Queensland Health Skills Development Centre is one of most technologically advanced and comprehensive skills development centres in the world. Opened jointly on 23 September 2004 by the Premier of Queensland and the Queensland Minister for Health. It covers over 3500sqm, with 26 session rooms, laboratories, and even a fully-functional operating theatre and hospital ward.

Based on the Herston Campus, the Skills Development Centre (SDC) provides healthcare professionals - doctors, nurses and allied health professionals - in Australia and Asia Pacific, tools and training to improve their skills and enhance the quality of patient care.

Operating though nine inter-related domains, the SDC offers courses for a broad cross-section of healthcare providers - from freshly qualified graduates to experienced healthcare professionals. This is achieved by constantly researching and identifying areas of need and investing the required time and money in the development of world class courses. The SDC continuously updates its courses and ensures the technology it uses is the latest.

The Centre also has safeguards in place to protect the privacy of every professional who participates in a course at the Centre, thus providing a safe, secure and confidential training environment.

Skills development is important in improving patient safety and enhancing the quality of care. While healthcare professionals often learn on the job, the current system of training known as “see one, do one, teach one” no longer felt appropriate. This is why the Queensland Health Skills Development Centre (SDC) has chosen to “see one”, “sim one”, and provide a “safe practice.” This is a new paradigm where training through the use of simulation and virtual reality removes the need for clinicians to establish their competency and proficiency on real life patients.

The SDC was designed and built with a state-of-the-art audio-visual system. Care has been taken to ensure the equipment and physical settings of operating rooms, wards and other areas conform to the quality and standards of real-life hospitals. The operating theatres, emergency room, laboratories, training ward and debrief rooms - are wired with cameras and projectors to provide comprehensive audio-video support. An entire scenario can be recorded so that teams can debrief, share, discuss and learn from their experiences. Signed confidentiality agreements at the start of each course provide a guarantee to every participant that their performance is not discussed beyond the SDC.

The virtual reality and simulation equipment at the SDC is among the best in the world. The high-fidelity manikins are programmed to respond physiologically to all treatments or interventions. A range of scenarios can be delivered from road traumas to crisis situations in hospital settings. You can feel the manikin's pulse, watch the chest rise and fall, and monitor all vital signs as you perform procedures. In the surgical training arena, the simulators provide force-feedback in real-time, making the experience very lifelike.

The SDC is also developing mobile units to deliver training in rural and remote locations. Equipped with 1-Gigabit data lines, the SDC is capable of video-conferencing with multiple locations, whilst broadcasting a course in progress. Domains identify areas of special focus for the SDC.

In the surgical section, clinical staff can practise the latest surgical procedures, and receive feedback on how effectively each individual performed the procedure. Other courses prepare clinical staff to deal with crisis and trauma situations, for example, the Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support course that is well recognised around the world, or the courses in Crisis Resource Management that train staff how to avoid crisis, risk manage and deal effectively if a crisis does arise.

The SDC also has courses to assist healthcare professionals improve their communication and interpersonal skills. Interactive e-learning suites provide self-paced learning in a number of areas, with the opportunity to interact with peers in an asynchronous group environment. There is also a domain totally dedicated to the development and evaluation of existing and new courses.

The Rural and Remote Arrangements domain provides non-urban healthcare professionals the opportunity to enhance and upgrade existing skills through the provision of affiliate centres.

Facilities

   Two large seminar rooms, capable of seating 130 participants;

  One fully-equipped operating theatre and emergency department resuscitation bay;

  A training ward that can be set up with an intensive care bay and recovery ward bay, complete
      with a patient ensuite for retrieving patients’ who have may collapsed;

  Surgical skills and virtual reality skills training laboratories;

  Airways laboratory, access laboratory and CPR laboratory;

  Two access grid rooms for high-end video-conferencing;

  An e-learning room with computer terminals;

  Eight communications suites with a central observation area. The communication suites may be
      set up to become a procedure room, an outpatient room, a GP’s surgery, and waiting room;

  Five debriefing and eight tutorial rooms;

  An audio-visual suite for editing;

  Visiting faculty areas with internet connectivity to allow visitors to stay in touch with their home or
      work base;

  Patients' lounge for patients or actors in scenarios to relax between sessions.

Equipment

   Multiple life-sized high, medium and low fidelity mannequins, (Adults, children and neonates);

   Three endo-vascular surgical trainers;

   Laparoscopic simulators. Several use haptic feedback (force-feedback) to enhance the
      simulated experience;

   Gastro-intestinal trainers;

    Box trainers & laparoscopic stacks for surgical skill training;

   Urological simulator;

   Part trainers for procedural skill training including Airways trainers, CPR trainers;

   Gynaecology simulator;

   Overhead cameras and projectors in all session rooms;

   High fidelity audio visual equipment, capable of real-time recording from multiple sources.