Within the future UNSW Health Translation Hub (HTH) building, innovative education spaces will inspire students with a hands-on experience, enabling them to train and learn side-by-side with clinicians, researchers and educators.
On floors one and two, new education and simulation spaces will provide for interprofessional experiential learning environments, enabling students from all health professions to train together and to develop skills.
Associate Professor Ben Taylor, Senior specialist in Emergency Medicine at Liverpool Hospital and UNSW’s Director of Simulation, and Tracey Beacroft, Lecturer in Simulation from UNSW’s South West Sydney’s Clinical Campus, helped design the new simulation spaces.
Students really benefit from high quality health simulations. Unique immersive learning authentically simulates some of the varied healthcare environments and allows for real life clinical scenarios. It gives students the opportunity to safely explore, learn and make mistakes in a safe learning environment.
“They can regularly practice performing the wide range of clinical procedures expected of them, such as intravenous cannulation, as new healthcare graduates in a supportive environment using a variety of realistic manikins and task trainers. They can also safely experience what it’s like to be involved in scenarios that as students they may not get opportunities to even observe, such as performing CPR in a cardiac arrest or delivering a baby. Their patients are either actors or realistic manikins using moulage and make-up techniques to make the scene even more realistic,” Ben said.
Two single bed simulation rooms will replicate an emergency department or critical care type room environment. Down the hall, two large four-bedded ward simulation rooms will enable students and educators to practice, teach and work in a more open ward like hospital environment. These flexible spaces will be managed via adjacent control rooms, with one-way mirrored screens and high tech audiovisual links enabling educators to closely observe the scenarios and then provide constructive feedback in debriefs. The rooms will have ample storage attached for setting and resetting scenario scenes.
A mock scrub and gown simulation room with actual scrub sinks will mimic the operating theatre scrub station environment so students can perfect their scrub and gown training before doing it in real life.
The simulation spaces will be used to create interactive experiences by projecting scenes onto the surrounding walls or using specialised equipment. These can range from other formal clinical environments to domestic and outdoor settings. The space can also be used with augmented or virtual reality equipment to create another immersive environment, visualising data and other research materials in unique ways.
Opening in late 2025, the HTH will bring together researchers, clinicians, educators, industry partners and public health officials to drive excellence. It will support the rapid translation of research, innovation and education into improved patient care, delivering better health outcomes to the community. Pictured: The Emergency and Trauma room at UNSW’s South West Sydney Clinical Campus simulated learning environment.
Published September 2024