New Nursing Simulation facility for Port Macquarie

In early 2019 the university decided to introduce a nursing course on the Port Macquarie campus, with a proposed launch date of Session 1 2020.

The challenges

There was a lack of space on campus for the new teaching facility and a short timeframe for the design of the facility. All construction works had to be completed by November 2019 to allow for accreditation.

The new facility required the installation of a suitable and cost-effective AV solution to support teaching, as well as specialist equipment.

There was also not much time to recruit the staff needed for the new offering.

Despite these hurdles, the work was delivered on time and on budget. To achieve this outcome the following activities needed to take place within some very tight timelines.

  • The costing and tendering for the design of the new space.
  • User group consultations during the design process until everyone was happy with the final design.
  • Relocating admin staff to make the space available for the new Nursing Simulation facility.
  • Demolition of the old office area to allow construction to begin on the new facility.
  • The order and delivery of specialist equipment to meet the accreditation deadline.
  • The recruitment of new staff.
  • The inspection for accreditation.

The outcome

With all the work completed, we now have a state of the art nursing facility with its first students just starting.

The new nursing facility consists of the following areas:

  1. A simulation clinic for use as a classroom for formal teaching and a practical area for nursing students to experience activities undertaken in hospital wards. All practical demonstrations can be recorded and or streamed to a remote site or the debrief room.
  2. A part-practice room for use by students to practice procedures that a health care provider would undertake on a day to day basis. Activities in this space can be recorded or streamed to either the Sim clinic or debrief room using a tripod-mounted wireless video camera.
  3. A debrief room for use as a classroom and viewing area of live or recorded practical demonstrations undertaken in either the Sim clinic or part practice room.

Thank you!

We could not have successfully delivered this high-pressure project without the support of the Port Macquarie staff, the Faculty of Science, and the Division of Facilities Management.

It is amazing what can happen when everyone works together for a common purpose.