Bristol (UK)

Who are we

The Bristol Medical Simulation Centre offers a training facility that was the first of its kind in the UK. The original centre was opened at a dockside location near the Bristol General Hospital on January 27th 1997 by the then Chief Medical Officer, Sir Kenneth Calman KCB MD FRCS FRSE, but due to its success was quickly upgraded to a purpose built building in July 2001. The new centre is now housed in the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust, Education Centre on level 5, directly opposite the Bristol Royal Infirmary. It was established as a joint venture between the then United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust and the University of Bristol and was initially funded by the Charitable Trustees for the United Bristol Hospitals. BMSC remains unique as the most successful self-funding clinical simulation centre in the world.

Our Team

Bristol Medical Simulation Centre Directors:  

Dr Stephen Mather - Consultant Anaesthetist, Chairman of BMSC Board

Dr Mather is a Consultant in Perioperative medicine, with a special interest in paediatric and ophthalmic anaesthesia. He is an honorary Senior Lecturer for the University of Bristol (UK) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). Dr Mather has a large commitment to education and training, with 12 years experience in medical simulation and 12 years examining for the Royal College of Anaesthetists (UK).

Dr Andrew McIndoe - Consultant Anaesthetist

Dr McIndoe is a Consultant Anaesthetist with a special interest in simulation and education. He is an honorary Senior Lecturer for the University of Bristol and a national clinical lead for the e-learning Anaesthsia project.

Dr Mark Tooley -Consultant Clinical Scientist, Scientific Director, BMSC board  

Dr Tooley is Director of Research and Development in Bath's Royal United Hospital. He is head of the department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering in Bath, and holds honorary positions with Bath and Bristol Universities. He has been involved with BMSC since its inception in 1998 and has a strong interest in using medical simulation to make medicine safer and more effective. He has an active interest in education, training and research involving many different groups of staff, and holds fellowships with the IET, the IPEM and the IOP.

BMSC Operational Group:

Sr Sarah Sibley - Critical Care Nurse Educator

Sr Sibley is a Registered Nurse with 13 years experience in cardiac surgical nursing and cardiac critical care. She has gained 4 years experience as an education facilitator for scenario based cardiac services which included facilitating scenario based inter-professional courses at the BMSC. In March 07 Sr Sibley was appointed to the role of Senior Nurse/Educator at the BMSC where she continues to design and develop scenario based training courses using human patient simulators for the multi-professional healthcare team.

Dr Matt Cox - Medical Physics

Dr Rachael Craven - Consultant Anaesthetist

Mr Tom Creed - Consultant Gastroenterologist

Dr David Grant - Consultant Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

Sr Ann Miller - PICU

Dr Mark Scrutton - Consultant Anaesthetist

Mr Paul Sylvester - Consultant Surgeon

Mr Jon Teague - Senior Operating Department Practitioner

Dr Gareth Thorne - Medical Physics

Dr Nick Wharton - Consultant Anaesthetist

Sr Amanda Wilford - Nurse Educator

Mr Mark Wilford - Nurse Educator

Dr Karine Zander - Trainee representative

Bristol Based Team:

Ms Gerri Whitrow - Simulation Centre Manager

What we are using

Human Patient Simulators

METI and Laerdal Patient Simulators are central to the BMSC experience. We have adult, child and baby manikins that can be used to recreate clinical incidents and critical procedures. Elaborate functions are controlled from our adjacent control room, enabling wide ranging educational scenarios to be created and digitally archived, including:

• Crisis resource management
• Emergency Department procedures
• Critical care training in the ICU or PICU
• Basic science training for students
• Applied pharmacology courses
• Formative assessments for trainees    

What we are doing

The Bristol medical Simulation Centre has over 12 years experience in providing fist class training for all healthcare professionals (Pre and Post Registration) and external candidates. The Centre offers a high degree of flexibility making it an ideal venue for training courses tailor made to the needs of a wide range of medical professions and students. From refresher courses to tutorials or crisis re-enactment, all levels of expertise can benefit. We offer practitioners across all fields the opportunity to rehearse both simple and complex procedures as well as 'once in a life-time' crises, making them practiced and confident should a similar real life crisis arise.