University of Bolton students take part in ground-breaking health care simulation day

University of Bolton students from three health care disciplines took part in a pioneering simulation day to help them experience real-life patient care.

The event was delivered by a number of health professionals to help give an in-depth understanding of each other’s role in treating patients from the moment they call an ambulance to being treated in hospital and then discharged home.

It provided real-life simulation in a controlled environment to reflect a number of care scenarios the students will be involved in as paramedics, physiotherapists and physician associates.

Several patient journeys were simulated, from pre-hospital care with the use of the University’s high fidelity ‘Simbulance’, patient transfers of patients to simulated acute hospital admissions, right through to a multi-disciplinary discharge approach for patients.

Usually, a simulation event would focus on one group of students from a particular role, for example, medical students using one simulated setting.

This event combined different student groups learning together in varied simulated healthcare settings.

The School of Clinical & Biomedical Sciences is made up of many disciplines – medical programmes such as physician associates, physiotherapists, paramedics and advanced practitioners.

The simulation event used the multidisciplinary academic team to simulate real-life clinical practice and ran from 8 am-8 pm to also simulate real-life work shift patterns.

The aim was to provide an authentic teaching and learning experience for students in an immersive environment which also helps contribute to the clinical hours’ placement requirements for the course.

The project has been pioneered by the academic teams from the School of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences led by Michelle Powell, Head of school, Rory McKelvin, Programme Leader Paramedic Science, Rameez Tariq, Programme Leader MSc in Physician Associate Studies, and Anna Zeimer, Programme Leader MSc in Physiotherapy.

Michelle said: “The event was a great success and initial feedback from students and staff has been phenomenal.

"They have all gained so much confidence in working across several simulated healthcare settings and have already asked for the next event.

“This simulated event allowed the students from three different professional backgrounds to gain an insight into how teams work together to optimise patient care and allowed clear team working alongside each other in the ward environment.

 “It is one of many that will offer simulated placements to students working together across professional healthcare disciplines.”

It involved 35 students from three healthcare programmes in the School of Clinical & Biomedical Sciences.

There were also many staff members, including paramedics, physiotherapists, senior nurses, physician associates, doctors and consultants, as well as 20 simulated patients involved from a diverse range of backgrounds and scenarios to represent the local community and areas they will work in preparing them for their future roles as healthcare professionals in the NHS.

* Full Covid precautions and rules were followed and anyone, including service users not wearing a mask, was medicinally except and precautions were taken to protect all staff, students and participants