UHCW Simulation Centre Background
UHCW Simulation Centre officially opened on October 8th 2012.
A £1 million Centre funded by NHS and West Midlands Deanery (Health Education West Midlands). Forging strong links with the prestigious Warwick Medical School at The University of Warwick.
What Is Simulation?
‘Tell me and I will forget…show me and I may remember…involve me and I will understand’ (Confucius ,551BC- 479BC)
‘Simulation is a technique … not a technology….to replace or amplify real experiences with guided experiences that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive manner.’ (Professor D M Gaba,2004)
Simulation Based Education (SBE) is increasingly recognised and becoming a vital component of multi-professional education. Its adoption is supported by National Policies and an expanding body of literature. Health Education England (2013) launched the ‘Technology Enhanced Learning Programme’ (TEL). The vision being that healthcare should be underpinned by World Class Education enhanced through emerging technologies and innovations such as Simulation.
Simulation aims to create a safe, realistic learning environment using high fidelity manikins and state of the art audio visual facilities. Learners take part in immersive and challenging scenarios followed by a debrief facilitated by expert faculty. The courses aim to give learners the opportunity to objectively analyse both their technical and non- technical skills, such as communication, team working, task management, situational awareness and develop strategies they can take back to their clinical roles. The focus is on providing and improving quality of care whilst embracing innovation to deliver improved services.
Non- technical skills are a common contributing factor to clinical errors and patient harm. Simulation allows learners to develop their own strategies to address non -technical skills through interacting with a multidisciplinary team and a simulated patient in a real time event. The ultimate aim is to improve patient safety and outcomes and practice error management.
Our Mission Statement, Vision & Values for Simulation Based Education at UHCW
UHCW Simulation Centre ‘Our Mission’
‘To educate, inform and inspire…
…Using Simulation Based Education to develop and empower our workforce, supporting improvements in Patient Safety and Patient Outcomes…
Working Towards World Class Healthcare Education’
UHCW Simulation Centre ‘Our Vision’
To continue the Simulation department expansion of high-quality simulation-based education practice, expertise and experience. To share good practice and align with local and national strategic goals and quality standards in Simulation. To maintain our strong commitment towards our UHCW Trust values and workforce and service requirements. To continue to raise the profile of Simulation within the Trust. The overall vision to support the delivery of safe, effective patient care and improve patient outcomes.
UHCW Simulation Centre ‘Our Values’
Aligning with our Trust Values and Behaviours Framework
(Improve; Compassion; Openness; Respect; Partnerships; Pride; Learn)
- Improve: To embrace and invest in the latest technology to improve our simulation based educational resource and enhance the experience for our users
- Improve/ Partnership : To achieve Accreditation by the ‘Association of Simulated Practice for Healthcare’ (ASPiH) the National Body and Quality standard for Simulation Based Education in the UK. A prestigious award not currently held by many centres.
- Improve/ Learn/ Partnerships: To enable the multi -disciplinary workforce to feel empowered, well trained and engaged to make improvements for the benefit of patients both in terms of patient safety and outcomes.
- Respect:
Users of the service feel valued and supported to cope with the increasing demands within the service. This has never been more imperative than now with the increasing demands from the Covid 19 pandemic on the service and the impact on NHS recovery in the aftermath.
- Improve:
Developments in education and technologies within the Simulation Centre will support the recruitment and retention of staff to UHCW.
- Partnerships: Network with a diverse range of stakeholders and local/regional/national partnerships to benefit multi-disciplines of staff and the patients we serve.
- Equity/Diversity: To incorporate simulation-based education into all levels of clinical staff in all specialities.
- Respect/Partnerships: To be a trusted educational resource offering multiple opportunities for our Trust staff and external partners
- Learn :To offer high quality, relevant, inspirational and tailored experiences to our multidisciplinary clinical teams.
- Learn/ Improve: To contribute to the published field of research surrounding SBE in Healthcare
- Partnerships/ Learn: To serve as a resource to other healthcare professionals, educators and researchers in the field of simulation based educational methodologies
- Pride: Aspire to become a local & regional leader in the delivery of simulation based education in healthcare
- Compassion/ Respect: Provide a psychologically safe, non-judgemental learning environment to all our users.
- Openness: To provide a psychologically safe supportive and non judgemental learning environment to encourage an atmosphere of openness and honesty.
UHCW Simulation Centre Aims
The UHCW Simulation Centre aims to provide realistic scenarios and clinical training facilities that enable staff of all disciplines to develop both human factor skills and advanced clinical skills that will enable them to manage acutely unwell patients, improve communication and develop effective team working. The simulation setting provides staff with a safe, supportive and non-judgmental learning environment. This approach has been endorsed by the Chief Medical Officers (CMO) Report 2020/1, where it was identified that highly realistic training environments are invaluable to train the multidisciplinary team in a safe environment, to improve patient care. Managing the health and well-being of our workforce is paramount for sustainability especially following the commitment shown by colleagues during the Covid 19 pandemic; supporting the workforce through training is essential to maintaining high standards of patient care.
All High-Fidelity Simulation delivered within the Trust is either curriculum mapped to the relevant training programme; objective driven to introduce new protocols or improve working within the multidisciplinary team of a specific specialty; or to address clinical adverse events or serious untoward incidents that have occurred within the Trust.