New home for the School of Healthcare Sciences
22 June 2022
The School of Healthcare Sciences will be located on a single site for the first time since its inception, with the development of a former auxiliary hospital adjacent to the University Hospital of Wales.
Currently split across two sites, in Ty Dewi Sant on the UHW site and in EastGate House in the city centre, the School will co-locate to one campus in 2023 after a comprehensive refurbishment of what was most recently the Department of Work and Pensions building in Heath Park West.
The redevelopment will provide increased space for teaching and immersive simulated educational spaces on a much larger scale; Ty Dewi Sant will then be subsequently reconfigured with a focus on computer lab spaces and offices for staff.
The Heath Park West project will ensure that the school is providing the best possible environment for rapidly growing numbers of students; it will also enable the increasing focus on interprofessional learning and immersive simulation.
Simulation-based education enhances students’ learning by helping to build confidence and transfer theory to practice. It exposes students to a range of different learning experiences in safe and controlled simulated environments, from basic life support to rare emergency situations. At Cardiff University, it spans the breadth of what’s possible, bringing together students from the different professions to work in realistic virtual environments with patient simulators, real-life equipment and devices, and immersive technologies including augmented and virtual reality.
The new building in Heath Park West will provide a bespoke facility as we expand this activity even further, ensuring our students develop both the clinical and non-technical skills required to become highly trained, competent and caring healthcare professionals.
The redevelopment will include:
- an increased number of practical rooms for the development and assessment of physical skills
- a flat and daily living suite, including a garden space
- an increased number of communication booths
- a refurbished version of the Caerleon Simulation Suite, a realistic hospital ward setting
- enhanced student common areas.
This is an ambitious project with tight timescales, with our intention to deliver education in our newly redeveloped building in from the beginning of the academic year in 2023. What the past two years has proved is that, as a School community, we tackle challenges wholeheartedly and successfully. The contribution of our staff and students to the pandemic was nothing short of outstanding; with students deployed to work in our embattled NHS and staff providing essential training for NHS workers. This redevelopment project will give us a bespoke facility that will ensure we continue to help students become the best possible healthcare professionals.