Simulation Suite training for future healthcare experts

Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS FT are part of the NHS England-led IPEX (Interprofessional Experience) project, which provides undergraduates with opportunities to work together in a realistic setting during their training.

The simulation suite at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, along with a specialist facility at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), is being used to upskill future professionals.

Training promotes how they work in a realistic, scenario-based simulation, to build confidence whilst improving awareness around patient safety.

Emma Sang, Simulation Lead at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, said: “We are pleased to be one of the first sites in the Midlands to be selected as a national initiative to deliver important training like this.

“This is a fantastic way to ensure that our future healthcare professionals have the right knowledge, skills, confidence and expertise to deliver outstanding care to patients and families. This has been a collaborative approach with the team at UHB, allowing wider expertise to be shared and developed.

“The Simulation Suite is newly opened and is proving a very effective tool in training undergraduate and postgraduate staff in certain scenarios that could easily arise in real life.

“We have set aside four training days for students from our Trust and UHB as part of the NHS England scheme.

“This involves workshops which explore the interplay of human factors in healthcare, promoting situational awareness, management of risk, teamworking and leadership under pressure.”

The Simulation Suite opened in 2025 after a donation from high street fashion entrepreneur George Davies via The George Davies Charitable Trust, after working with Birmingham Women’s Hospital Charity.

It’s installed with the latest technology and is split into four dedicated areas, all kitted out as though they are ‘real-life’ working wards and departments, including a maternity delivery simulation room, a neonatal unit, as well as a Gynaecology and a theatre simulation room.

There is also a seminar and training room, plus a debrief area, which provides participants with an opportunity to review and learn in a supportive and constructive way.

As the space offers more than one room, multiple teams can be trained at the same time, for example, a baby being born in a car park, then being moved – together with mum – to the Delivery Suite, followed by the baby being moved to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Allowing wider multi-professional working for all teams involved in that patient's care.