03.02.2012
Thomas, Tony and Sinead from the Clinical Skills Simulation Resource Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery visited the Wenckebach Skills Centre in Groningen, The Nedtherlands January 2012 on a fact finding visit and setting up links with a simular skill teaching area.
Groningen is the pre-eminent student city and is justly known as one of the best and amusing cities for studying in the Netherlands.
The UMCG is the regional center for education and training in the field of
health care in the north of the Netherlands. This does not only entail
medical education at a university level and the training of medical specialists.
Equally important is the vast array of nursing and other care trainings. With
this large offering, the UMCG makes a significant contribution to the training of
well qualified workers for the growing demand for care. The UMCG offers
expertise both in care and in training for care. It also initiates educational
innovations and increasingly cooperates with other care or education organizations
in the north of the Netherlands. Finally, the UMCG pioneers in new jobs and
functions in care and in the discussion on the reshuffling of responsibilities in
health care.
The faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Groningen is the second oldest medical faculty in The Netherlands. Like the university, it was established in 1614. Ever since the foundation of the Groningen University Hospital in 1797, hospital and faculty have been cooperating closely. The Faculty of Medical Sciences has two tasks: providing medical scientific education and carrying out medical scientific research.
The Skills team in Groningen cater for the training and updating of the medical and nursing staff and also facilitate the theatre cleaning staff in their purpose built simulation wing.
This centre in the north of the Netherlands is primarily involved in continuing skills education for hospital staff through simulation.
Their facilities include operating theatres, high dependency units, ward environments and haptic simulators. Their full body simulators are similar to our own and include SimMan™ and METI mannequins, using software similar to ourselves and encountering similar challenges. The main purpose of our visit was to see this operational centre using B-line Medical’s Simcapture and Simbridge software, the system we hope to use in our new simulation suite. Both the centre manager Sip Zwerver and the technical manager Camiel Elsinga provided us with a comprehensive introduction to the centre and the software. The opportunity enabled us to view the software in action with experienced users of the B-line software and to establish links with a leading centre in the field of clinical simulation education.
