SWS Clinical Skills and Simulation

LCD projectors and laptops are located in all of the centre’s debrief rooms and come as standard for each booking. The skills labs and the simulation labs all have large-screen TVs that can be used for presentations and video. Laptops are available within the centre for use with these. Videoconference and teleconference facilities are available on enquiry. Internet access is available with prior arrangement. We are able to livestream video and audio from the simulation spaces to one or many of the debrief rooms simultaneously. 

Thanks to Liverpool Hospital, the centre hosts Australia’s first standalone dV-Trainer, a specialised simulator that teaches trainees the baseline skills for robotic surgery using the da Vinci Si Surgical System. Along with a laparoscopic team trainer, for the first time, this allows  Southern Hemisphere trainees complete access to MScore proficiency-based system outside the operating theatre.

Built on a compact, portable hardware platform, the dV-Trainer provides access to training when and where its most convenient. Numerous validation studies have been completed that report that the dV-Trainer closely reproduces the look and feel of the da Vinci system. 

The trainer’s MSim platform powers many exercises of increasing complexity, providing the most realistic and life-like simulation available. The centre couples this with the opportunity to extend the benefits of simulation to include team training with the Xperience Team Trainer and procedure specific content using Maestro AR. 

Trainees can export their competency data to the MScore portal for reports on the activities that have been completed on the simulator. 

Gaining access

Trainees from Australia and the region are welcome to access the da Vinci system. Requests for access can be made by emailing the centre. 

Trainees have access to a range of MSim curricula including: 

• da Vinci overview and basic skills training:  

• surgeon console overview

• EndoWrist manipulation

• camera and clutching.

• advanced surgical skills training: 

• needle control and needle driving

• suturing and knot tying

• energy and dissection

• games.  

Users can also access Maestro AR software which use visual instruments and augmented 3D case video to advance clinical decision-making and procedural knowledge on actual procedures. This software assists trainees to identify anatomy, anticipate tissue retractions and predict regions for dissection.

The Centre currently has access to the following procedure(s): 

• partial nephrectomy

• hysterectomy 

• low anterior resection (coming soon)

• prostatectomy (coming soon)

UNSW Australia owns a number of mannequins in a variety of fidelities for use by undergraduates, postgraduates and in vocational training. These include the latest in SimMan 3G technology along with lower-fidelity mannequins such as MegaCode Kelly and specific mannequins for training skills such as basic life support. The Ingham Institute Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre incorporates a range of audiovisual elements aimed at enabling training groups to gain the most from this equipment.

SimMan 3G 

This adult patient simulator is designed to deliver the most realistic training possible while remaining easy to set up and simple to operate. SimMan 3G comes with a long list of features that will optimise simulation training scenarios including automatic drug recognition, light sensitive pupils, bodily fluid excretion and wifi portability. Wireless technology makes SimMan 3G flexible and mobile, so that it is possible to conduct training for the entire rescue chain and allow team training which includes patient handover and emergency reporting.

MegaCode Kelly SimPad 

A full-body mannequin designed for the practice of advanced, difficult and obstructed airway scenarios and IV therapy, MegaCode Kelly with SimPad allows cardiac defibrillation, pacing and ECG interpretation of over 1400 rhythm variations. Integrate pre-programmed simulation content designed to provide students with realistic scenario-based clinical training focusing on specific learning objectives geared toward patient assessment, patient diagnosis, interventions and management of care to improve to student’s critical thinking and decision-making skills.

Resusci Anne Simulator  

Based on the learning objectives and curriculum of various emergency medical personnel, this full-bodied simulator is the perfect training companion for hospitals, emergency medicine and military personnel, as well as educational centres. The Resusci Anne Simulator provides the key simulation functionalities including a high-quality airway, spontaneous breathing, ECG, live defibrillation, IV, blood pressure, voice, lung sounds and heart sounds for basic simulation training.

Ambu Airway SmartMan  

This unit has an operating trachea and oesophagus plus a working chest cavity with lung and a complete torso. The Ambu Airway SmartMan expands the range of learning skills available with real-time visual feedback.

SimNewb 

Designed by Laerdal with the American Academy of Pediatrics to meet the training requirements of neonatal emergency medicine and resuscitation courses, SimNewB has realistic newborn traits and lifelike clinical feedback. It is ideal for training for the specific needs of neonates.  

Tuff Kelly 

The full-body mannequin with realistic weight for extrication and rescue training.

I-Simulate Platform  

The ALSi Patient Simulation platform is a hyper-flexible simulator that enables advanced patient simulations to be run quickly and easily. Students view a realistic patient monitor while the instructor uses a handheld control pad to control everything from parameters to time.

The anatomage table is the most technologically advanced anatomy visualisation system for anatomy education and is being adopted by many of the world's leading medical schools and institutions including UNSW Sydney. The operating table form factor combined with Anatomage’s radiology software and clinical content makes the table an excellent resource for the UNSW Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre.

The South West Sydney Clinical Campuses has invested more than $3.7m in the renovation of existing teaching space across the south-western Sydney campuses and installed uniwide and a videoconference network across these sites to ensure easy access to teaching material by our students. There are more than 18 sites from which south-western Sydney-based students, academics and researchers can access the network and dial anywhere in the world that has a public address. In the Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre, videoconferencing to other sites is available in most venues using the high quality cameras and audio equipment in the room. Dedicated videoconferencing is available in each of the four Debrief and Seminar rooms with one room able to access this facility at any one time.

The South West Sydney Clinical Campuses have been responsible for the purchase of all the current task trainer and low fidelity mannequin equipment in the Ingham Institute Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre. The Centre has a broad range of trainers which can either be used on site, or in some cases loaned to users off site in south-western Sydney.

For more information on these resources or other models that may exist, please contact Technical Officer Kylie French. 

• Airway trainers – Laerdal and Ambu

• Nasogastric tube insertion and tracheostomy tube trainers 

• Male and female urinary catheterisation models

• Intravenous cannulation arms

• Arterial puncture trainer

• PR and PV examination models 

• Joint injection trainers

• Eye examination trainers

• Auroscopy trainers

• Intraosseous cannulation trainers 

• Nita newborn IV access model

• Basic life support CPR models

• AED trainers

• Intercostal catheter insertion model 

• IM and SC injection trainers

• Sophie birthing model

• Instrumental delivery model

• Obstetric palpation model