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£1.7 million nurse training suite will 'mimic' real hospital wards

The University of Salford's new simulation suites will be used to train nursing students and midwives.
Adult room

The next generation of nurses and midwives will be honing their skills on manikins that can breathe, ‘speak’ and even sweat at a new £1.7 million training suite at the University of Salford.

Sim manikin
University of Salford's new £1.7m training suite will enable nurses to hone their skills on manikins

The new simulation suites are designed to look exactly like hospital wards, and contain high-tech electronic manikins that are able to move, speak via a microphone controller, blink and sweat.

Operated by specialist technicians from an adjoining control room, the manikins also have pulses and moveable chest plates to simulate breathing. They will be used by students to practise scenarios including dressing minor wounds, dealing with a patient having a fit and carrying out cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Another suite of rooms designed to look exactly like a maternity unit features a set of patient simulators of birthing women and newborn babies. The midwifery suite also includes a pool where home-based water births can be simulated.

Practical training

The new facilities are being officially opened on 27 July and will be used by students for practical training before going out on placements in hospitals across Greater Manchester. Their performance will be analysed in the classroom by tutors and fellow students.

The suites also come complete with oxygen delivery ports,  as well as call buttons, bed lights and corridors made to look like the real thing. There are also therapeutic areas where one-to-one, family and group interactions can take place.

Interim dean of the university’s School of Nursing, Midwifery, Social Work and Social Sciences Brian Boag said: ‘We are the biggest training provider of nurses and midwives in the north west and these groundbreaking facilities will provide a real benefit for the area, enabling us to give the best possible training for students who will go out and perform a service in hospitals around the region.

‘Everything from light fittings to bedsheets has been designed to recreate a real hospital environment, so our students are as experienced as they can possibly be before they even go out to work on placements.’

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