Building works are set to begin next week on a brand-new training facility to accommodate the School of Nursing Studies, which will see high quality training facilities developed at College of West Anglia’s King’s Lynn campus.
A grant of £597,000 was secured from Government's Town Deal Accelerated Funding in 2020 thanks to a successful bid supported by the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk and the Town Deal Board, which was developed by the College of West Anglia (CWA) in partnership with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
Local demolition firm, Mick Ward Demolition have been awarded the contract to demolish the existing print room building at the CWA to make space for the School of Nursing Studies facility. The modular building is due to be constructed soon after demolition.
The facility will consist of three rooms; a clinical room mirroring a real-life clinical environment with a new-scale hospital ward, a high-tech simulation suite equipped with simulation mannequins and a virtual augmented reality interface to provide clinical experience in a teaching environment and lastly, a skills rooms, focusing on clinical skills training such as cannulation.
The School of Nursing Studies is due to recruit its first cohort of 20 students directly from the QEH workforce onto the new Level 5 Nursing Associate Apprenticeship in January 2022. To strengthen its development and support its registration as a training provider with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the School will collaborate with Anglia Ruskin University to deliver courses.
CWA and QEH have recently appointed Adrian Debney to the position of Senior Nurse Educator at the School of Nursing Studies.
David Pomfret, Principal/Chief Executive of the College of West Anglia, said:
"The School of Nursing Studies creates a fantastic opportunity for West Norfolk. The Coronavirus has caused a massive global recession; however, health and social care is one of the very few sectors which is set to grow.
The new facility and qualification will create local career and skills development opportunities. Nursing is an incredibly important and rewarding career. This project will mean that the very best of talent can stay local, improve the stability and quality of the QEH workforce and support the west Norfolk economy as well as the wellbeing of West Norfolk communities."
Dr April Brown, Chief Nurse at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn (QEH) said:
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with the College of West Anglia on this exciting development for West Norfolk.
The development of a School of Nursing Studies is fantastic news for both our local community and QEH by opening career opportunities for those wishing to study nursing closer to home, in West Norfolk, and helping to provide stability for our future workforce needs.”
Graham Perkins, Chair of the Town Deal Board, said:
“The new School of Nursing Studies is an exciting project made possible through effective partnership of the CWA, QEH and Towns Funds. The project was prioritised in a bid for accelerated funding under the Towns Fund scheme in recognition of the strength of the local collaboration and the timely and fitting opportunity this project offers for supporting valuable skills development in King’s Lynn.”