Winner: Buckinghamshire New University
Buckinghamshire New University is one of the only UK universities to combine state-of-the-art simulation laboratories with a full-time moulage practitioner who is skilled in applying mock, and often gorily realistic, injuries for training purposes.
The simulation project bridges the gap between academic theory and the traditional placements experienced by nursing and health students. Students are given the opportunity to reflect on their practice in life-like learning scenarios which in turn makes their work placements more effective. This includes recreating infected wounds, scarred tissue and burns as well as body fluids such as vomit, blood and sputum to give our students the best possible sense of what it will be like to care for real patients once they qualify. No student is expected to rely on their imagination.
Students learn through an innovative combination of technology - with manikins that can be programmed to react like humans - and specialist moulage skills. This allows students to have first-time reactions to unpleasant and upsetting situations in a controlled environment and gives them the opportunity to reflect on these experiences when caring for patients on their placements and when they qualify.
All the simulations are created to meet the scenarios agreed between academic colleagues
The live simulations provide a valuable opportunity for self and peer-assessment as sessions are recorded using sophisticated audiovisual systems and played back during debriefings sessions. These simulated learning sessions enable students to gain comprehensive feedback whilst developing skills that could not be provided through traditional classroom-based teaching.
Runner up: De Montfort University
Audiology students at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) are benefiting from accessible clinical placements that also provide a valuable service to the local community through the Free Hearing Screenings initiative. Designed by Wendy Stevens, clinical learning co-ordinator and senior lecturer, and fellow audiology academics, this scheme partners with local charities and healthcare providers to give undergraduates the practical experience they need to become qualified audiologists. It also offers the local community support and advice for hearing problems.
Audiology students are given first-hand experience of working with local healthcare providers from the private and charitable sectors, as well as Leicestershire NHS, allowing them to network with professionals in their future field. Using free space in pharmacies, community centres and empty shop spaces, students create and learn in highly visible ‘pop-up’ Free Hearing Screening clinics for the public.
Under the supervision of Stevens, students conduct tests for community members who wish to have their hearing checked, or have been encouraged to do so by their local pharmacy or GP. If an individual is found to show some form of hearing loss, they are booked in for a further appointment in the audiology testing labs on DMU Campus, to identify the specific condition affecting them. This format allows students to gain practical experience of conducting basic screenings and more intensive tests.
Runner up: Cardiff Metropolitan University
The Postgraduate International Business Management course, offered by Cardiff Metropolitan University is like many in this field, dominated by international students recruited from around the world. In order to help students integrate, the university goal developed the Belonging Cube.
Students, prior to arrival, are requested to collect a series of images that they feel reflect different types or forms of belonging in a variety of situations or context. These images are then mounted on a card cube. Once the cube is constructed, students in small groups (as internationally mixed as possible) are asked to present their cubes and to discuss their photographs and the significance to them. Students are then asked to build a wall of culture, a tower of fears, and a pyramid of challenges. Participants explore the relationship of the cubes to one another, to show that although cultures may be different, hopes, fears and aspirations and challenges may be the same.
The Belonging Cube has been presented at a number of national conferences, such as the Association of Business Schools Conference in York 2015, and the Higher Education Academy Wales conference in Aberystwyth in 2014. It has formed the basis of a workshop delivered at Coventry Business School, with the aim of establishing a collaborative project looking at belonging, trust and effective collective learning.
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