OET READING · Practice Test 02
OET Reading practice for nurses
This original English Guru Campus practice test is designed for nurses and other healthcare professionals preparing for the OET Reading sub-test. It contains 42 questions in three parts: a rapid Part A task using four texts on one clinical topic, six short workplace extracts in Part B, and two longer healthcare articles in Part C. You have 60 minutes in total. Part A is strictly limited to 15 minutes and locks automatically when its timer expires; the remaining time is used for Parts B and C. On desktop, the reading material and questions appear in separate, independently scrollable panes. Mobile candidates receive a clear stacked layout. Your responses, flags and timer state are saved during the current browser session. After submission, you will receive raw and part-wise scores, an approximate OET scaled score and grade, plus a complete question-by-question review with answers and explanations.
Before you begin
Part A: Questions 1–20, 15 minutes. It locks automatically.
Parts B and C: Questions 21–42, using the time remaining from the 60-minute total.
This page saves progress in this browser session. The total timer starts only when you select Start Test.
Text A: Pressure-injury risk assessment guide
Complete a structured pressure-injury risk assessment within six hours of admission for every adult inpatient. Repeat it after transfer between clinical areas, after a significant change in condition and whenever skin deterioration is suspected. A numerical score supports, but never replaces, clinical judgement.
Risk is increased by severely limited mobility, reduced sensation, poor perfusion, malnutrition, moisture exposure and a previous pressure injury. Medicines causing prolonged sedation may also reduce spontaneous movement. Record both the score and the individual factors identified.
Patients assessed as at risk require an individual prevention plan. Discuss the plan with the patient and, where appropriate, their carer. Document any refusal or inability to participate, together with the alternative measures offered. Do not postpone preventive action while waiting for specialist review.
Text B: Skin inspection and classification checklist
Inspect the skin on admission and at least once per shift for patients at risk. Give particular attention to bony prominences, skin beneath medical devices and areas exposed to moisture. In patients with darker skin tones, compare the suspected area with surrounding skin and assess temperature, firmness, pain and swelling; colour change may be less visible.
Use fingertips to check whether redness blanches. Intact skin with non-blanching redness is consistent with a Stage 1 pressure injury. Partial-thickness skin loss with an exposed pink or red wound bed is consistent with Stage 2. Do not classify moisture-associated skin damage as Stage 2.
Record the site, dimensions, skin colour, temperature, tissue appearance, exudate and pain. Marking the patient's skin with a pen is prohibited. Photograph only with consent and in accordance with the organisation's secure imaging policy.
Text C: Repositioning and support-surface plan
| Situation | Required action |
|---|---|
| Adult at risk who can move independently | Encourage frequent position changes; provide assistance or prompts if needed. |
| Adult at high risk and unable to reposition | Establish an individual turning schedule based on skin response, comfort, sleep and clinical condition; record every completed reposition. |
| Chair-bound patient | Limit uninterrupted sitting time and teach pressure-relieving weight shifts where feasible. |
| Heel protection required | Float the heels completely by supporting the lower legs; ensure the device does not place pressure on the Achilles tendon. |
| Selecting a mattress | Use a high-specification foam mattress for an adult assessed as at risk; seek specialist advice if deterioration continues. |
During repositioning, lift rather than drag the patient. Use appropriate handling equipment to reduce friction and shear. Avoid ring-shaped cushions because they concentrate pressure around their edges. Inspect skin and check comfort after each position change.
Text D: Immediate response and escalation pathway
When non-blanching redness, a blister or skin breakdown is found, remove pressure from the area immediately and record the finding. Check whether tubing, masks, splints or other devices are contributing. Keep the skin clean and dry, manage incontinence promptly and use a barrier product when moisture exposure is likely.
Notify the nurse in charge and begin the local pressure-injury care plan during the same shift. Refer to the tissue-viability team within 24 hours for any suspected Stage 2 or deeper injury, an injury that cannot be classified because tissue obscures its depth, or deterioration despite preventive measures.
Request urgent medical review for spreading redness with systemic illness, rapidly increasing pain, crepitus, unexpected bleeding or signs of compromised circulation. Do not massage reddened skin or place the patient directly on the affected area. Offer food and fluids appropriate to the patient's clinical plan, and request nutritional screening when intake is poor or recent weight loss is reported.
Extract 1: Patient's own medicines on admission
Medicines brought into hospital by a patient must be placed in the designated tamper-evident medicines bag and reconciled against the admission prescription as soon as practicable. A registered nurse may use a patient's own medicine only after pharmacy staff, or an authorised pharmacist-trained practitioner, have confirmed its identity, integrity, expiry date and labelling. Loose tablets and medicines with unclear directions must not be administered. Until assessment is complete, store the sealed bag in the patient's locked bedside medicines cabinet; controlled drugs must instead follow the ward's controlled-drug procedure. If an urgently required dose is unavailable from ward stock, contact pharmacy or the on-call pharmacist. Do not use an unverified medicine merely to avoid a delayed dose.
Extract 2: Occupational exposure to blood
After a needlestick injury or splash involving blood or body fluid, stop the task safely. Wash broken skin with soap and running water; encourage gentle bleeding but do not scrub or suck the wound. Irrigate eyes or mucous membranes immediately with copious water. Inform the nurse in charge and contact Occupational Health without delay, using the out-of-hours pathway when necessary. Record the incident after urgent assessment has been arranged. The source patient's details must be handled confidentially, and testing requires the appropriate consent process. Do not delay seeking advice while attempting to calculate the risk yourself: some time-sensitive preventive treatment is most effective when started promptly. Retain the device only if local policy provides a safe, approved method; never carry an exposed sharp to another department.
Extract 3: Contact precautions room notice
Before entering this room, check the isolation sign and collect all required equipment. Perform hand hygiene and put on an apron and gloves when direct patient contact or contact with the immediate environment is anticipated. Add facial protection if the planned task may generate splashes. Keep dedicated equipment in the room whenever possible. Remove gloves and apron before leaving, discard them in the indicated waste stream and perform hand hygiene again. Notes and unused supplies must not be placed on contaminated surfaces. Visitors should speak to the nurse before entering so that precautions can be explained. Isolation must not lead to reduced observation: complete scheduled clinical checks and respond to call bells without avoidable delay. Ask the infection-prevention team if the required precautions are unclear.
Extract 4: Communicating a critical laboratory result
Critical laboratory results received by telephone must be written down immediately in the patient's record, including the result, units, time, caller's name and receiving clinician's name. The receiver must read back the patient's identifiers and the complete result; the caller must confirm that the read-back is correct. Inform the responsible medical practitioner at once and document the time and name of the person notified. If that practitioner cannot be contacted within ten minutes, use the clinical escalation pathway rather than leaving a voicemail as the only action. The nurse remains responsible for confirming that the message has reached a clinician able to act. Any treatment instruction given during the call must meet the organisation's separate verbal-order policy.
Extract 5: Staff use of social media
Staff must not post photographs, recordings or descriptions that could identify a patient, colleague or clinical event on personal social-media accounts. Removing a name does not necessarily make a post anonymous: a location, date, unusual diagnosis or combination of details may reveal identity. Privacy settings and closed groups do not remove professional obligations. Concerns about unsafe care should be raised through clinical escalation, incident reporting or protected speaking-up routes, not through public posts. Staff may share material already published on the organisation's official account, provided they do not add confidential commentary or imply endorsement beyond their authority. Questions about educational case discussions should be directed to the information-governance team before anything is posted.
Extract 6: Vaccine refrigerator temperature excursion
If a vaccine refrigerator records a temperature outside the permitted range, keep the door closed and label the affected stock “DO NOT USE”. Do not discard or administer any of it until its status has been assessed. Check the current and minimum–maximum temperatures, the duration of the excursion if known, the power supply and whether the data logger is functioning. Inform the immunisation lead and contact the vaccine supplier or pharmacy team for stability advice. Record vaccine names, batch numbers, expiry dates and estimated quantities. Transfer stock to a validated alternative refrigerator only when this can be done without creating further temperature instability. The incident record must include the advice received and the final decision about each batch.
Safety-netting: making uncertainty safer
Paragraph 1 Clinical encounters often end before the course of an illness is clear. A child with fever may recover uneventfully, or develop signs that were absent during examination; an adult with vague abdominal discomfort may be experiencing a self-limiting problem, or the beginning of something serious. Diagnosis is therefore not always a conclusion reached at one fixed moment. It may be a process that unfolds. Safety-netting is the deliberate communication and follow-up planning used to protect patients during that period of uncertainty. It tells them what to expect, what changes should prompt help, where to obtain it and how urgently to act.
Paragraph 2 The phrase can sound deceptively simple. Many clinicians believe they safety-net whenever they advise a patient to “come back if worse”. Yet such wording transfers a complicated judgement to someone who may be frightened, unwell or unfamiliar with medical risk. Worse in what way? How much worse? Should the patient wait until morning, contact primary care or call emergency services? Researcher Dr Amira Cole argues that vague reassurance is not a safety net at all: “It is an exit sentence for the consultation, not a shared plan.” Effective advice identifies observable warning features in plain language and connects each one to a clear action.
Paragraph 3 Good safety-netting also acknowledges the expected course. A patient needs to know not only which danger signs matter, but how long ordinary symptoms may reasonably persist. Without that reference point, someone may delay returning because no dramatic red flag has appeared, even though recovery is taking much longer than anticipated. Conversely, an excessively long list of rare complications can make every sensation seem alarming. The task is not to recite all conceivable risks. It is to select the few developments that would materially change the clinical assessment and to explain the likely timescale without offering false certainty.
Paragraph 4 Documentation has become a contentious part of this practice. Templates encourage clinicians to tick a box stating that safety-netting advice was given. Such prompts can be useful, particularly during pressured consultations, but a completed box proves very little about whether the patient understood. Some electronic systems insert a standard paragraph containing generic emergency warnings. This may protect an organisation's record more effectively than it protects the person leaving the clinic. Documentation should capture the uncertainty discussed, the specific warning signs, the agreed follow-up and any barrier to acting on the advice. It should reflect a conversation rather than substitute for one.
Paragraph 5 Responsibility, however, does not sit solely with the individual clinician. Patients may be told to telephone a service that rarely answers, or to return promptly to a clinic with no available appointments. People with limited English, hearing loss, low health literacy or caring responsibilities can face further obstacles. A beautifully worded leaflet cannot compensate for an inaccessible pathway. Organisations must test whether the routes named in their advice actually work, provide interpreting and accessible formats, and create reliable systems for reviewing results that arrive after the consultation. Otherwise, safety-netting becomes a ritual that disguises gaps in service design.
Paragraph 6 Pending investigations illustrate the issue sharply. Telling a patient “we will contact you if anything is wrong” leaves several unanswered questions: who checks that a result has returned, what happens if contact details are incorrect, and who acts when the ordering clinician is absent? Safer systems assign ownership, flag overdue results and make the patient part of the loop by explaining when and how to seek the result. This does not mean making patients responsible for detecting clinical abnormalities. It gives them an additional route to notice that a process has stalled.
Paragraph 7 Critics sometimes worry that detailed safety-netting will lengthen consultations or encourage unnecessary reattendance. That risk exists if advice is unfocused. In practice, clarity can reduce avoidable contacts because patients understand which symptoms are expected and which are not. Techniques such as teach-back—asking patients to explain the plan in their own words—take time, but they expose misunderstandings before the patient leaves. Written or digital summaries can reinforce, rather than replace, this exchange. The goal is calibrated concern: neither complacency nor panic.
Paragraph 8 Safety-netting should consequently be judged by more than the presence of a phrase in the notes. Its quality depends on specificity, comprehension and usable access to follow-up. It cannot eliminate diagnostic uncertainty, and nor should it be presented as a defence against every poor outcome. Properly understood, it is a form of shared risk management: the clinician remains accountable for a workable plan, the organisation supports dependable routes back into care, and the patient is equipped to recognise when the situation no longer matches what was expected.
Why healthcare finds it difficult to stop low-value care
Paragraph 1 Healthcare improvement is often described as the introduction of something new: a medicine, a device or a faster pathway. Less visible is the work of stopping practices that offer little benefit, expose patients to avoidable harm or consume resources better used elsewhere. This process is sometimes called de-implementation. It sounds like subtraction, but removing an established test or treatment can be more complex than introducing one. A practice becomes embedded in routines, training, expectations and performance measures; evidence alone rarely makes it disappear.
Paragraph 2 The label “low-value” requires care. A test may be unhelpful when ordered routinely yet valuable for a patient with particular symptoms. A treatment with modest average benefit may matter greatly to a well-informed individual. De-implementation should therefore target inappropriate use, not pursue blunt numerical reduction. Professor Julian Mercer, who studies healthcare quality, warns that poorly designed campaigns can make clinicians feel they are being instructed to deny care: “If the message is simply ‘do less’, professional resistance is not irrational; it is predictable.” The clinical circumstances in which a practice remains useful must be stated as clearly as those in which it should stop.
Paragraph 3 Habit is only one obstacle. Clinicians may continue a familiar practice because it feels safer than omission. An unnecessary scan produces a report; deciding not to scan leaves uncertainty visible. Fear of missing a rare diagnosis, concern about complaints and memories of an exceptional case can outweigh population-level evidence. Moreover, the harms of overuse are often delayed or dispersed. One clinician orders the test, another responds to an incidental finding and the patient experiences anxiety weeks later. Because no single participant sees the entire chain, each decision can appear reasonable in isolation.
Paragraph 4 Patient expectations also matter, though they are sometimes caricatured. People do not invariably demand more intervention; they often seek an explanation, relief or confidence that their concern has been taken seriously. When a clinician merely refuses a test, the patient may interpret the decision as dismissal. Conversations are more successful when they explain why the intervention is unlikely to help, describe possible harms and offer a positive alternative such as observation, symptom management or planned review. This is not a public-relations exercise. It is clinical care that makes non-intervention an active, supported choice rather than an absence of care.
Paragraph 5 Organisations can unintentionally reward overuse. Electronic order sets may place a low-value test inside a default bundle; audit targets may count whether an action occurred without asking whether it was appropriate; fee structures can favour activity. Education aimed at individual clinicians will struggle while these signals remain unchanged. Some services have redesigned order screens so that the default reflects the preferred practice, requiring a brief indication when the test is selected. Others provide teams with feedback comparing their ordering patterns with those of peers. Such methods can work, but they must allow justified exceptions and avoid turning professional judgement into a contest for the lowest number.
Paragraph 6 Nurses have an important, sometimes overlooked role. They may notice that a routine intervention disturbs sleep, restricts mobility or causes repeated discomfort without changing management. They also hear the questions patients hesitate to ask during medical rounds. Yet nurses cannot be expected simply to challenge every questionable order at the bedside. Leaders need to create agreed protocols, multidisciplinary review and psychologically safe ways to raise concerns. Otherwise, responsibility is transferred to the staff member with the least authority to alter the system.
Paragraph 7 Measuring success presents another trap. A falling rate of a targeted procedure may indicate improvement, but it could also reflect reduced access for patients who need it. Counts must be paired with balancing measures: delayed diagnoses, unplanned returns, patient experience and outcomes in groups already facing inequity. Qualitative feedback can reveal whether staff understand the change or merely find ways around it. De-implementation is successful not when an intervention becomes rare at any cost, but when appropriate use replaces habitual use without worsening care.
Paragraph 8 Finally, stopping a practice is not a one-off announcement. Staff rotate, software changes and old habits return under pressure. Teams need continuing feedback, visible leadership and periodic review of the evidence. They should also be willing to reverse course if unintended harm appears. That willingness is not failure; it is the same intellectual honesty that justified questioning the original practice. The strongest de-implementation programmes make the safer choice easier, explain the reasoning to patients and professionals, and treat uncertainty as something to monitor rather than conceal.
Your result
Important: The scaled score and grade are approximate and are not official OET results.
Expand complete answer review
Question 1
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text D requires tissue-viability referral for Stage 2 or deeper injury, obscured depth, or deterioration.
Support: “Refer to the tissue-viability team within 24 hours…”
Question 2
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text B advises comparison with surrounding skin and assessment of other features when colour change is less visible.
Support: “colour change may be less visible”
Question 3
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text C says ring-shaped cushions concentrate pressure around their edges.
Support: “Avoid ring-shaped cushions…”
Question 4
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text A requires reassessment after transfer, significant change or suspected deterioration.
Support: “Repeat it after transfer… [or] significant change…”
Question 5
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text A requires documentation of the refusal or inability and the alternatives offered.
Support: “Document any refusal… together with the alternative measures offered.”
Question 6
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text C says to float the heels completely by supporting the lower legs.
Support: “Float the heels completely…”
Question 7
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text D lists systemic illness, rapidly increasing pain and compromised circulation among urgent signs.
Support: “Request urgent medical review…”
Question 8
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text A states that a numerical score supports but never replaces clinical judgement.
Support: “never replaces clinical judgement”
Question 9
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text B specifically includes skin beneath medical devices.
Support: “beneath medical devices”
Question 10
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text B links intact, non-blanching redness with Stage 1.
Support: “non-blanching redness… Stage 1”
Question 11
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text C requires every completed reposition to be recorded.
Support: “record every completed reposition”
Question 12
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text C says handling equipment reduces friction and shear.
Support: “reduce friction and shear”
Question 13
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text D recommends a barrier product where moisture exposure is likely.
Support: “use a barrier product”
Question 14
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text D says poor intake or recent weight loss should trigger nutritional screening.
Support: “request nutritional screening”
Question 15
Your answer:
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Explanation: Text A sets a six-hour admission deadline.
Support: “within six hours of admission”
Question 16
Your answer:
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Explanation: Text B lists firmness with temperature, pain and swelling.
Support: “assess temperature, firmness, pain and swelling”
Question 17
Your answer:
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Explanation: Text C recommends a high-specification foam mattress.
Support: “high-specification foam mattress”
Question 18
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text C says heel devices must not press on the Achilles tendon.
Support: “Achilles tendon”
Question 19
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Text D says to notify the nurse in charge.
Support: “Notify the nurse in charge”
Question 20
Your answer:
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Explanation: Text D says not to massage reddened skin.
Support: “Do not massage reddened skin”
Question 21
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Explanation: The medicine may be used only after an authorised practitioner verifies identity, integrity, expiry and labelling.
Support: “only after… [an] authorised… practitioner”
Question 22
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Explanation: Immediate cleansing or irrigation and prompt Occupational Health advice are the central required actions.
Support: “contact Occupational Health without delay”
Question 23
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Explanation: The notice states that isolation must not reduce observation or delay responses.
Support: “Isolation must not lead to reduced observation”
Question 24
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Explanation: The receiving nurse must confirm that the result reaches a clinician able to act.
Support: “confirming that the message has reached a clinician able to act”
Question 25
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Explanation: Care concerns belong in approved escalation, incident-reporting or speaking-up routes.
Support: “raised through clinical escalation… not through public posts”
Question 26
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Explanation: Affected stock is labelled DO NOT USE and held pending expert stability advice.
Support: “label the affected stock ‘DO NOT USE’”
Question 27
Your answer:
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Explanation: The paragraph presents diagnosis as a process that may unfold after the encounter.
Support: “It may be a process that unfolds.”
Question 28
Your answer:
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Explanation: Cole contrasts a vague closing phrase with a shared, actionable plan.
Support: “not a shared plan”
Question 29
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Explanation: The reference point is the stated period in which ordinary symptoms may reasonably persist.
Support: “how long ordinary symptoms may reasonably persist”
Question 30
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: A tick box or generic paragraph may protect the record without demonstrating patient understanding.
Support: “protect an organisation’s record… [more] than… the person”
Question 31
Your answer:
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Explanation: The paragraph argues that advice works only when patients can use the named routes back into care.
Support: “routes named in their advice actually work”
Question 32
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Explanation: The patient provides an additional way to detect an overdue or stalled result process.
Support: “an additional route to notice that a process has stalled”
Question 33
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: The writer accepts the time cost but values teach-back for revealing misunderstandings.
Support: “take time, but… expose misunderstandings”
Question 34
Your answer:
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Explanation: The conclusion describes shared risk management involving clinician, organisation and patient.
Support: “a form of shared risk management”
Question 35
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Routines, training, expectations and measures all keep established practices in place.
Support: “embedded in routines, training, expectations and performance measures”
Question 36
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Mercer says resistance is predictable when the message is reduced to “do less”.
Support: “If the message is simply ‘do less’…”
Question 37
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Doing something produces a reassuring visible result, whereas restraint leaves uncertainty exposed.
Support: “deciding not to scan leaves uncertainty visible”
Question 38
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: The writer calls non-intervention an active, supported choice when explanation and alternatives are provided.
Support: “an active, supported choice”
Question 39
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: The phrase refers to defaults, audit targets and payment structures that encourage activity.
Support: “default bundle… audit targets… fee structures”
Question 40
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Nurses notice consequences, but protocols and safe escalation systems are needed.
Support: “psychologically safe ways to raise concerns”
Question 41
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: Balancing measures detect delayed diagnosis, reduced access, poor experience or other harm.
Support: “paired with balancing measures”
Question 42
Your answer:
Correct answer:
Explanation: The final paragraph calls for continuing feedback, review and willingness to reverse course.
Support: “continuing feedback… periodic review… reverse course”
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