Northumbria University, Newcastle has been selected by NHS Blood and Transplant as a national training centre for organ donation.
The University will now
play a leading role in helping to train those working in this critical area,
with hundreds of specialist nurses and critical care doctors from across the UK
receiving the latest in simulation education training at Northumbria to boost
their skills.
The announcement is
timely as the University hosted the World Transplant Games Opening Ceremony on
Saturday 17 August in front of 2,500 spectators along with ongoing fixtures
including table tennis and badminton at its multimillion pound facility Sport
Central.
More than 1,500 people
from 59 countries around the world are taking part in the Games, which continue
until Saturday 24 August, competing in 16 sporting events across 13 venues in the
North East. All of the competitors have all either received transplants or are
from families who have chosen to donate organs.
NHSBT selected Northumbria
University to deliver some of this specialist training to health care
professionals over the next three years because of its expertise in simulation
education and its first-class health facilities.
Dr Alan Platt,
Associate Professor in Simulation-based Education at Northumbria University, said:
“The NHS Blood and Transplant service wants to ensure its staff are equipped
with the very latest skills, knowledge and theoretical thinking to deliver a
world class service.
“They recognise the
quality of the training we can provide here at Northumbria and we are delighted
to have been chosen as a national centre of excellence for organ donation training.”
Dr Platt leads the
University’s simulation training provision, which combines virtual, immersive
and augmented reality with computerised manikins and role-play using trained
actors, to create situations which are as close as possible to real-life.
He explains: “We will
be training the specialist nurses and doctors who are on the frontline of organ
donation with meaningful, practical and theoretical clinical practice which
will meet the aim of NHS Blood and Transplant in providing excellent care in
support of families considering organ donation and potential donors.
“It is poignant the
announcement comes as the University hosts some of the elite transplant
athletes from across the world who are here in the region for the World
Transplant Games.”
The training will be
delivered within the University’s Clinical Skills Centre – a state-of-the-art
facility within the University’s Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health. The University has invested heavily in recent years to ensure it can
provide the latest knowledge in technology enhanced learning to enable participants
to take part in virtual reality training exercises and the centre now includes an anaesthetic room,
operating theatre and recovery room, alongside hospital wards and a home
setting, observation suites and an immersive studio to provide a realistic
training environment.
As well as
Northumbria’s outstanding facilities, and contemporary technologies, its proven
track record in working in partnership with NHS organisations contributed extensively
towards it being chosen as a national training centre by NHS Blood and
Transplant.
Northumbria is embracing technology to be
at the forefront of research, education and knowledge exchange and this
collaboration fuses this ambition with that of NHS Blood and Transplant to
match world class performance in organ donation and transplantation.
Academic excellence is at the heart of all the
University’s activities and its expertise in educational programmes, simulation-based education and healthcare
practice compliments NHS Blood and Transplant’s expertise to enable the
delivery of high quality education and training programmes.
Dr Platt added: The
heart breaking scenarios which can lead to organ donation form many exercises
which healthcare professionals will be involved in during their course.
“As well as having to
plan for procedures involved in organ donation, the health care professionals
attending our programmes will also be taught to handle the emotional side of
their work, with actors being drafted in to act out parts of family members and
loved ones.”
An NHS Blood and
Transplant service spokesman said: “We
are delighted to be working alongside Northumbria University as one of our
centres for both Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation training and courses for
Intensive Care Medicine senior doctors. The state of the art facilities as well
as the expertise of Northumbria’s staff enable us to simulate, in as real way
as possible, both emotive communication scenarios and clinical situations that
enable delegates to both learn and gain confidence in their skills in a safe
and wholly supportive environment.”
There will be a
greater focus on organ donation next year with a law change in England. From spring
2020, organ donation in England will move to an ‘opt out’ system. It means that
all adults in England will be considered to have agreed to be an organ donor
when they die – unless they have recorded a decision not to donate or are in an
excluded group.
