What is simulation-based education (SBE)?

Becoming a health or social care practitioner requires the development of new knowledge and skills to support quality care provision, develop relationships and provide essential care.

These skills can be challenging to learn in the real world, which is where simulation-based education (SBE) can be useful.

SBE is a technique that has been used for over a century in medical and health and social care education.

It is firmly embedded into programmes in the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care. Our aim is to use SBE to help develop confident and competent graduates who feel prepared to make a positive contribution to the future health and social care workforce.

The benefits of simulation-based education

SBE provides learners with the opportunity to learn and refine new knowledge, skills and attitudes, which are practiced in a safe, realistic environment with the support of skilled facilitators and other learners. The experiences are engaging, interactive and replicate the complexities of the real world.

It allows learners to develop and rehearse the skills required to meet the requirements for future health and social care careers.

SBE allows students to develop a range of technical and non-technical skills. 

Technical aspects could include CPR or handwashing, and non-technical skills may cover communication, leadership, team working and decision-making.

We also provide an opportunity for reflection in the form of a facilitated debrief after every simulation experience. During the debrief we help you to cement the learning, develop your own insight, enable action planning and encourage the application of skills to real-world situations to enhance your future practice.

Our Simulation Facilities

Our simulation facilities are designed to replicate real-world scenarios in a safe and supportive environment. Features include: bespoke video observation, live streaming and recording equipment, providing sophisticated analysis and debriefing.

Social Development Laboratory (The Flat)

Many people receive care in their own homes. To prepare for this, our Social Development Laboratory is a realistic home environment with a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and living room.

It has fully functioning equipment and props to recreate home-based scenarios to support the development of communication, empathy and listening skills and quality health and social care provision.

There is a tiered lecture theatre behind a one-way mirrored glass wall so learners can observe live scenarios and provide peer support and feedback in the debrief following simulation activities.

Simulation Rooms

SBE is used to prepare learners for working in hospitals and acute settings. Our Simulation Rooms are realistic clinical environments that enable learners to practice their skills in a real-world setting.

The two high-tech Simulation Rooms are fitted with the latest clinical simulation equipment and house responsive high-tech human patient simulator manikins.

These realistic manikins are operated covertly from sound-proof Control Rooms with one-way mirrored glass, creating an extremely realistic experience.

Learners in the Simulation Rooms can access instant feedback and physiological data to enable them to fully interact with our patient simulator manikins to assess, diagnose and treat the patients successfully.

We also work with people who take on the role of service users and relatives (simulated people, SPs) and are trained to provide person-centered feedback to our learners during the debrief.

The CAVE
The CAVE being showcased

The CAVE is an interactive room that can replicate any physical environment virtually, through 360 degree sight and sound.

The CAVE can support learning as it replicates hard-to reach environments, such as football stadia, to create realistic scenarios that learners may face in their professional practice.

Alongside the CAVE, learners can utilise our head-mounted Virtual Reality (VR) equipment (HTC Vive and ClassVR headsets) to enable individual bespoke VR experiences.

Physiotherapy Practical Rooms
Students learning in the Physio Practical Rooms

Our Physiotherapy Practical Rooms provide our learners with the opportunity to develop practical skills and techniques during simulated patient scenarios.

We have six Physiotherapy Practical Rooms, an electrotherapy room and physiotherapy gym.

All of our rooms are equipped with all the resources required for physiotherapy interventions, such as patient assessment, exercise therapy and musculoskeletal manipulation techniques.

Clinical Skills Rooms
Students using the Clinical Skills Rooms

Our Clinical Skills Rooms provide our learners with the opportunity to practice interaction with patients and the healthcare team.

This includes opportunities to rehearse important communication skills and practical activities to enable learning about effective care provision.

Imitating hospital ward environments, our two Clinical Skills Rooms include all of the relevant equipment and props required so that learners can practice essential technical and non-technical skills.

These might include communication skills, such as listening and empathy, alongside clinical skills; for example: hand washing, infection control, physiological observations, moving and handling, basic life support (CPR), delivering injections, inserting catheters, taking observations and practicing drug administration.

Birley Place

Birley Place

Birley Place is a virtual community, which enables our learners to explore the complexity of individuals and families lives, whilst working as a team to learn how to support health and social care services. Click 'Play' on the map to find out more.

Study with us

Study with us

Find out more about our simulation postgraduate course.

Our expertise

Our teaching team are experienced and supportive academics who are active researchers in SBE in the UK and internationally.

Our staff, Programmes and simulation centre are accredited by the North West Simulation Education Network (NWSEN).

Academics in our SBE team have been involved in a range of projects, including:

  • investigating Simulated Patient (SP) education and training
  • developing the SP Common Framework
  • co-authoring the national guidance on the safe delivery of SBE during COVID-19 restrictions