THE UNIVERSITY of Reading will be home to a brand new clinical training facility for NHS staff, following an OfS grant, it has announced.
The training space will be created at the University of Reading, mimicking a real hospital ward, after funding was secured to provide much needed experience for students and NHS staff.
A £2.63m grant from the Office for Students means that the university can expand the existing facility on its Whiteknights campus to simulate a four-bed hospital ward.
The simulation will include hospital equipment and video link facilities, as well as consultation spaces.
The new education and training suite will be built to designs made by the university in partnership with the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust, intended to address the urgent need for additional medical and healthcare training spaces and physician’s programs.
The university says that enrolments for its undergraduate MPAS Physician Associate programme have grown five-fold since its launch in the 2020/21 period.
Professor Orla Kennedy, strategic partnership director for health at the University of Reading, said: “This training suite will help address the current shortage of medical professionals in the NHS by giving trainees and students insight into what it’s like to work in a real hospital ward.
“We have seen that there is growing demand among students for health and medical science courses, and this is an innovative way of ensuring they can start treating patients straight away when they begin work, alongside providing opportunities for continuing professional development of NHS staff.”
The university says that both it and RBFT will benefit from the space as the new facility will provide students with the opportunity to better prepare for clinical placements and future practice within a safe environment.
It says it will also enable the development of more extensive inter-professional education and support the skills development of RBFT employees and colleagues within the wider community.
