University News Last updated 18 May 2011
A brand new centre in Birmingham to teach professional healthcare skills has been described as ‘a model for the future’.
The Lord Mayor of Birmingham made the comment when he unveiled a plaque at the Birmingham City University Skills and Simulation Centre, which is based at the University’s Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences in Edgbaston.
Councillor Len Gregory, who is the University’s Chancellor as well as the Lord Mayor, said: “The Centre is a shining example of collaboration between the private sector and education which has resulted in an end product that the rest of the country will learn from and use as a model for the future.” The official launch took place on Tuesday 3 May 2011.
The Birmingham City University Skills and Simulation Centre consists of cutting-edge facilities such as lifelike manikins which are used in simulated patient care, along with a mock operating theatre, home environment room and a healthcare skills room. The Centre was previously used only to teach healthcare students but following an increase in requests to hire the facilities the University has decided to open its doors to healthcare professionals so they can take advantage of its cutting-edge learning and teaching facilities.
The Centre is part of the University’s Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences which uses the facilities to teach a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD (Continuous Professional Development) courses. The facilities on offer include manikins SimMan®, SimBaby ™and Kid which allow students to practice their newly taught skills prior to going on placement. Manufactured by Laerdal, the manikins are treated as real patients and have voice software, used to replicate real symptoms, and are enhanced by the manipulation of monitors for extra realism.The manikins are used across mock hospital wards, the mock operating theatre, a birthing room fitted out as a real maternity ward, a plaster room, a skills room for practising taking blood pressure, giving injections and theatre skills such as intubation (inserting tubes into patients’ throats) and scrubbing up.
Additional facilities offered by the centre includes consultancy services by experts in the fields of manual handling, including the use of a unique rotation bed manufactured by Linet, one of the best-known hospital bed manufacturers.
Organisations have already made use of the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences’ facilities to teach their volunteers CPR, and TV and filmmakers have used the facilities for television and movie shoots including BBC1’s Survivors, daytime drama Doctors, Five’s The Gadget Show and a forthcoming big budget Bollywood film.
Head of Department Skills and Simulation, Gerri Nevin, said: “We have already been working with a number of organisations so now we decided to let more people know about the wonderful facilities we have to offer.
The Birmingham City University Skills and Simulation Centre is based at the University’s impressive £30million Seacole building at its City South campus in Edgbaston. The University’s Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences is the largest provider of qualified health and social care staff to the NHS and has the UK’s only contract to educate the Armed Forces’ adult nurses and other health practitioners. It has an international reputation for teaching quality with consistent ‘excellent’ ratings in assessments by the Quality Assurance Agency, Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Social Care Council and Health Professions Council. It has a worldwide reputation for pioneering and innovative approaches to teaching and learning incorporating cutting-edge, simulated