It’s one of the largest employers in the county, with responsibilities across generations and specialties. Yet the OUH Trust does not have a dedicated technical skills space. We need a space where where trainees can learn with and from each other, and trainers can provide quality simulation to support clinical training
Great work is happening in many small pockets throughout the trust, but not with the frequency and predictability that trainees can depend on it. We need space and support to run efficient programs, to scale and to grow. Each specialty should not need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to providing fundamental techniques in the delivery of a modern medical training programme
There are huge gaps in simulation mapping to curricula. We need a hub that provides when someone finds a niche which simulation can fill, so they can focus on solving the clinical problem and not worry about the space, maintenance, equipment, funding, and other obstacles
Independent, directed, deliberate practice to support teaching and training goals. We do it with knowledge, why not technical skills? We need a space we can drop-in as easily as a library to support all types of skills needed for medicine, not just the ones that can be printed on a page.
Doctor literally means teacher. But for too long teaching and training have not been rewarded commensurate with this fundamental status in the title that defines us. Too often it falls on a handful of ‘nice’ people supporting a creaking system. Simulation needs to professionalise and with that; validation, accreditation, and eventually remuneration.
Boot camps are just a way of absolving responsibility. Try recalling a technique on-call in the middle of the night that you did once 7 months ago: confident? We need opportunities for repeated exposure throughout training to allow skills to grow not decay
As well as providing courses and producing award-winning research output, the Skills Lab is a space to nurture and develop faculty who provide technical skills, and a hub to develop simulation-based education within the Trust and beyond. Please explore to find out more about what is going on at OxSTEALTH.