Undergraduate Medical School

The Clinical Skills Area

Our clinical skills area provides a simulated clinical environment that grants our students vital access to:

• simulated ward areas and smaller examination rooms; available for students to practise clinical skills such as blood pressure monitoring, reflex testing etc.
• teaching equipment that includes:
  • Harvey the cardiovascular simulator which can mimic signs of 26 heart diseases as well as a 'normal' heart
  • head models which allow students to examine for eye and ear defects
  • model arms for practising techniques such as intravenous access

The Vocational Studies Suite

In our Vocational Studies Suite medical students can practise consulting in a realistic environment, interacting with actors in the roles of patients. The suite comprises 10 small group learning rooms equipped with audiovisual technology as well as two soft seating pre-consultation ‘waiting’ areas for the simulated patients. In addition, there is a resource room with teaching materials and videos.

Consulting rooms are positioned adjacent to small group learning rooms, where their classmates and tutors can observe their simulated consultations on a TV monitor.  These rooms also provide the opportunity for student-tutor encounters over a period of time that are essential to professional development.

As well as communication skills, the vocational studies suite is a base from which ethics, professional development and other aspects of doctors’ behaviour and attitudes are explored.

There are also a number of social spaces allocated throughout the skills area to allow students to meet on an informal basis.