INTERSIM CENTRE COMPLETES FIRST EVER TEACHING PROGRAMME 
24 February 2021
Despite the challenging COVID-19 environment, the KN Cheung SK Chin InterSim Centre has delivered important skills training to prepare medical students for their professional fields.
The aim of the Centre is to promote excellence in education among healthcare professionals through an inter-professional simulation-based approach that drives safe, effective and collaborative care now and in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the huge importance of simulated training.
At the beginning of February, the Centre completed its first ever simulation-based teaching programme for 235 final-year medical students. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many were not able to complete their clinical course requirements in 2020. In response, the InterSim Centre hosted the medical students throughout January to give them an opportunity to gain these clinical skills, through self-directed, independently booked, sessions.
Over 2,000 individual skills were developed and enhanced thanks to this new Queen’s facility.
The Queen’s InterSim team has worked hard to ensure that training was safe and accessible during the pandemic, ensuring students had access to the Centre, in person, enabling them to gain and practice a wide range of skills in a hospital environment.
Aiming to open InterSim after Easter, Professor Gerry Gormley said:
“Despite all of the challenges thrown our way, it has been hugely rewarding to see the positive experience provided to our final year medical students. Huge thanks to everyone for helping us get to this point.
“What we experienced over the last three weeks with our final year students has spurred us on for the future.
“The feedback has been humbling…and to a student – they all felt safe.”
Students gave the new teaching programme a resounding five-star rating:
“The learning environment was relaxed, informal yet organised and focused on the task at hand. The staff were there to make sure we had everything we needed, that we were safe and that we were getting the most out of the day!”
“This was a great experience! Very well laid out, felt very safe and the staff were very helpful! Booking experience was easy and clear. Access to equipment was great!”
“Booking was no problem at all! So grateful to have this session - coming up to finals for future it would be grateful to have longer access to the facilities or even access to a bed to practice examinations.”
“Fantastic! Booking was easy and the whole experience felt very well organised and safe. The new CSEC looks fantastic. The mannequins and station layout were very appropriate and the kind of things that I wanted to practice before OSCES! Thank you – really appreciate the effort that went in to organising this!”
“Very valuable experience to compensate for opportunities lost on placement.”
Once fully opened, the InterSim Centre will provide world-class facilities to further enhance the preparedness of Medical, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Nursing and Midwifery students’ for clinical practice. The Centre will allow students to enhance their clinical skills, in a safe environment, before they transfer to clinical practice.
The InterSim Centre will cover a range of environments where healthcare is provided – from a hospital ward, to a resuscitation suite, an outpatient department, and importantly, to a patient’s home environment.
Over £2m was raised for the KN Cheung SK Chin InterSim Centre, which is named in celebration of the parents of the lead donor who is a Queen’s medical graduate.
Find out more about the InterSim Centre and its work here.
To support health-related research projects at Queen’s, visit the Development and Alumni Relations Office website or contact Teresa Sloan, Head of Health Fundraising.
For enquiries about this story, or to submit graduate news items, please contact Gerry Power, Communications Officer, Development and Alumni Relations Office, Queen's University Belfast.
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