Clinical education
The FHFT simulation service is run by an expert team of simulation technicians, delivering a high quality service across the Trust sites at Frimley Park Hospital, Wexham Park Hospital and Heatherwood Hospital. The Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust simulation service runs across all three main trust sites, from Slough in the north to Frimley in the south. Our aim is to develop and deliver quality education by utilising simulated-learning techniques.
Our mission statement
To deliver high quality education through simulation in our dedicated sim suites and in-situ, to independent groups and inter-professional teams, to create opportunities across the Trust that will benefit staff learning and improve patient safety.
Simulation centres
The simulation centre at Frimley Park Hospital consists of a scenario room, a debrief/viewing room, and the control room.
The scenario room is set up as a standard medical bay which can act as a ward bay, ED bay, anaesthetics room or any other department bay. We use mannequins, such as the Laerdal SimMan 3G mannequin and Gaumard Victoria Maternity mannequin, to create high fidelity simulated patients. The room contains fully stocked trollies, including a crash trolley with live defibrillator, patient observation equipment that can be attached to the mannequin for results in real-time, as well as simulated fluids and medication, creating an environment similar to that which candidates are likely to experience on the job.
The control room has a one-way window for facilitators to utilise, simulating calling for advice or putting out a crash call. Our simulation technicians use software to control the mannequins and alter observations throughout the scenario, and AV equipment to steam the simulation to the debrief room for their colleagues to observe.
The debrief room has a projector and large screen which can be linked up to the computer in the room or a laptop for presentations, to the AV system showing the cameras and sound streaming from the scenario room and includes its own camera for Microsoft Teams meetings. A great space for teaching and post-simulation discussions/debriefs. It is also where we store more of our part-task trainers.
As well as utilising the simulation suite, we can also run in-situ simulations where we take our equipment into the hospital, further benefitting participants learning in their familiar environment.
The simulation centre at Wexham Park Hospital consists of three scenario rooms and two debriefing rooms.
Two of these scenario rooms are used for simulation with high-tech mannequins, primarily the Laerdal SimMan 3G mannequin, and contain fully stocked crash trolleys and difficult airway trolleys. Meanwhile, the third is a community room currently utilised for occupational therapy training, where it can be transformed into a bedroom, kitchen or bathroom based on the needs of the facilitators organising the session. The feeds of the cameras in the two main simulation rooms can be streamed to either of the two debriefing rooms, for candidate to observe their colleagues taking part in simulations. Furthermore, the two main scenario rooms are also both connected to one central operating room, meaning it is possible for two simulations to be running simultaneously, if necessary, as thee is a SimMan 3G mannequin in each room.
There are also multiple storage cupboards that store equipment necessary for simulations. This includes tracheostomy equipment, a Resuscitaire machine and part-task trainers, the most popular of which include birthing, chest drain, lumbar puncture and catheterisation trainers. New to the department there is a Newborn Tory mannequin from Gaumard, which can now be utilised for paediatric simulations.