Health professionals have opportunities to undergo state-of-the-art training at our dedicated Simulation and Interactive Learning (SaIL) centre at St Thomas' Hospital.
The centre includes:
- an outpatient consulting room
- a six-bed ward/clinical skills training space
- an operating theatre/two-bed intensive care unit ward
- a home environment
- a surgical simulation room.
We also have a simulator training space in the Sherman Education Centre at Guy's Hospital, which includes a simulation training lab and a large, surgical simulation room.
What is medical simulation?
A medical simulator is similar to flight simulators used to train pilots.
Sophisticated manikins, known as human patient simulators, provide healthcare professionals with a 'patient'. The manikins breathe, talk, have heart and lung sounds, a pulse rate, and can even be given drugs and fluids.
Simulation training: the benefits
Simulation training allows learners to practice tasks in life-like circumstances.
Using our excellent facilities, trainees can rehearse and perfect even the most complex procedures.
The training allows staff to:
- increase the safety of patients
- practise dealing with errors
- improve their skills in managing patients.
Why have a dedicated simulation centre?
We have been using simulation to train healthcare professionals for several years.
At first, we took a manikin to operating theatres, labour wards, cardiac catheter laboratories and accident and emergency for training sessions lasting four to eight hours.
While this provided effective in situ training, it was time consuming to transport and set up the manikin. Also, the availability of venues could change: emergencies cropped up that might lead to training being cancelled at the last minute.
That's why we set up the specially equipped, hi-tech SaIL centre at St Thomas' Hospital.