Simulation and Skills

Simulation and clinical skills are central to learning within the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Across our campuses, students engage in innovative, immersive, and evidence-based simulation-based education designed to prepare them for safe, effective, and compassionate professional practice.

School of Nursing and Midwifery

All pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes include simulated practice learning in line with Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements. Simulation supports students to develop clinical competence, professional identity, and confidence while placing patient safety, human factors, and teamwork at the forefront of learning.

Why simulation matters

Simulation provides students with structured opportunities to:

  • Practise clinical skills safely before applying them in practice
  • Integrate theory with practice and reduce the theory–practice gap
  • Develop decision-making, prioritisation, and situational awareness
  • Strengthen communication, teamwork, and leadership
  • Reflect on performance and learn from error in a supportive environment

By rehearsing both routine and complex scenarios, students are better prepared to deliver safe, high-quality care across a range of healthcare settings.

Our simulation environments

Simulation and clinical skills teaching is delivered across two campuses and four specialist buildings. While some inter-professional learning takes place in shared facilities, the majority of nursing and midwifery simulation and clinical skills education occurs in the Sheila Scott Building and the Duke’s Building, both designed to support large-scale, immersive learning.

A nurse in a blue uniform sits in a simulation room holding a clipboard and pen while speaking with a patient who is seated on a bed. Medical equipment and additional beds are visible in the background.

St John’s Campus: Sheila Scott Building

Core nursing and midwifery simulation hub

The Sheila Scott Building is a central hub for nursing and midwifery simulation and clinical skills education. It supports skills-based teaching, scenario-based simulation, and reflective learning.

The building includes a fully immersive cave environment, using projection technology to create realistic simulated settings such as home and community care, emergency scenes, and deteriorating patient environments.

From Spring 2026, the building will undergo partial remodelling to introduce realistic ward-based clinical environments, further strengthening authenticity and supporting patient safety–focused learning.

Severn Campus: Duke's Building

A modern grey-brick university building with large glass windows on a bright sunny day. Tall grasses and colourful plants fill the landscaped foreground, while a few people walk along the path beside the building.

Immersive ward environments

The Duke’s Building is a primary site for nursing and midwifery simulation and skills teaching. It contains two large simulated hospital wards, each accommodating up to 100 students.

Each ward includes individual bedside monitors, centrally controlled to support consistent teaching, observation, and feedback. These environments allow students to practise safely at scale while developing teamwork, communication, and situational awareness in realistic ward settings.

Severn Campus: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Building

A modern gold‑clad university building with large vertical windows on a bright sunny day, with the University of Worcester logo visible. Trees and landscaped planting line the pavement, and a person walks along the street in the foreground.

Inter-professional simulation

The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Building is predominantly home to the Medical School. Some nursing and midwifery simulation and skills teaching takes place here, particularly where there are opportunities for inter-professional learning.

Shared simulation activity supports understanding of professional roles and collaborative working, reflecting the realities of multidisciplinary healthcare practice.

Paramedic Science and immersive simulation

The Elizabeth Casson Building is used predominantly for Paramedic Science simulation, supporting high-fidelity, pre-hospital, and emergency care learning.

Opportunities for inter-professional education with nursing and midwifery students occur where appropriate. From Spring 2026, the building will also include a new immersive cave environment, supporting innovative simulated and immersive placement learning.

Teaching and learning through simulation

Simulation-based education ranges from foundational clinical skills teaching to complex, immersive scenarios involving responsive mannequins, simulated patients, and virtual simulation.

Scenarios are designed to support learning related to:

  • Patient deterioration and escalation
  • Sepsis, anaphylaxis, and acute medical emergencies
  • Maternity and neonatal care
  • Communication, leadership, and teamwork

Teaching team and learning design

Teaching is delivered by experienced academic staff and technical instructors, alongside skilled clinicians from practice who bring current clinical expertise into simulation sessions.

Our simulation and clinical skills technician team works in close collaboration with education staff to design, create, and maintain realistic learning environments. The team plays a critical role in preparing equipment, programming scenarios, supporting live simulation delivery, and continuously developing facilities to ensure safe, reliable, and high-quality learning experiences.

Two nurses in white uniforms review paperwork and a reference book in a clinical skills training room. A patient lies in a hospital bed in the background, surrounded by medical equipment and screens.

Learning with simulated patients

Alongside mannequin-based simulation, students also work with simulated patients to rehearse communication and professional skills with real people.

This enables students to:

  • Practise therapeutic and difficult conversations
  • Develop empathy, professionalism, and confidence
  • Receive feedback from a patient perspective

This approach ensures simulation addresses both the technical and human aspects of care, supporting person-centred and compassionate practice.

Co-creation with students and practice partners

Simulation scenarios are developed, reviewed, and refreshed collaboratively. Students and practice partners are invited to edit, contribute to, and co-create scenarios, ensuring learning remains current, relevant, and reflective of real clinical practice.

This partnership approach strengthens links between simulated learning and placement experience, while supporting patient safety and continuous improvement.

Human factors, patient safety and reflection

Simulation sessions are structured around briefing, scenario delivery, and facilitated debriefing. Debriefing supports reflection on:

  • Clinical decision-making and risk management
  • Communication and teamwork
  • Leadership, workload, and situational awareness
  • Human factors and patient safety

Simulation is also delivered through virtual simulation, extending learning beyond the physical environment and supporting flexible, accessible engagement.

Preparing students for practice

Simulation and clinical skills education is designed to complement practice learning in clinical placements. Through progressive exposure to realistic scenarios, students develop the confidence, competence, and adaptability required for professional practice.

By embedding human factors, teamwork, and patient safety throughout the curriculum, simulation prepares students for the complex, fast-paced, and collaborative nature of contemporary healthcare.