23 November 2011
Opening of Dow Clinical Simulation Suite
Photo/filming opportunities:
12pm on Friday, 25th November. Sir Kenneth Calman will be delivering an opening presentation and opening the Dow Clinical Simulation Suite.
12.20pm on Friday, 25th November. Demonstrations of the simulation activities hosted at the suite will be taking place.
A £1million state-of-the-art facility to train medical, nursing and dental students to deal with the myriad situations facing them in practice and ensure patient safety will be opened in Dundee later this week.
The Dow Clinical Simulation Suite is part of the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine at Ninewells Hospital. Located within the Clinical Skills Centre, the pioneering new facility will officially be opened on Friday, 25th November by Sir Kenneth Calman, the former Chief Medical Officer of Scotland.
The Dow Clinical Simulation Suite is named in honour of Professor David Dow, former Master of Queen's College, Dundee, and his wife Dr Agnes Dow, both long-standing benefactors of the University of Dundee. Their philanthropic work is carried on today by the Dow Memorial Trust which has provided £600,000 of funding for the suite.
The Dow Trustees, along with representatives of the University and NHS Tayside will join Sir Kenneth for the opening ceremony. The remaining funding of more than £300,000 came from NHS Tayside.
The suite enables students and healthcare practitioners to rehearse their standards of clinical practice in a realistic environment. This unique facility has the potential to not only prepare healthcare practitioners but enable the NHS to redesign systems of care and patient safely.
It features a six-bed hospital ward, three examination rooms and a High Dependency Unit, all built and equipped to the latest NHS standards. Specialist IT, audio and visual technologies allows all activity within the suite to be recorded for the review and storage of both individual student and team practice.
Volunteers act as simulated patients on their health journey from initial assessment as an outpatient, through admission and treatment in hospital and on to follow-up care after discharge.
Demonstrations of neonatal high dependency, acute medical, and other simulation exercises will take place as part of the opening ceremony. An example of the video debriefing given to students as performance evaluation will also take place.
Working with simulated patients in scenarios commonly encountered by healthcare practitioners brings an added dimension to the training of healthcare professionals, according to Professor Jean Ker, Director of the Clinical Skills Centre.
'The Dow Clinical Simulation Suite is a wonderful facility because it allows students to bring together all their skills and practice them safely in a healthcare environment, which prepares them for the workplace,' she said.
'Medical students must obviously learn the theory that underpins their professional role, but putting that into practice is an entirely different proposition. Dealing with patients and performing procedures on them brings entirely new challenges and tests not only their technical, but also their communication, patient care and decision making skills.
'Our video debriefing rooms help us chart their progress as they move through the years of their course. We can sit down with students and identify both what they did well and the areas for improvement.
'The suite gives them a clear idea of what it means to be in a busy NHS environment and give them more responsibility than they would during their on-ward training. The overall aim is to reduce variations in the standards of care delivered, which is the best way of improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.'
The suite is indistinguishable from a functioning hospital, and is fitted out exactly as Ward 12 at Ninewells is to ensure authenticity. The versatility of the facility is such that it is possible to replicate the setting of Accident and Emergency, General Practice, High Dependency, Acute Medical Admission, Neo-natal Resuscitation and surgical units for training purposes.
Students also use fully functioning NHS IT systems at the suite so they practice not only procedures and patient care but also how to record information relating to admissions, treatment, medication and discharges. An equipment room allows them to set up for procedures, while all activity can be monitored from a viewing room from where tutors follow and analyse the students work.
Contextual learning is a major feature of the training provided within the Clinical Skills Centre, and the new facilities will greatly enhance the range of simulation activities and teaching, providing students with a unique insight into modern healthcare practice.
Professor Ker said the success of the suite rested on the volunteers who give up their own time to work with the students. Mannequins are only used for certain specialist procedures, such as surgical training, so the majority of time the students work with members of the local community, which helps to bring the students’ education to life.
'The simulated patients learn to describe symptoms that our healthcare students will then be required to cope with,' explained Professor Ker. 'When staff are working in a clinic they don’t know what they will face during a shift and we have tried to replicate this unpredictability.
'This teaches the students to think on their feet and deal with situations safely as they develop. The simulated patients are given a variety of scripts. Some will present certain symptoms, which students will diagnose and treat, while others might collapse and the students will have to deal with that situation when already pressured by a full case load.
'We have more than 100 volunteers who act as simulated patients. They are made up with cuts, bruises and other features that help us create realistic and challenging scenarios for our students. Our volunteers are given training to ensure the simulation is as realistic as possible, as this is vital to the success of the students’ training.
'The value of this kind of learning cannot be underestimated. I cannot thank the volunteers enough for what they do. The give up a lot of their time, and are very dedicated and excellent with the students. The majority of them have received treatment at Ninewells in the past and wanted to give something back.'
'I would also like to thank our funders for helping to make this a reality. The Dow Clinical Simulation Suite will significantly enhance the provision of skills education in Dundee.'
Notes to editors:
Professor David and Doctor Agnes Dow
The Dow Clinical Simulation Suite within the Clinical Skills Centre at Ninewells has been named after Professor David Rutherford Dow and Doctor Agnes Morton Dow following the donation of around £600,000 from the Dow Memorial Trust to the construction, fitting-out and support of the new suite.
Both David and Agnes Dow had close connections to the University in Dundee. David held the chair of Cox Professor of Anatomy from 1925 until his retiral in 1958. Born in Crail, David graduated from St Andrews University in 1911 and, after posts as House Surgeon in Dundee Royal Infirmary and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, he became Ship’s Surgeon on the Cunard liner, Mauretania. His next post was as an assistant - and then lecturer - in Regional Anatomy at United College, University of St Andrews before being appointed to the chair at University College, Dundee (then part of St Andrews University). When University College became Queen’s College in 1954, David Dow was its first Master, and also continued teaching anatomy until he retired.
After his death in 1979, his obituary in the Journal of Anatomy noted that Professor Dow was 'fatherly, outwardly reserved, undeviating from his sense of duty and a believer in thrift'. He was an accomplished and innovative teacher and an entertaining lecturer who was well respected and much loved by his students. On one occasion, he invited a lady contortionist who was appearing at the Palace Theatre to give a demonstration on the lecture bench, while his Burke and Hare Lecture was a favourite with students. Professor Dow’s academic research achievements were recognised by his being made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and being awarded an honorary degree from St Andrews.
Dr Agnes Watson Dow (née Morton) was one of the most generous and understanding benefactors of the University of Dundee. She graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1923 with an arts degree, and then trained as a teacher. In 1925 she returned to her parents’ home in Anstruther and there met her future husband. Professor Dow encouraged Agnes to return to University to study medicine and, after graduating in 1934, worked at Dundee Royal Infirmary before being appointed Medical Officer to the Dunfermline College of Physical Education where she was to remain until 1954. While holding this post, she also took on lecturing commitments at the College. In 1942, Agnes and David married. In later years she told the story of how she became engaged. Having known each other for 17 years, it was her decision to join the WAAF that 'finally prompted Davy to pop the question'.
When Professor Dow became Master of Queen’s College, Dundee in 1954, she took on a new role, taking a special interest in the welfare of the students and supported their musical and sporting societies. In 1968, as one of its first acts, the newly created University of Dundee recognised Agnes Dow’s long and generous service to the University community by conferring an honorary degree on her.
Dr Dow was a remarkable and warm, affectionate lady. After her husband died in 1979, she continued to take an interest in the University’s affairs until she passed away in 1998.
It is fitting that the Dows will long continue to be remembered in the University. During their lives they made many generous donations, including a splendid collection of table silver. Today, their benefactions continue through the Dow Memorial Trust, to which Agnes Dow left the bulk of her estate. The aim of the Trust is to benefit teaching in the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry in Dundee. Over the past ten years or so, the Trust has awarded several scholarships a year to needy medical and dental students when they enter the University. It has funded the student support service in the School of Medicine and has made numerous other awards. Its funding of the Clinical Simulation Suite, and the associated post of Education Manager, is its largest single award to date.
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