Caerleon Clinical Simulation Suite

The Caerleon Clinical Simulation Suite provides a realistic environment in which students can develop their technical skills and practice safe and effective patient care.

The suite closely resembles a real hospital ward, including the increasingly sophisticated technology that is found in modern day healthcare settings as well as simulated patients. This combination allows our midwifery and nursing students to experience all aspects of a functioning hospital ward.

By practising the full range of skills required of them in a controlled and safe environment, our students are able to develop their confidence and expertise. Access to such facilities is crucial for patient safety.

The suite is comprised of several stations, each fulfilling a specific purpose.

• Bay 1 is a Children's Ward - primarily but not exclusively used by our child nurses.
• Bay 2 is our High Dependency Unit, in which students might practise intubation, CPR and intravenous access – procedures which could not be carried out safely in a real-life setting.
• The Nurses Station demonstrates the way in which students are expected, when using the Suite, to act as they would on a real ward, and fulfil all elements of their role.
• Bay 3: Adult Ward - hosts SimMom and SimNewB, incredibly valuable tools to help midwifery students prepare to care for women in labour and manage both birth and post-birth scenarios.
• The Sluice Room is where students will come to prepare injections and collect the materials they need for bedside treatment.
• Bay 4: Adult Ward is most frequently used for students to work through clinical scenarios using each other as patients.
• The Briefing Room enables both peer and self-assessment, using the Suite's SMOTS system to broadcast skills sessions on a digital presentation screen.
• Communications Booths allow students to practice vital communications skills, allowing them to film sessions for review at a later time.

Patient simulators

We have six patient simulators, each of which can manifest vital signs, clinical signs and symptoms.

The 'Sim Family' (two SimMen, SimMom, SimJunior, SimBaby and SimNewB) all help teach the core skills of airway, breathing, cardiac and circulation management. They each have a right arm dedicated to IV skills that allows cannulation, phlebotomy, drug administration and infusion. Other features include interchangeable pupils, lung, bowel and heart sounds, palpable pulses and recordable blood pressures. 

The patients can be remotely pre-programmed or adapted throughout the skills session via a laptop and microphone. In this way, they offer facilitators the ability to provide realistic and challenging scenario-based simulations to test students' critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills, and give immediate feedback to interventions by students.

Students also have the opportunity to practice infrequently occurring scenarios, which prepares them for the unusual or difficult cases they may face in practice. 

SimMan

SimMan, located within the High Dependency Unit bay, is a full body adult patient simulator with a realistic anatomy and clinical functionality. This enables a wide range of nursing interventions to be practiced in a realistic but safe environment.

His airway features include an obstructed airway, tongue oedema and endotracheal intubation.

SimJunior

SimJunior represents a child of around 6 years old that simulates a wide range of conditions from a healthy, talking child to an unresponsive, critical patient with no vital signs.

SimBaby

SimBaby is a full scale infant patient simulator which allows the student to perform relevant paediatric emergency skills and scenarios. 

As with the rest of the Sim Family he has a realistic airway system which allows for accurate simulation of all relevant scenarios and life-like infant breathing patterns and complications, bringing realism to the infant simulation experience.

SimMom

SimMom is an advanced full-body interactive birthing simulator used mainly in the midwifery branch of education, though she can also be used for non-obstetric training as well as working as a pregnancy simulator. 

She provides realistic practice of multiple delivery positions such as supine, all fours and legs in stirrups, although she also assists in the teaching of manoeuvres, teamwork, leadership and communication skills in a risk-free environment. 

She comes complete with a birthing baby which can be fully manipulated to allow all manoeuvres required during deliveries, including normal, breech presentation, shoulder dystocia, cord prolapse and forceps delivery to name a few. 

Using the vital signs monitors, students can view all vital signs of the mother along with Electronic Foetal Monitoring for added realism.

SimNewB

SimNewB is used alongside SimMom, and is a fully interactive simulator with new-born traits, ideal for training for the specific needs of newborns.

SimNewB represents a full term baby weighing 7lbs and has various pre-programmed patient conditions ranging from a limp, cyanotic new-born with no vital signs to a moving crying new-born. The umbilicus has a lifelike pulse that can be assessed, cut and catheterised for IV access.

SimNewB is controlled by a SimPad which is a touch screen tablet designed for ease of operation and to make operation more mobile.

This simulator has all the airway, breathing and circulation features of the rest of the Sim Family but with extra features such as meconium suctioning module and cyanosis.

The SimNewB has moving limbs and can simulate limp, tone, spontaneous motion and seizure.  There are also a range of vocal sounds such as grunt breathing, crying or hiccups all of which make for more authentic scenarios.