At the heart of our hospitals are our 12,000 staff who work around the clock to care for over one million patients every year. Every day, many of our colleagues use a state-of-the-art £80,000 clinical simulation space, funded by our donors.
Set up like a hospital ward, the space – known as Sim Space Bristol – is an immersive and realistic simulation environment to train post-graduate and undergraduate medical students, as well as helping healthcare workers continue their professional development.
As well as specialist, responsive manikins which act as patients, the space also has an observation room behind one way glass where the trainer will sit and observe trainees, recording their actions on cameras set up around the sim space to be played back during feedback. By removing the trainer from the room, it places trainees in a more realistic environment, encouraging teams to work together to solve problems as they would in their clinical environments.
Using video, the trainer will then talk through both the clinical and non-clinical skills demonstrated, such as how the trainee communicated, how they administered care, the decisions that were made and what improvements can be made.
“Simulation in a safe clinical environment is vital for education, research, and patient safety. Regular simulation in a high fidelity space provides a ‘stress innoculation’ which optimises learning, improves staff resilience to acute stress and allows them to identify patient safety threats in a safe environment, which can reduce the risk of medical error in actual practice.
“We are grateful to Southmead Hospital Charity for providing the funding for this brilliant new facility that matches the expertise here.”
Curtis Whittle, Consultant Anaesthetist at North Bristol NHS Trust
