New nursing facility to be opened at Stirling University

Dec 9 2011 by Johnathon Menzies, Stirling Observer Friday

A NEW £330,000 nursing facility at the University of Stirling will be officially opened next week.

Scotland’s chief nursing officer Ros Moore, will be the guest of honour at a ceremony to mark the unveiling of the campus’s health skills centre on Wednesday.

The medical hub has been designed to allow students to train in a hospital-like environment.

Life-sized manikins will be used as patients and the facility is covered by video cameras so that students can be filmed and coached during their training.

Plans are also in place to use virtual reality software, although the state-of-the-art technology is not set to be fully implemented until spring next year.

Professor William Lauder, head of the university’s school of nursing, midwifery and health, said: “We are delighted that the chief nursing officer will officially open our new health skills centre and will see the valuable training that will be undertaken here to help produce nursing staff of the highest calibre.”

Ms Moore is responsible for providing national professional policy and organisational advice on nursing, midwifery and public health nursing matters within the Scottish Government and to NHS Scotland.

She also heads work to prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infections.