Star Wars and Simulation Based Education: Designing the Jedi Training Academy

Nathan Oliver and Ed Mellanby

There was a time, in a galaxy far, far away, where simulation based education was deployed in ways that didn’t best suit learners’ needs or used as a one sized fits all approach to some quite complex educational needs. Thankfully this is changing, and will need to change going forward as we build the curriculum for the future. This workshop seeks to examine the context and environment where simulation based education is able to have the greatest impact and how different methods might be considered to meet the complex and varied learning needs that exist in clinical and professional practice. We hope you can join us. 

Nathan Oliver

Fatigued from a lifetime of wrestling crocodiles and spiders in my native Australia, as well as the horrible sunny weather, I moved with

my family to Edinburgh at the end of 2014 to take up the post of Clinical Simulation Programme Manager within the Medical Education Directorate at NHS Lothian.

I have a nursing background, specialising clinically in acute and emergency nursing and moved into clinical education in 2010 working with undergraduate and postgraduate clinicians, mainly from the nursing stream and with a particular interest in simulation based education.   

I was able to complete a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education at the University of Canberra in Australia before the move and a Masters in Education at the University of Edinburgh subsequently.

I currently manage four simulation centres across Lothian, and oversee a range of simulation programmes across the Health Board, with a team of technicians, clinicians, and educationalists.   

Ed Mellanby

 I graduated from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 2004, and worked in the North East of England for three years before moving to Edinburgh and South East Scotland for Anaesthetic training.  

During my anaesthetic training I spent two years as an Educational Fellow at the Centre for Medical Education in the University of Edinburgh Medical School. In addition to the exposure to teaching and assessment, I was able to complete a doctorate on the non technical skills required by junior doctors.

Following the completion of my anaesthetic training in 2014, I worked as a Fellow in West Australia for nearly 3 years, where I was responsible for numerous simulation training and faculty development projects.

I have been back in Edinburgh since 2017 and working clinically as a Consultant Anaesthetist at St. Johns hospital. I am a simulation lead for NHS Lothian where my main responsibilities are within faculty development and ensuring the quality of simulation based education across five hospital sites.

I have always maintained strong links with the Scottish Centre for Clinical Simulation and Human Factors in Forth Valley, and currently have a role as an Educational Co-ordinator, mainly involved in faculty development courses.