“I know other centres in the UK and internationally tend to have one or two of these rooms. We have 11, which means we can do mass training not only for our core students but also NHS staff and industry.”
Staff said the main aim of SUSIM was not to replace the real world experiences students must have before they qualify, but to supplement them.
They said some students could get overwhelmed when they first experienced a real operating theatre or busy ward.
“If you’re not immersed in realistic surroundings you can get overloaded, what’s known as cognitive overload. And sometimes when we’re stressed we can even forget our own name,” said Ms Davies.
“But here we have the sights, the sounds, the smells of realistic environments and that helps our students remember what they’ve learnt and transfer that into practice.”
Another benefit, according to the students, is that they can learn from their mistakes without fear of causing harm.
“We have pre-briefs and debriefs. We talk about what we’ve learnt,” said student midwife Kellie Mills.
“But we have a phrase here – what happens in SUSIM stays in SUSIM – so it really is a protected environment.”