Simulation Fellow Roles
The West Midlands has a strong background in simulation-based education, and Paediatric trainees have an opportunity to apply for an OOP(E) to spend a year working as a Simulation Fellow. There are two main Simulation Fellow roles in the West Midlands, supervised by the Training Programme Directors for Simulation.
General Paediatrics Sim Fellow at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton
-Supervised by Dr Annabel Copeman, TPD for General Simulation
Neonatal Sim Fellow at Birmingham Women's Hospital
- Supervised by Dr Matthew Nash, TPD for Neonatal Simulation
If you are interested in finding out more about these opportunities, contact us.
Reflections from a previous Simulation Fellow
I spent a year as a Simulation Fellow in Paediatrics to learn more about a different technique of teaching that I had found useful as a student but had little exposure to as a teacher. The year included involvement in in-situ teaching on the wards, regional simulation courses and the opportunity to participate in other specialities' simulation sessions.
I developed my own skills in delivering education to a range of trainees, from medical students to senior registrars and consultants, which also developed my own non-technical skills; I found that these elements of my clinical practice improved throughout the year. I also got to appreciate the roles of the simulation faculty involved in bringing scenarios to fruition and gain some experience with each of these.
As an out-of-programme experience from full-time Paediatric run-through training, there was more flexibility to work around my family life and explore Paediatric sub-specialities and further develop my long-term career goals. I met with other individuals around the region involved in simulation-based education to exchange ideas and learn from each other, and got the opportunity to present work at national and international simulation conferences.
I got the opportunity to complete a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Simulation which taught me some of the relevant adult learning theories and solidified my experiential learning from the simulation fellow year.
I gained managerial skills in organising, advertising and co-ordinating various simulation teaching sessions and courses. I also had the opportunity to continually develop some of the regional simulation with new scenarios as well as put together a new simulation-based educational course and come away with skills helping me to deliver simulation teaching in my paediatric training and career in the future.
I would definitely recommend the year to anyone interested in teaching or wanting to learn more about simulation-based education!
AH - Simulation Fellow 2017-2018