University News Last updated 12 March 2014
More than 100 students from the University's Faculty of Health will put their clinical and communication skills into practice later this month, when they join firefighters to help manage a major incident in a dramatic accident scenario.
A realistic coach crash with multiple casualties will be simulated at the University’s City South campus, on Tuesday 25 March. Health students and West Midlands Fire and Police services, will be on standby to put their expert training into practice in the real-time scenario.
This will be the second event of its kind to be hosted by the faculty, and following the success of last year’s event, is expected to be bigger and better.
“Following our successful first Major Incident Simulation in 2013, the Faculty of Health are now preparing for the 2014 event,” said Professor Maxine Lintern, Associate Dean at the Faculty of Health.
“This time the ‘accident’ will be more substantial with a great many more casualties displaying a wider range of injuries and conditions so as to further challenge our students. We are expanding our ‘Birmingham City University Hospital’ set up with more clinical areas and we have devised the scenarios using feedback and input from the students who were involved last year.
“In addition to the Fire and Police Services and ‘patients’ from the West Midlands Fire Simulation Group, staff from our NHS Trust partners will be taking a role in command centres as part of their on-going training and development. The event will include student nurses, paramedics, radiographers, scientists, operating department practitioners from the University and medical students from the University of Birmingham. Once again our media students will be on hand to record the action and it promises to be an innovative and exciting learning experience for everyone involved.”
Supported by the Higher Education Academy, the exercise is designed to test students’ communication skills and their ability to act as a multi-disciplinary team in a high pressure situation, helping to prepare them for similar situations once they leave University and begin their careers in the healthcare sector.