charge nurse without delay.

Part B: Short Workplace Extracts

MEMO: To all ward staff. The blood glucose meters on Ward 4 have shown inconsistent readings over the past week. Until the biomedical team has checked every device, please use the two loan meters kept at the nurses’ station and record the serial number of the meter used with each reading. Do not send any of the ward meters back into circulation until they carry a green calibration sticker.

GUIDELINE: Pressure area care. Patients confined to bed should be repositioned at least every two hours, and more often if the skin over bony areas shows redness that does not fade when pressed. A repositioning chart must be completed at each turn. Heels are a common site of damage and should be lifted clear of the mattress using a pillow placed under the calves.

LABEL: Chlorhexidine 2% cleansing solution. For external skin preparation only. Not to be used on mucous membranes or in the eyes. Apply to intact skin and allow to dry fully before the procedure begins. Discard any solution remaining in an opened sachet. Store below 25 degrees and keep away from open flame, as the solution is flammable while wet.

EMAIL: Reminder about annual leave requests. All requests for leave during the December period must be submitted through the online roster system by 15 November. Requests made after this date cannot be guaranteed, as the roster will already be published. Where two staff on the same team request the same dates, priority will be decided by length of service.

NOTICE: Specimen transport. Samples for the laboratory must be sealed in the biohazard bag with the request form placed in the outer pocket, never inside the same compartment as the sample. Urgent samples should be marked with a red sticker and delivered by hand. The pneumatic tube system must not be used for any sample from a patient in isolation.

PROCEDURE: Oxygen cylinder check. At the start of each shift, the nurse assigned to the resuscitation trolley confirms that the portable cylinder gauge reads at least half full. A cylinder below this level is replaced immediately and the used one tagged as empty. The check is signed and dated on the trolley log, which is audited weekly by the shift coordinator.

Part C: In-Depth Text

Sleep and Recovery in Hospital Patients For many years, rest was treated as a pleasant extra in hospital care, something patients might catch up on once the real work of treatment was done. That view has steadily changed. A growing body of clinical observation now places sleep close to the centre of recovery, alongside nutrition and mobility. When patients sleep poorly, wounds appear to heal more slowly, pain is reported as more severe, and confusion becomes more common, particularly in older people. The difficulty is that hospitals, by their very design, are among the hardest places in which to sleep. The obstacles are familiar to anyone who has spent a night on a ward. Lights are switched on for observations, monitors sound through the night, and medication rounds arrive at fixed hours regardless of whether a patient has just fallen asleep. Noise is a persistent problem. Studies measuring sound levels on general wards have recorded peaks that rival those of a busy road, and even brief bursts of noise can pull a sleeper out of the deeper stages that seem to matter most for repair. A patient may spend eight hours in bed yet accumulate only a few hours of genuine rest. The consequences reach further than tiredness. Sleep loss affects the way the body regulates glucose, blood pressure and the immune response, all of which are already under strain during illness. Among older patients, disturbed sleep is closely linked with delirium, a state of sudden confusion that lengthens hospital stays and raises the risk of lasting harm. Once delirium takes hold, it can be difficult to reverse, so preventing it is far preferable to treating it. For this reason, some clinicians now regard protecting a patient’s sleep as a genuine clinical task rather than a matter of comfort. Encouragingly, many of the most effective measures cost very little. Grouping observations and medication so that a patient is disturbed less often through the night can preserve longer stretches of unbroken sleep. Offering earplugs and eye masks, dimming lights after a set hour, and lowering the volume of alarms where it is safe to do so all make a measurable difference. Some wards have introduced a quiet period in the early hours during which non-urgent tasks are held back. None of these steps require new equipment, yet they ask staff to question routines that have gone unchallenged for decades. Change of this kind is not simple. A ward is a shared space, and one patient’s need for quiet may sit awkwardly beside another’s need for close monitoring. Staff must weigh the benefit of an undisturbed night against the risk of missing an early sign of deterioration. There is no single formula that resolves this tension, and judgement will always be needed. What the evidence does suggest is that the balance has for too long tipped away from rest, and that a modest shift back towards it may help patients leave hospital sooner and in better condition.