Case study · Quality of welcome through job-specific English

English in hospitals: how can non-French-speaking patients and their families be welcomed better?

Q: Which English training for hospital staff?

Training built on hospital situations rather than general English: welcoming and directing a patient, understanding their request, reassuring a family, booking an appointment, writing a letter. Linguaphone organises it in small groups, mainly in person, with plenty of room for role plays.

Q: How can the welcome of non-French-speaking patients in hospital be improved?

By training front-line staff, at reception, in secretarial roles and in care departments, in the conversations they actually have, and by giving them concrete vocabulary they can use as soon as they are back in their department.

Q: How can different hospital roles be trained together?

By forming coherent groups according to role and level, and by adapting the content: a carer and a medical secretary do not have the same situations to handle in English.

In a hospital, welcoming a foreign patient is not just a matter of greeting them: staff need to direct them, understand their request, reassure them, talk with their family, book an appointment or reply to a letter. When language is lacking, the quality of care suffers.

In short

In a hospital, a misunderstanding with a patient or their family can affect care. Linguaphone therefore builds English from the real situations of each role: welcoming, directing, reassuring, booking an appointment, communicating in writing. Training takes place in small groups, with plenty of role plays, so that the vocabulary learnt is useful as soon as staff are back in their department.

The starting point

The initial challenge

Hospitals receive patients and families who do not speak French. Reception, secretarial and care staff need to be able to direct them, understand their request and reassure them, often without notice and at stressful moments.

The audiences are very varied, from care staff to medical secretaries and administrative departments, with very different levels of English too. Training must also fit around the constraints of each department.

The challenge to solve

Bringing together roles with different needs: care, reception, secretarial work, administration
Working on specific situations: welcoming, directing, booking appointments, talking with families, letters
Dealing with mixed levels of English
Adapting the organisation to departmental constraints

Language: English
Audience: Reception, secretarial and care staff
Expressed need: Welcoming, directing and reassuring non-French-speaking patients and their families

Our answer

The solution deployed

Training starts from real hospital situations: welcoming and directing a patient, understanding their request, reassuring a family, booking an appointment, writing an email or a letter. It takes place in small groups, mainly in person, with plenty of room for role plays.

Management

Group training in small groups, organised around departmental constraints
Programmes mainly in person, remote if needed
Content built into the training environment (LMS)
Systematic evaluation at the end of training

Teaching

Welcome English focused on real situations: welcoming, directing, reassuring
Medical and administrative vocabulary useful for the job
Role plays and fun exercises to consolidate learning
Professional writing: emails and letters to patients

In person
Small groups
Role plays

Our method, step by step

The programme in figures

99%
of sessions held in person: small groups; 3 years
of evaluations tracked

The outcome

The results

Training judged directly useful for the job: concrete vocabulary, role plays, better communication with patients and their families
A growing programme

Indicators for 2023, 2024 and 2025

94%
Overall satisfaction: 4.8/5
Trainer satisfaction: 91%
Recommendation rate

What followed

A multi-year partnership, with a growing programme and content built into the establishments' training environment.

What this case shows

In a hospital, the quality of welcome also depends on language. This case shows that English built on the situations of each role, practised in small groups and through role plays, transfers directly to the department, where general English would remain too far removed from the job.

Three conditions for success

1 Identify the situations where language is a barrier: welcoming, directing, appointments, conversations with families.
2 Form coherent groups, taking into account each person's role and level.
3 Involve department managers in the organisation, to make training compatible with the rota.

Facing the same challenge? the needs analysis must cover both the level of English and the welcome situations each role encounters. This is what makes it possible to form useful groups and create content that can be used directly on the job.

Very useful vocabulary for my professional practice, and a better welcome and communication with patients and their families. End-of-course evaluation · hospital sector

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which English training for hospital staff?

How can the welcome of non-French-speaking patients in hospital be improved?

How can different hospital roles be trained together?

Go further

How we measure: every figure on this page comes from the end-of-course evaluations completed by learners (2023, 2024 and 2025). Trainer satisfaction is the average of four criteria (delivery, listening, encouragement, clarity); the recommendation rate is the share of ratings of 4 or 5 out of 5. This case study is illustrative: the client is not named and is described in deliberately general terms.

See all case studies