Ambulance Care in a Virtual Environment

At the ambulance station in Skövde, a unique simulation environment for training personnel began to take shape in 2016. Two years later, 110 ambulance nurses had been trained, inspiring the development of simulation-based training for prehospital care in Sweden.

The EU-funded project Skaraborg Innovative Environments and the thematic environment Virtual Health, focusing on digital health, are behind the training centre at Skövde Ambulance Station. It is a collaborative project between the University of Skövde, the Västra Götaland Region, and the University of Borås.

Five Environments Create Unique Simulation Training

The prehospital training centre in Skövde has aimed to include as many different parts of the care process as possible. A fully equipped ambulance, a transport area, a scene room where various scenarios are visualised on the walls, an observation room, and a control room.

"This is precisely what makes the centre unique. We have received great positive feedback from other training centres, and we now see that our environment has inspired others. We have also developed a digital assessment protocol for observers. All exercises must be evaluated on equal terms, as the goal is to improve prehospital care in Sweden. The exercises are not intended to assess the individual performances of ambulance staff," says Per Backlund, Professor of Informatics and project leader for the centre.