ALEX, the AI Patient Communication Simulator, is proving especially popular, chatting with students as a real patient would, and can even be programmed to be challenging or bad tempered.
Darlington College welcomed its first cohort of T Level Health students in September, and they’ve had a wonderful time getting to know their new simulation suite, supplied by Simulaids.
Their range of manikins include TERi and DANi, the R42 bariatric manikin and Rescue Randy, which enable a wide range of learning with patients as diverse as an elderly person and tattooed teenager to a clinically obese patient and a baby.
Students can experience feeding patients, making beds with someone in them, taking vital signs such as blood pressure, handling the manikins using hoists and wheelchairs, as well as taking ‘blood’ and witnessing patient self-harm scars.
But it’s ALEX who is proving the biggest hit.
The T Level course requirements strongly recommend a responsive manikin for teaching the course’s Technical Qualification, and that is exactly what ALEX is. As well as enabling practical clinical skills, ALEX also helps students hone their person-centred care protocols, acting as a patient in a simulated GP consultation. But, as pupils have found out, ALEX is not always the model patient.
Scarlet Wilson, 16, who hopes to be a midwife or physiotherapist one day, said:
“The AI manikins are incredible, the way they interact with us is amazing, though they can be a bit rude. The course is really practical, which helps you understand what you want to do. You are in an accurate setting and actually feel what it’s like.”
T-level programme leader for health and social care Sarah Lloyd said:
“These new facilities, complete with the AI manikins, make teaching so much easier. In the past I have been telling students ‘This is what it will be like’. Now they can experience it for themselves.”
Simulaids have been supplying cutting edge products for medical simulation for over 20 years. Founded by a paramedic in 2000, we’re trusted by NHS Trusts and medical schools across the country, as well as a host of life saving organisations including the Fire Service and St John’s Ambulance.
And, since the advent of the T Level Health course, we have quickly become a leader in supplying schools and colleges with realistic equipment for simulated wards and suites.
Ryan Young, Simulaids Managing Director, said:
“It’s wonderful to see so many young people excited about a career in health and taking their first steps through the new T Level course. We’re so pleased to be able to help by supplying some of the best simulation products in the world for sixth formers in the UK. We hope that ALEX and other manikins can inspire the next generation of clinicians our country needs so much.”
Browse our T Levels shop to find out more.
T Levels are a new work-focused alternative to A Levels for young people after they complete their GCSE’s. Students undertake a technical qualification, equivalent to 3 A Levels, with an extensive placement with a real employer.
Called a ‘revolution in technical education’, the Health T Level was launched in 2021 and is now being taught in over 100 schools and colleges in the UK.
Attracting more apprentices is a key aim of the NHS workforce plan, and it’s hoped that the combination of technical qualifications and practical experience will give learners everything they need to gain entry into a career in health or higher-level study.
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