Language for Specific Purposes in Nursing: Between Exams and Documentation Practice

Abstract

The linguistic support of nurses with German as a second language represents a central challenge for the German healthcare system. Particularly in the field of nursing documentation—whether in the form of admission interviews, handover reports, or standardized forms—precise language skills are required that go beyond the mere mastery of technical terminology. This paper examines how nursing-related documentation and communication skills can be systematically fostered within vocational German language instruction. Current developments in nursing practice are taken into account, such as the introduction of the Structured Information Collection (SIS) as a standard instrument and the increasing digitalization of documentation. The paper highlights the relevance of language support both in examination formats (such as telc Deutsch B1·B2 Pflege, which still requires continuous-text admission reports) and in everyday nursing practice, where note-based entries predominate. At the center are didactic strategies such as scenario-based learning, CLIL, role plays, and corpus-based tasks, which enable learners to develop linguistic competences that are both practice-oriented and exam-focused. In this way, the paper contributes to the discussion on how subject-specific language support in nursing can be adapted to the interface of training realities, examination requirements, and professional practice.