Bristol (UK)

Who are we

Bristol Medical Simulation Centre

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Education Centre – Level 5, Upper Maudlin Street

Bristol, England, BS2 8AE

Tel +44 (0) 117 342 0108

Fax +44(0) 117 342 0108

E-mail: info@bmsc.co.uk

Website: www.bmsc.co.uk

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.

Apart from the centre based activities the in-situ arm of the centre delivering point of care simulation activities is developing rapidly allowing us to use our centre more effectively whilst performing systems trawling and process evaluation in our Hospitals.

Our Team

Bristol Medical Simulation Centre Lead Faculty:  

Dr Grant is a Consultant in PICU at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and the Director of the Bristol Paediatric Simulation Programme (BPSP) since 2007. Under his leadership the BPSP has developed to become one of the leading Paediatric Simulation Programmes internationally.

Dr Grant is involved in education and simulation leadership roles:

• Internationally as the Vice-President of the International Pediatric Simulation Society
• Nationally as the Chair of the UK PICS Simulation Special Interest Group the UK PICS Education & Scientific Committee
• Locally as Chair, Bristol Medical Simulation Centre Steering Group and Programme Director, Bristol Paediatric Simulation Programme

His interests are:

• Faculty training and development
• Simulation curriculum development, particularly in situ curricula
• Furthering international collaboration and research
• Creation of sustainable models of simulation education delivery
• Integration of simulation into curriculum delivery

Dr Mather is a Consultant in Perioperative medicine, appointed in 1984, 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 13 years experience in medical simulation and 12 years examining for the Royal College of Anaesthetists (UK).

• One of the original founding members of Bristol Medical Simulation Centre
• Past Chairman of BMSC Board on several occasions, and latterly the Operational Group
• He has been a visiting expert advisor in simulation to the Government in Singapore and advisor on development programmes for other simulation centres.
• He is a past Council member of the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM)

His main interests in simulation include:

• Pharmacological modelling
• Manikin hardware development
• Team training
• Human Factors
• Multidisciplinary faculty development
• Sustainable business models for simulation

Sister 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 2007 Sister Sibley was appointed to the role of Senior Nurse/Educator at BMSC where she continues to design and develop scenario based training courses using human patient simulators for the multi-professional healthcare team.

Dr McIndoe is a Consultant Anaesthetist at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust 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 Anaesthesia project. He is a current examiner for the Royal College of Anaesthetists. and is section lead for simulation as an assessment tool in the Primary FRCA examination

BMSC Operational Group:

Dr Mark Tooley - Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Research - Royal United Hospital, Bath

Kay Collings – Assistant Director of Clinical Skills Services

Joanna Bruce-Jones - Clinical Skills & Resuscitation Services Lead

Dr Rachael Craven - Consultant Anaesthetist

Dr Mathew Molyneux – Consultant Anaesthetist

Mr Tom Creed - Consultant Gastroenterologist

Dr Mark Scrutton - Consultant Anaesthetist

Mr Paul Sylvester - Consultant Surgeon

Dr Karine Zander – Consultant Anaesthetist

Dr Nick Wharton - Consultant Anaesthetist

Dr Pat Weir – Consultant Anaesthetist

Dr Gareth Thorne - Medical Physics

Sister Amanda Wilford - Nurse Educator

Mr Mark Wilford - Nurse Educator

Mrs 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. The functions of the high fidelity simulators 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  

Other simulators are used on the wards and in the operating theatres and intensive care units for workplace team training. 

What we are doing

The Bristol medical Simulation Centre has over 13 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. We are developing our mobile resources to take simulation to the workplace, enabling staff to train as a team in their usual and familiar work environment.