[Pete Allen and Paula Holt stand in the Clinical Skills suite in front of a dummy patient in the University of Derby’s NHS-standard mock-ward to introduce the film.]
[Camera pans to a new setting – the immersive simulation suite – where Lecturer, Helen Ansell describes the equipment students get access to which helps simulate real-world situations. The simulation suite is replicating a hospital ward on digital screens.]
There's a fantastic bit of equipment that we're going to find out about now. Let's find out about the immersive suite. The simulation that the school of nursing professional practice here at the University of Derby. So currently we're in the immersive suite which is one of three across our campuses here at the university. The immersive suite is a sensory input that we use the clinical settings.
What I mean by that is it adds audio and visual backings to scenarios that we can use which can cause a distraction for the student putting them into more of a realistic, live, setting for that clinical practice. And we have different sections that we can use. Currently, we're in the operating theatre with a patient that is about to undergo eye surgery. So we set the scene with the student and the student then works through the scenario with the instructor.
The student uses their equipment during the simulation blocks which are embedded into their academic degree. And they start off in the first year with three sessions of simulation across the year. And then it just goes up across the three years building on their capacity and challenging them with their clinical skills. So when they come into the simulation weeks we design a simulation setting around their capabilities and the level that they're at. Okay.
[Camera zooms in on the face of the high-fidelity mannequin to demonstrate its ability to blink.]
So this particular mannequin here is one of our high fidelity mannequins. She has the ability to blink and we can change the pupil sizes so we can do neurological assessments on her and we can get students to take pulses and the pulse will also go up on the monitor. We can do blood pressure recordings.
We can do heart sounds and breath sounds. We can do abdominal sounds. We can use, doing basic skills on her, so you can catheterize as if we need students to catheterize the mannequins and we can put all the sorts of modules for mannequins on her so that we can wound her etc. She can talk. So she'll give yes/no answers, she'll make some noises but also we can actually get students to interact with the mannequins because there's a microphone in the chest so that I can then speak to them through the mannequin using a headset and microphone.
(calming music)
[University of Derby logo]
[Back to the clinical skills suite with Pete Allen, who is standing with Helen to interview her in the mock-ward.]
Pete: That was Helen, this is also Helen, in person. Helen, lecturer in simulation for adult nursing, tell us about you, what’s your background?
Helen: So I’ve been nursing for about 30 years and my background clinical setting is in intensive care where I’ve worked for about 12 of those 13 years and then I was excited to go and work as a clinical educator which I’ve done for 18 years. In 2006 I emigrated with my family to New Zealand and I worked in their health setting returning to Derby in sept last year and very privileged to get a job here working with Derby students
Pete: Yeah, absolutely I’ve heard fantastic things about New Zealand it’s a beautiful country yet you came back to Derby?
Helen: Yes I did come back.
Pete: Fantastic news!
Okay, so, we’ve seen a video about the immersive suite, in reality, – you work with it all the time – how well does it replicate real-life situations
Helen: So the immersive suite is an amazing piece of equipment because what it can do is have sensory input to what is essentially a sterile situation when we’re just in the clinical skills away from a real-life setting. So it puts in audio and in visual, which means the students have to work with distractions – so If we were doing a drug round – and something distracts the student, they could make a drug error. So it helps them overcome distractions and noise element that they will get in a real-life setting.
Pete: I’ve been in a hospital ward, they can be really busy, lots of distractions, so that’s fantastic that It’s simulating that. What other environments/situations can it replicate?
Helen: So we can replicate anything. We have a 360-degree camera that can go out in any community setting and film it so we can have lots of scenarios going on in those particular real settings with lots of noise and audio going on, so it works really well.
Pete: Yeah, can you put other things on there? I’m thinking a Batman film?
Helen: We could, we could try that later!
Pete: Fantastic! Let’s do that, it’s a date. Well, it’s not a date, but, keep it appropriate okay. So when students come here, they work with the immersive suite, how does that relate to real-life when they enter employment?
Helen: So what we’ve found with research into simulation is it will help students develop skills around problem-solving and critically analysing. And we’ve also seen that students who have undertaken simulation training during their degree will be less likely to make errors when in their clinical settings it actually makes them more employable.
Pete: Wow that’s a big stat, it really is. And how have you worked Covid into the immersive suite?
Helen: Yep, so Covid has been very challenging. What we’ve managed to do here at the University of Derby is we’ve been very fortunate to get a virtual platform. So that essentially has a patient as an avatar and the student can work through that scenario in their own environment and they’re tailor-made to the level that they’re at. Other things that we’ve put into place, virtual practice placements where we’ve had students working through some problem-solving situations with patents across the weeks, and the feedback we’ve had has been amazing.
Pete: Fantastic! The immersive suite just one of the wonderful pieces of equipment here – and you work with it everyday, how cool is that. Helen, thank you very much.
Audio described version of Nursing Facilities: Immersive Simulation Suite video