A state-of-the-art “sim family” form the centrepiece of an innovative new healthcare training facility on the Keele University campus, which has been opened as part of a huge investment in healthcare education at the University.

A former student accommodation bungalow has been repurposed to provide a high-tech training facility for healthcare students, featuring specially designed manikins that can be programmed to simulate a variety of medical conditions and emergencies.

The sim family are designed to allow students to practise their clinical skills on patients in as realistic an environment as possible and are set up to receive common procedures such as cannulation, intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They can even be programmed to present with a pulse, feature dilating pupils and can “breathe”, to make the simulations as accurate as possible without using real people.

The bungalow provides a home environment for students on courses like nursing, paramedic science, social work and physiotherapy, to give them a safe space to train ready for their clinical careers, in a realistic setting that mirrors the layout and look of the average UK home.

The bungalow has also been fitted with numerous cameras, microphones and speakers, allowing lecturers and fellow students to monitor the students working in the house remotely from a control and de-brief room within the School of Nursing and Midwifery’s building on campus.

Through this remote access, the lecturers can advise students of best practice during the simulations, and record their performance to give either ‘live’ feedback, or feedback following a session.

The sim family and healthcare bungalow represent a huge investment in healthcare education at Keele, which offers multiple routes into nursing through both traditional degrees, and programmes such as foundation years and nursing associate apprenticeships.

Professor Julie Green, Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery said: “Simulation is a current hot topic within all healthcare training but is specifically important in nursing programmes as it allows us to enhance placement learning for our students, aligned to the requirements of our professional body.

“The health houses and simulation manikin families will allow us to recreate challenging clinical situations for all students, in every field of nursing, to experience and manage, allowing learning to take place in real time in a controlled and safe environment.”