The School of Nursing and Midwifery has 2 large state of the art Clinical Skills Laboratories, a Health Assessment Laboratory and a Self-Directed Room.
The laboratories simulate a hospital unit consequently, they enable undergraduate and postgraduate students relate theory to the practice of nursing more effectively. Each Clinical Skills Laboratory is equipped with 4 hospital beds, bed tables and bedside lockers, a variety of mannequins, drug trolley, drug cabinet, emergency trolley, manual handling devices and wash hand basins. Each bed area is equipped with oxygen supply unit, suction control unit and call bell. The mannequins are used during teaching sessions to demonstrate a variety of clinical skills such as patient hygiene, measuring vital signs, intramuscular injection technique, nasogastric tube insertion, PEG feeding, wound management, tracheostomy care and basic life support. Some clinical models are very sophisticated in their design in that an alarm will sound if students perform a skill incorrectly such as intramuscular injection technique. Each Clinical Skills Laboratory has a SimMan®. The mannequin is an advanced adult patient simulator which is used for team training. SimMan® has realistic anatomy and clinical functionality and provides simulation-based education to challenge and test students’ clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient care scenarios. SimMan® in light of its software and interactive technology allows instructors to create relevant simulations in a controlled environment so that learners can practice emergency treatment of patients while simultaneously decreasing risk to patients.

The Self-Directed Room is equipped with numerous anatomical models. The models are accessible to the students at all times and they are used extensively during individual and group study/tutorial sessions.

Clinical skills classes are held in the laboratories. The teacher student ratio is 1:8 approx. depending on the complexity of the skill. The learning is interactive and a variety of teaching strategies are used. In many instances the students work in pairs during the teaching sessions. This gives the students the opportunity to see the skill from both perspectives - that of the nurse and the patient. Students learn the skills under supervision in class and then practice the skills in the Self-Directed Room on their own or with their colleagues. This teaching strategy allows the students to develop their competence in the skills and prepares them for clinical practice. In this way, students learn in a safe, non-threatening and realistic environment. One of the best ways to learn is by discussion and debate with colleagues. The Clinical Skills Laboratories provide an environment conducive for students’ discussion with peers and more experienced practitioners about issued and dilemmas in patient care.

Other innovative teaching strategies, such as Computer Assisted Learning, are employed in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Students learn using software packages in the Computer Suites, in conjunction with practicing the accompanying skills in the Clinical Skills Laboratories/Health Assessment Laboratory.