The Collegiate Wing, a 12-bed ward based at Sheffield Hallam’s Collegiate Campus, replicates a clinical setting and provides a safe environment for students to better develop their expertise, critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills.
The facility bridges the gap between on-campus and in-practice learning, and will help students build confidence and skills in dealing with situations they may not come across often in practice. Using simulated clinical settings also relieves some of the strain on healthcare settings providing the placements.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires nursing students to complete 2,300 hours of clinical learning during their course, a quarter (600 hours) of which can be within a simulated environment.
As a large provider of health and social care education in the UK, hundreds of Sheffield Hallam students will benefit from the new facility and gain significant experience of cross-discipline working practices.
Third-year nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and diagnostic imaging students are amongst the first to use the ward as part of their course.
Final year nursing student Terri Pollitt said: “The new mock ward has greatly benefited students in helping us to meet our proficiencies and competencies in nursing. It provides a safe, collaborative, and supportive learning environment for us to practice and refine our clinical skills, develop our professionalism and ethical decision-making, and undergo assessments for continuous improvement. I believe such simulated learning experiences will help better prepare student nurses for the challenges of real-world clinical practice and contribute to our success as competent and proficient nurses.”
The simulated ward is the latest development as part of Sheffield Hallam’s commitment to boost the NHS workforce, integrate research and innovation with local health services and collaborate with local communities to tackle health inequalities.
Professor Toni Schwarz, Dean of the College of Health Wellbeing and Life Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “Being supported by the University to develop a new ‘real world’ simulated space is such an exciting development. It will enable our students to immerse themselves in an environment which models realistic practice experiences. What this allows us to then experiment with is the rehearsal of activities and decision-making situations in a completely safe space.
“As we can make this a realistic experience, we can encourage the student to challenge their decision making and stretch their learning therefore creating an environment where they can grow in confidence. This is such a good grounding for preparing them for the myriad of practice experiences they will have during their course. That growth in confidence is something that our practice partners have positively commented on.”
