Worksheet 11 – Misplaced Modifiers

Context:

The following piece of news reports on enhancing better morale of nurses. It contains 7 mistakes in
misplaced modifiers. Identify and correct those mistakes.

Nurses demand better treatment in hospitals

Sunday, April 1, 2007
1
Carrying red balloons, about 100 nurses marched to the Central Government Offices yesterday to press
the government with two Chinese characters for “morale” to improve staff morale* at public hospitals.
2
Chairman of the Hong Kong Nursing Staff Association who is also a legislator for the health services
sector, Joseph Lee Kok-long said surveys done in several public hospitals from 2003 to January this year
found poor morale among nursing staff. “3Nursing morale has been always low. 4We found that the rate of
job stress was nine out of a possible 10. 5Happiness was three out of 10 and job satisfaction four. 6The
findings tell us a great deal about staff morale of the surveys,” he said.
7
Mr Lee, a registered nurse and an assistant professor at Open University, said the Hospital Authority,
should improve the nurse-patient ratio in public hospitals which was about one nurse per 10 to 24
patients. 8The international standard is one nurse per four patients.
9
Meanwhile, three legislators at New Territories West hospital cluster*, especially Tuen Mun Hospital,
warned that the shortage of doctors was “critical”*. 10In the past three years, Kwok Ka-ki of the medical
sector and Leung Yiu-chung and Lee Cheuk-yan of the Confederation of Trade Unions legislators, said
yesterday Tuen Mun and allied* hospitals had received the lowest funding. “11This meant that there were
only 0.52 doctors per 1,000 patients and 1.53 beds per 1,000 patients in 2005-06. 12The comparative
figures for Hong Kong West were 0.95 doctors and 5.64 beds,” Dr Kwok said.
13
A spokesman for the New Territories West cluster said the Hospital Authority including doctors and
nurses would recruit another 270 staff for the cluster of hospitals.
14
A Hospital Authority spokesman said allocating resources did not only depend on the number of beds
and staff. 15The authority also took into account the cost of new medical technology and staff training.

MARY ANN BENITEZ and CELINE SU

Freely adapted from South China Morning Post

CC 204 0 E ng lis h for Acad e mic S t udie s ( He al th C are) – S tudy G uide

*Vocabulary in Context

Morale (noun)
Definition: the level of confidence or enthusiasm of a group
Sample sentence:
The morale of the employees were affected by the cut in pay.

Cluster (noun)
Definition: a small group of things or people that are close together.
Sample sentence:
Beyond the hill, you will see a cluster of stone houses.

Critical (adjective)
Definition: a time, factor or thing which is extremely important
Sample sentence:
Teamwork is critical to success for any company.

Allied (adjective)
Definition: two or more things which are connected or associated with one another
Sample sentence:
Pharmacy, nursing and occupational therapy are allied professions.

CC 204 0 E ng lis h for Acad e mic S t udie s ( He al th C are) – S tudy G uide