Clinical Skills

Centre Mission Statement

To develop and enhance the teaching of clinical skills to ensure that Nursing & Midwifery graduates are fit to practice at the point of registration.

The Nursing & Midwifery Clinical Education Centre (NMCEC), Queen’s University Belfast is one of the most advanced clinical skills centres in Europe where students learn and practice fundamental healthcare skills in a safe environment before undertaking clinical placements.

NMCEC offers a range of resources to enhance and compliment the teaching of clinical skills.

Centre Facilities

The centre comprises of four custom built rooms that replicate hospital ward areas with fully functioning beds medical air and suction etc. Each room has its own crash trolley and defibrillator for advanced training.

There is an adult human patient simulator in each room with simulation babies and children available on request. A computerised resusci anne which gives you real time feedback via the display screen is stationed in each room and we also have a large range of Nursing and Midwifery training manikins available.

All rooms are equipped with a PC and large TV display for viewing, videos, presentations and online training material. There are ceiling mounted cameras above most of our fourteen hospital bays for recording clinical skills and procedures performed by our students. These recording are for training and feedback purposes and are automatically archived and uploaded to our website for our students to view and critic at their convenience.

On our clinical skills website you can access online eLearning resources in the form of eBooks and videos on various topics which is updated and added to on a regular basis.

 The technical staff in the centre have over 30 years’ experience working within nurse education where part of their remit is to collaborate with teaching staff to create new, effective and innovative learning solutions that exploit advances in technology. They are the first technicians to win a QUB teaching award in Learning and Support and have also been awarded the national JISC award for Innovation in e-Learning. With over 2,850 students and 120 staff using the clinical skills facilities the centre plays a pivotal role in nurse education in Northern Ireland. The Clinical Education Centre also has also hosted a number of national and international visitors who are very keen to experience the delivery of educational programmes for large number of nursing and midwifery students.

The centre is open to…
Undergraduate and postgraduate students - University and hospital staff - Students taking external clinical and teaching courses – Professional Organisations such as the Royal Colleges. Rooms can also be hired by external agencies.

OSCE

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is run within the centre for our first year students as well as for many of our CPAD courses. The online video material and access to the Centre to practice clinical skills, assist the student to prepare for the OSCE. The Centre has the facility to examine 120 students per day.

Since commencement of the OSCE in 2002 we have had a number of visitors from other universities coming to observe the examination process.