Future-proofing simulation and clinical skills

Midwifery pre-registration education must adopt a range of learning and teaching approaches, including simulation and clinical skills sessions, to ensure that student midwives have the required skills and competencies to be admitted to the register. Simulation and clinical skills sessions, undertaken in the ‘safe’ environment of the classroom, enhance students' understanding, confidence and skills—particularly in managing obstetric emergencies, where in practice the needs of the woman take precedence over students' learning opportunities. The unpredictability of the clinical environment may lead to students not having the opportunity to manage an obstetric emergency until after they qualify. Setting up and facilitating simulation and clinical skills sessions is time-consuming for midwifery lecturers and not best use of their expertise, which is why specialist support in the form of laboratory/clinical skills technicians is critical to the smooth running of sessions and maintenance of costly equipment.