I didn’t do that well at school, I left with English, Maths, IT and PE. I had to fail school and college for me to realise how vital education is! I then got a job in retail at Hollister and became a team leader. However, because I was under 21, I had colleagues working at a lower level but learning more than me, so I thought “I need to change this”. I began looking for apprenticeships and found the Education, Training and Development Apprenticeship.

I have been in the NHS for six years now and have stayed within the education aspects, moving from Education, Training and Development to IT training and then back to Education, Training and Development and now I work in medical education in the Simulation Department. I have recently been offered a new role as Assistant Service Manager for the Simulation Department. I have managed to go from an apprentice to a band 5 Assistant Service Manager!

I arrive at the Simulation Centre and check what course we have booked and plan out which manikin we need to use. We have a high-fidelity room, which is essentially a mock-up ward which we set up for whatever course we are running that day. For example, one day I set up our maternity simulation course, and set up the maternity manikin and even put the baby inside the manikin’s womb, ready to give birth. The manikin is life-sized, and we call her Noelle - she is a fully functioning manikin that is able to give birth.

The manikin comes with an application, like an app really, which we operate from and are able to control every aspect of the labour, including contractions. The speech element of the manikin is not very developed, so we become the voice of the patient as well as control it from behind a one-way mirror. There is always a doctor with me that tells me what to do, such as change the breathing pattern or initiate a full cardiac arrest, and we can also add some things like blood and bruising to make the manikin more realistic.

During the pandemic, we provided a lot of training inside Covid wards – training new doctors and nurses in a highly-pressurised area so they were prepared for working with Covid patients.

We can have up to five simulations a day, and they last around 10 to 15 minutes each. There are often people watching the simulation from downstairs, so I also manage the cameras to make sure everyone is in frame, which is essentially the same skills that streamers use. After each simulation, the medical staff debrief and discuss what went well and what they could have done differently. While they are doing that, I usually check my emails and do general admin tasks.