At the beginning of the next year, Masaryk University will start work on the construction of a simulation centre to train future physicians at its Bohunice campus. It should be finished in 2020. This was made possible thanks to the approval of its project “Strategic Education Investment at Masaryk University – SIMU+” with a total budget of almost 1.2 billion Czech crowns (45 milion Eur). The project successfully passed review at the Ministry of Education and this summer, MU should receive the ministry’s decision on the allocation of funds from the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education.
“Quality of education and hands-on experience during one’s studies are our long-term priorities,” says Masaryk University’s Rector Mikuláš Bek. “That is why we have focused in this project on measures that increase the quality of the education we offer – including simulation centres, which we have so far seen only in other countries.”
The project concerns the whole university and will involve almost all faculties. A key part of the project includes building a training hospital at the University Campus Bohunice, primarily for students in the study programmes General Medicine and Dentistry.
The low-energy five-storey building will simulate an actual hospital environment – including an emergency department with a fully equipped ambulance model, a heliport, an intensive care unit, operating rooms, a maternity ward, examination rooms, dental offices, and ordinary hospital rooms. This will give students the opportunity to practice all interventions – from regular ones to difficult and highly complex ones – in the safe environment of the simulation centre.
“The planned concept will have a major impact on the way we deliver education to our medical students,” says Petr Šťourač, who initiated the project and serves as the guarantor of its specialized part. “The simulation centre is unique not only in how comprehensive it is, but also in that it brings the most state-of-the-art features of simulation medicine into students’ everyday schedule. Every room, simulator, or teaching aid will have a fixed place in the study plan.”
The centre will stand close to the new building of the South Moravia Emergency Medical Services. The building will have a floor area of 8,000 m² and the cost of the building including equipment will be around 880 million crowns (33 milion Eur).
The approved project also includes activities aimed at bringing innovative features to the study programmes of the other MU faculties. Students of journalism will get a new multimedia integrated newsroom complete with an editing system, the Faculty of Arts will build a recording studio, and the Faculty of Science will build a hydrogeology drill hole for study purposes.