This new equipment of excellence will allow the continuous updating of specialists and will encourage the spirit of research, innovation and continuous training of healthcare professionals. Companies, organisations, local councils and other health and hospital centres will be able to use the SimHUB for staff requiring basic healthcare training
The new Advanced Medical-Surgical Simulation Centre (SimHUB), within the Bellvitge University Hospital, has been created with the aim of becoming a platform of reference and excellence for continuous professional and academic training. Healthcare professionals, both medical and specialised healthcare professionals, as well as all staff requiring basic healthcare training, will be able to get training in technical and non-technical skills at the new centre. To this end, state-of-the-art equipment and customised specific scenarios will be available.
This new equipment will offer a transversal service to the HUB, as well as to Viladecans Hospital, the ICS South Metropolitan Primary Care teams and the University of Barcelona. It will be available on demand for training in companies, sports and social organisations, town councils and other hospitals in the region.
Training in both technical and non-technical skills
The SimHUB has a surface of 500 m2 within the facilities of Catalonia’s best prepared hospital for highly complex surgery. The equipment has eight specific simulation rooms for critical patients, surgical endoscopy, non-surgical endoscopy, traumatology and microsurgery. In addition, practice and training in minimally invasive surgery and robotics will be carried out.
The critical patient simulation with three dedicated classrooms will also allow medical and nursing professionals to recreate real-life situations of critical patient management. These include the care of patients on ECMO for oxygenating blood outside the body.
The SimHUB will also be able to connect to all the operating theatres in the surgical block, as well as the cabinet area thanks to the audio-visual system available in the hospital.
In terms of non-technical skills, there are two clinical simulation rooms, two multifunction rooms and a clinical classroom with a capacity for 20 to 25 attendees. This last space is equipped with an audio-visual system that allows the trainers to share provide their attendees with the training recordings along with the images from the simulators and vital signs.
In parallel, communication skills will be boosted for both the interaction among professionals and the interaction professional-patient. Similarly, decision-making will also be enhanced. In order to do so, specific workshops simulating medical, nursing, physiotherapy, psychology, dietetics, podiatry and mutual labour consultations will be prepared.
Increased patient safety and improved training quality
"In addition to increasing patient safety, the SimHUB will also improve training quality, since speciality-related training itineraries will be held", according to Dr Ricard Ramos, director of the Centre for Advanced Medical and Surgical Simulation and also director of the UB - HUB Chair in Robotic Surgery.
The creation of an Advanced Medical-Surgical Simulation Centre (SimHUB) within the Hospital will also provide "a protected space for the recreation and simulation of various healthcare and surgical activities, so that they can be evaluated in a controlled situation. It will also allow to increase legislative compliance, research into medical devices and the development of patents, as well as validating the usefulness of medical devices already on the market", said the Centre's director.