Wyong Hospital's Education Centre Officially Open
October 2012
Wyong Hospital's $4.5 million Integrated Education Centre and Library will be officially opened today, offering greatly expanded clinical training opportunities at the hospital.
Funding for the Centre was provided under the Australian Government's $90 million Innovative Clinical Teaching and Training Grants program to boost the number of clinical teaching and training opportunities available around Australia.
The Education Centre will enable Wyong Hospital to become an important teaching facility at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Wyong is an area which is experiencing a high level of growth, and as a result Wyong Hospital is seeing an increased level of demand on services. For instance between 2006/07 and 2010/11, there has been a 19.3 per cent increase in the number of presentations to the hospital's emergency department.
Central Coast Local Health District Board Chair, Mr Paul Tonkin said “to ensure the hospital can meet this demand it is vital that the Local Health District is able to attract and retain highly skilled clinical staff. Providing staff access to a purpose-built, state-of-the-art education centre where they can engage in the latest in clinical education and training will make Wyong Hospital a more attractive place to work.”
Associate Professor Martin Veysey, Director of the Teaching and Research Unit and who was instrumental in obtaining the grant said “the Centre will facilitate the clinical placement of medical students from the University of Newcastle and the University of New England through the Joint Medical Program by giving Wyong Hospital more capacity to offer training and placements to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.”
“These students may be more likely to elect to remain at Wyong Hospital once their training is complete.
“The Education Centre will provide training and education to staff and students across a range of disciplines including medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy and podiatry” said Assoc Prof Veysey.
Attending the official opening MP for Wyong, Mr Darren Webber said “the new Centre is a significant investment in the future of the local health district and will be an asset to Wyong Hospital and the Joint Medical Program.
“As our region grows, educating and training staff will become an increasingly important component in ensuring Central Coast Local Health District remains a leader in providing high quality health care to our community,' said Mr Webber.
The Centre provides a range of new facilities including a greatly improved library, a 60 seat conference room, two seminar rooms of 40 and 20 seats each, a tutorial room and an information commons room.
The Centre will also provide simulated learning experiences for students. Simulated learning allows students to undergo clinical training by undertaking procedures on mannequins.
These mannequins react to conditions in the same way a human patient would, with speech, breathing and blood pressure, among other features. The realistic nature of the 'patient' and the use of real clinical equipment and situations make it easy for the staff to learn and practice clinical tasks without any risk to patients.
The Centre will also offer audio-visual and video conferencing facilities to further enhance the learning experience.
