Innovation
Birmingham City University has long led the sector in its development of the innovative use of simulation in the training of our health care professionals. In 2013 we ran a major simulation which involved over 100 UG students from a range of healthcare professions. The simulation revolved around setting up our simulation suite as a hospital with wards, operating theatre, A&E department, X-ray department all with routine patients played by volunteers, actors and mannequins. A ‘car accident’ brought in police officers and West Midlands Fire Service who worked with our paramedic students to rescue the casualties and deliver them to the hospital. Students acting as staff in each area had to manage the incoming wounded on minimal information, make clinical decisions as care teams about who to discharge, who to move from the wards and what treatment to use.
All of the patient histories were carefully planned and they had distressed relatives who arrived, unexpected problems and some deaths. Staff acted as facilitators in each area but the students were making the clinical and management decisions.
The simulation ran for over two hours and was filmed by students from our media department to produce a range of re-usable learning objects for future teaching and all of the students involved were given a range of briefing and de-briefing opportunities to help them reflect and make sense of the learning that had occurred.
What prompted innovation?
We wanted to develop opportunities for students to work together as multi-professional care teams and wanted to see how far we could develop our ability to conduct large scale simulation activities. In addition we felt a large scale event of this kind could be something students worked towards being a part of during their earlier years. We also felt it would add to the preparedness of final year students to work in high pressure challenging environments once they qualify.
What makes innovation different?
To our knowledge a simulation event on this scale has not been conducted anywhere else. The realism of the situations was outstanding thanks to our Fire Service colleagues and the students found out what they could or could not do. The learning outcomes were focussed around communication and leadership skills and team working rather than clinical competencies as these were student only a few weeks away from completing their programmes.
Changes in practice
Student evaluation has provided a number of examples of how this will impact them once they enter practice. They learned what each different discipline knows or does not know and who needs to do what and when. In addition the staff teams have learned a great deal about how to run multi-patient scenarios and have gained confidence in their ability to use the facilities to a greater extent
Impact
- Initial student feedback at the end of the scenario was very good. This was captured on feedback sheets and by video clips. A student commented that they felt they had learned more in that afternoon than in the previous few years! Data from the feedback is still being analysed but staff de-briefings have prompted various re-designs for the planned 2014 event.
- We will also be asking students who participated to complete a reflective analysis after 6 months in practice to gather evidence of a longer term effect on their learning.
Dissemination
- The project was supported by the HEA and we will be presenting the initial outcomes at the HEA Annual Conference.
- During the simulation media students produce live blogs and twitter feeds.
- The event was picked up by a number of local news organisations and professional bodies.
- Once the filmed footage of the full event is edited and complete we will make this available to other HEIs along with some of the materials should they wish to have a go!
http://rosemarywattsphoto.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/notreal-major-incident-day-bcu.html
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-students-put-rescue-skills-1766150
http://www.sor.org/ezines/studenttalk/issue-63/students-spring-action-save-lives