Meet the Manikins — learn about clinical training at Treloar’s

Clinical training is vital at Treloar’s. As a former NHS A&E nurse Dominic Twinn, our Clinical Educator has seen it all and brings his considerable experience to our nursing team.

He introduces his two high-tech manikins; firstly “Hermione”, designed to offer safe and realistic practice on core clinical skills – from basic care procedures, to advanced clinical assessment. And her roommate “Harry” who represents a six year old child.

The manikins are used for clinical skills training, such as medicine administration, gastrostomy feeding, catheterisation, non-invasive ventilation, basic life support (CPR) and any configuration of simulated practice. They are full of realistic features including pulse points, spontaneous breathing, blinking eye movements, articulated limbs, and can be programmed with heart, breath and bowel sounds. Most nurses who have graduated in recent years will be used to simulated practice and very familiar with the use of manikins as a learning resource.

Harry and Hermione are incredibly useful to support the training programmes provided by nurses at Treloar’s, allowing staff to build their confidence with clinical skills. Staff that have worked with Hermione and Harry in training have said:

“Completing clinical skills on the manikins first has really boosted my confidence to be able to provide clinical care to students.”

“Being in a simulated environment really helps it feel real, but not too real, we can really get our heads around the clinical skill without embarrassing ourselves in front of students”

All student support staff complete a comprehensive programme of training when they join Treloar’s. We are proud of the wide range of training and continuing professional development on offer both from our clinical teams and from various NHS providers.

Our efforts to support and develop our teams have been recognised by Investors in People who have given us their prestigious Gold Award. We also hold the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Award.

If you’re looking to expand your horizons, use and develop your clinical and training skills, work closely with support staff, therapists, teachers and parents to enable up to 170 children and young adults with disabilities to access education, why not join our healthcare team! We have a small number of vacancies available in our friendly team for Nurses, Health Care Assistants – as well as a Medicines Management Technician and we’d love to hear from you.