STeLI wins BMJ Award

The London Deanery’s and NHS London’s Simulation and Technology-enhanced Learning Initiative (STeLI) has been awarded the 2011 British Medical Journal (BMJ) Award for Excellence in Healthcare Education.

Commenting on the win, the lead for STeLI, Dr Ian Curran, Dean for Educational Excellence within the London Education Commissioning System (ECS), said: “STeLI has helped transform healthcare education in London. By harnessing powerful educational techniques and technologies, STeLI has promoted clinical excellence, supported service development and built unique educational capacity and capability across London. Winning this award is a great honour and recognition of STeLI’s achievements in promoting educational excellence across London’s healthcare workforce.”

The award is given to projects in an international field that have demonstrated a measurable impact on improving healthcare education through practice, policy and research. The judges also looked for projects that were innovative in their objective and methods and had seen a successful adoption and uptake by a wide group.

Dr Curran continued: “STeLI puts excellence and patient safety at the heart of clinical training. By harnessing advances in task and team training we have integrated simulation into workforce development. We have successfully championed the local provision of human factors and effective team training so enhancing patient safety.

Simulation moves the steep and dangerous part of the learning curve away from patients and gives professionals opportunities to rehearse and refine their clinical practice in safe, controlled environments.”

"A high quality healthcare workforce requires high quality education and training. When used appropriately, simulation provides a uniquely safe and effective way for professionals to learn. Patients agree that these powerful educational techniques should be more widely adopted in healthcare."

Picture shows (l-r) Diana Hamilton Fairley, Dean for Secondary Care; Ian Curran, Dean of Educational Excellence; Andrew Long, Head of the Specialty School of Paediatrics.