5 June 2007

10 Year Celebration of the Clinical Skills Centre - ‘Partnerships and Collaborations’

Photocall, 11:50am on Wednesday 6th June

The Clinical Skills Centre, a collaboration which promotes standards of skills in medical practice for nurses doctors and dentists celebrates its tenth anniversary tomorrow.

The Centre has provided state of the art educational facilities for students and practitioners since it officially opened in 1997, with the backing of the University of Dundee’s Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing Schools, NHS Tayside, NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

The celebrations include talks from representatives of all the major partners in the Centre as well as Sir Kenneth Calman who officially opened the building ten years ago. Also speaking will be Dr Jean Ker, Director of the Clinical Skills Centre, Professor Irene Leigh of the University of Dundee, Professor Tony Wells of NHS Tayside and Mrs Anne Markham Chair of NHS Education for Scotland.

There will also be clinical skills presentations of the latest research from the Centre. Those attending will have the opportunity to observe demonstrations of the latest innovations in teaching and learning using simulation. These will include opportunities to see how healthcare practitioners are taught to make safe decisions about patient care and how to prioritise their time on a busy ward or surgery. The simulated patients who are volunteers who take on illness roles to prepare the students for practice will be attending to answer questions and recruit new volunteers to the programme. Medical and nursing students will be showing attendees how they learn resuscitation skills and how they are learning to be teachers as part of the "Heartstart for Schools" campaign.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

The Clinical Skills Centre was opened with the collective support of FMDN, Eastern Postgraduate Dentistry and Nursing, Tayside University Hospital Trust, Support of local Charitable Trusts. It was officially opened by Sir Kenneth Calman (then CMO, Department of Health, London) on Wednesday 4 June 1997. The popularity of the Centre meant that in October 2002 an extension was built to cater for new equipment and increased numbers of students using the facilities. It not only meets but has anticipated the requirements of the different health care professional groups at all levels of practice. It successfully represents collaboration between the UofD, NHS and NES.

For media enquiries contact:
Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk