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£250,000 simulation suite will help to train medics at hospital

A new £250,000 simulation suite has opened to help train the doctors and physicians of the future.

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The suite will allow medics to learn in a realistic environment

The high-fidelity SimiGen suite at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital, which took four months to construct, is a learning centre for medical students, located on the same floor as the existing simulation suite (SimWard) in the Wolverhampton Medical Institute.

Eventually the two will be linked via a single server.

The simulation experience forms one element of student doctors’ curriculum to improve patient safety in a safe, supportive and open learning environment.

Students are immersed in "real life" risk-free adult medical scenarios, starting with information gathering in year three, to delivering care in emergency situations and caring for acutely ill patients in year five.

They practise skills following medical algorithms, calling for senior help via the telephone and activating the emergency alarm.

Treatments may be prescribed and administered, and investigations such as blood tests, ECGs and X-rays can be requested and reviewed.

There is even the opportunity to practise using a defibrillator in a highly stressful situation without the risk of harm to patients or themselves.

While a group of students undertake a scenario, their colleagues observe via a live video link from a separate debrief room using a high-tech audio-visual system provided by Scotia UK called SMOTS.

SimiGen, which used to be a teaching room and an office, doubles up as a skills room where students practise other disciplines through simulation.

These include venepuncture, cannulation, catheterisation, ECG training, sub-cutaneous and intramuscular injections, drug reconstitution, ophthalmoscopy and otoscopy.

Students are signed off in simulated practice before going to the wards and embarking on supervised clinical practice on real patients.

Melissa Whiles, lead for undergraduate clinical skills and simulation at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: "Using SimiGen to its full potential enables the teaching faculty to provide students with the skills to be safer practitioners today and mould the doctors of the future."

Dr Jonathan Odum, chief medical officer for the trust, said: "It’s been a real pleasure to see the opening of the undergraduate simulation suite.

"We’ve had simulation training here in Wolverhampton for just over 17 years and it’s been a great benefit to our staff to take part in the training sessions and take these skills back to their speciality.

“The advantage of practicing on a mannequin is truly invaluable and I’m pleased to say the training programme has received national recognition over the years."

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