Award	The School of Nursing is honoured to be one of the grantee institutions, receiving R16 million to launch 3 projects. (See progress!)
UNEDSA,  an International philanthropic foundation which strongly focuses on community wellbeing and health care. UNEDSA was established by the Atlantic Philanthropies to uplift and transform higher nursing education over four years through grants totaling R70-million. The aim is to transform nursing scholarship in South Africa with a focus on nurse academics and higher education.	At the UNEDSA award ceremony from left: Prof T Khanyile (University of the Western Cape); Prof Anita van der Merwe (Head: School of Nursing – UFS); Dr L Maree (Tswane); Dr EM Yako (Fort Hare).
1TRAIN	2TRANSFORM	3EXPERIENCE
A unit for excellence which aims to develop and present short courses for nurses according to their training needs and support the staff of the School of Nursing with research.	Transforming the curricula enabling alumni to meet the challenges of the changing health care landscape with confidence and competence.	The implementation of these curricula are to be enhanced by establishing a virtual health teaching and learning facility.

Progress - The venue

The SPACE (a virtual health learning facility) – Some of the money was used to establish a unique virtual health learning facility on the main campus of the University of the Free State. “The key objective is to build a facility with state of the art equipment including software, hardware, a range of mannequins and human simulators,” says Prof. Anita van der Merwe, Head of the School of Nursing.

The purpose is to integrate teaching and learning in a relatively flexible social space. The facility, which will accommodate approximately 80 students in an informal teaching and learning environment, is expected to be completed by November 2009.

Where we started:

here

the space

learning environment

informal teaching

a range of manikins

Where we are now:  The SPACE - opened 

The School of Nursing opens a state of the art training facility – The virtual health training and learning facility of the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State (UFS) was opened on 12 November 2009 during a gala dinner to celebrate the School’s 40th year of existence.

The new virtual facility, the SPACE, is made possible by a grant of R16 million from The Atlantic Philanthropies and R1 million from the UFS. The Atlantic Philanthropies is an international philanthropic organisation that will inject R70 million into nursing in South African over the next four years. The initiative will enhance nursing education and step up the quality of healthcare delivery in South Africa.

The lustrous events were attended by dignitaries from all spheres of the healthcare fraternity in South Africa.

here

the space

learning environment

informal teaching

a range of manikins

Where we are now:  The SPACE - progress 

Mrs. Maria Phillips did the first assessment of students on the simulators in the SPACE, which was opened on 12 November 2009.

Things are changing very quickly in our school. After presenting a simulation during the Explo it was difficult for me to think of performing an OSCE in the traditional manner. It took me about half an hour to programme a critical care simulation scenario. Two similar scenarios were run at the same time, one on Justine (Hal) and the second one on Lilian (Noelle). The planning of the logistics took a bit longer but there we went. Skills assessed in simulation were Basic life support, defibrillation, intubation, mechanical ventilation, interpretation of blood gas result and ECG dysrhythmias.

Students were somewhat apprehensive when the "patient" talked to them. For smoothly running assessment three evaluators were required per simulation, one running the simulation, the second assessed according to checklists and the third was an assistant to the student, assessed together with the second assessor and also checking the student for not damaging the simulator. I experienced the assessment as authentic and satisfying..