Our people
Director, to be announced.
Paul Medeiros
Operations Co-ordinator (1.0 FTE University of Otago / Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Southern)
Email paul.medeiros@otago.ac.nz
or
paul.medeiros@southerndhb.govt.nz
Joanne Robertson-Smith
Simulation Educator (0.5 FTE Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Southern)
Email joanne.robertson@southerndhb.govt.nz
Christina Douglas
Simulation Technician (0.9 FTE Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Southern)
Operating hours
The OCSL operates Monday to Friday 8am to 4:30pm and is closed weekends and public holidays.
Excellence through hands-on clinical education
The Otago Clinical Skills Laboratories (OCSL) are a joint initiative between the Faculty of Medicine and Health New Zealand and Te Whatu Ora Southern (HNZ)
The OCSL facilitates tutor-led clinical skills training and education to undergraduate students, and HNZ clinical staff. The purpose of the facility, and its programmes, is to provide a safe and effective learning environment for health professionals to develop, refine, and maintain their clinical skills, and to offer enhanced learning opportunities for both medical students and HNZ clinical staff.
The OCSL is a clinical education and teaching facility that contributes to the best possible outcomes for the health of our community, with patients treated by clinicians who continue to gain and maintain their skills in a safe learning environment rather than by trial and error.
Services, facilities and equipment
The OCSL is located on the second floor of the Fraser Building, which has access via Cumberland Street and Hanover Street. Please note that we are not accessible via the adjacent Department of Psychological Medicine.
Fraser Building at 154 Hanover Street on Google Maps
Venue utilisation and bookings
As a practical clinical teaching facility, the OCSL is heavily utilised by Dunedin School of Medicine faculty as part of the Advanced Learning in Medicine (ALM) programme – years 4 to 6. We do not facilitate teaching for Early Learning in Medicine (ELM – years 1 to 3). This is provided through the Hunter Centre.
All clinical education facilitated and using OCSL equipment must be supervised by appropriately skilled educators.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Southern facilitates and delivers many courses, workshops, and programmes through the OCSL. As part of the HNZ / Faculty of Medicine (ALM) joint initiative, our clinical education programmes and workshops are given booking priority over external users.
Any organisations or courses held outside of the joint initiative may be subject to OCSL's hiring fees for clinical teaching space and/or equipment. (Please note we are unable to book the facility for didactic teaching or general meetings)
All OCSL venue utilisation is pre-booked through the Operations Coordinator and all equipment use and in situ personnel are tracked for data collection and reporting purposes.
The OCSL offers a limited range of clinical education equipment for loan to HNZ and Faculty of Medicine ALM (adhering to OCSL policy, see below) for clinical training and education purposes.
As a venue, the OCSL can support a maximum capacity of 80–100 personnel at any one time (spread through the 4 main areas), with limitations to attendant capacity per area. For further details please contact the Operations Coordinator
Booking enquiries
To make a booking enquiry for venue space, equipment loan, or other queries, contact the OCSL team:
Email OCSL@southerndhb.govt.nz
All clinical education facilitated through the OCSL is to be supervised by appropriate faculty at all times.
Hiring fees for external users
OCSL Venue booking fees (PDF)
Please note that fees are subject to change
Equipment loan process and policy
The OCSL equipment loan system has been specifically created for HNZ and Faculty of Medicine (ALM). We have a limited range of equipment. Please feel free to contact us to discuss our range of available clinical teaching equipment.
If you have access to HNZ SharePoint (we understand not everyone does), you may find our equipment available here:
Visit Otago Clinical Skills Laboratories - Home
OCSL policy only permits equipment to be loaned and used by personnel experienced and proficient in the use of the loaned item.
Once an equipment loan request has been made it has to be formally confirmed by the OCSL to ensure loan equipment is available at the time requested. Once confirmed, the loaned equipment may be collected and returned at the collection/return point in the main corridor of the OCSL. It is the responsibility of the department loaning the equipment to collect and return the loaned equipment from the OCSL, either personally or by contacting and arranging collection/return through the HNZ orderly system if based at Dunedin Hospital.
Any issues arising from the equipment during loan should be immediately passed on to OCSL staff upon return to enable investigation and rectification as required.
Equipment is not permitted be used or taken outside the HNZ or Faculty of Medicine (ALM) environments.
Otago Simulation Interest Group
This Simulation Interest Group (SIG) is a community of practice composed of a diverse voluntary group of educators interested in simulation-based education as it relates to health. SIG welcomes anyone with an interest in simulation-based education who has a professional role related to clinical education in healthcare. The OCSL collaborates with the interest group, with some staff volunteering their time and expertise as members of the group. The OCSL offers equipment and a simulated clinical setting for facilitating courses for the interest group when possible.
For those interested in joining the group, please contact the OCSL so we may pass you onto the relevant interest group persons.
Email OCSL@southerndhb.govt.nz
Otago Simulation Interest Group Simulation Instructors' Course
The OCSL has been privileged to host the Simulation Interest Group Simulation Instructors Course each November since 2023.
Health Care Educators from across the Southern Region collaborated to produce a course that introduced the fundamentals of Simulation-Based-Education (SBE) to fellow health professionals involved / interested in this teaching tool.
Key objectives of the course were:
- Simulation best practice
- Designing, planning and running sim
- Establishing a safe learning environment
- Debriefing a sim
- Evaluating a sim
Each course was well received and the OCSL hopes to continue to collaborate with the interest group and facilitate this course.
SIMULWEEK 2018 and19
These were week-long programmes of simulation-based education and training. They were well received and the OCSL hopes to collaborate with our international clinical simulation colleagues and facilitate more of these kinds simulation programmes in the future.
OCSL was proud to have collaborated with our international colleagues through Health NZ Southern (formerly Southern District Health Board) and Faculty of Medicine (Dunedin Campus), holding advanced simulation symposia, workshops, and plenary lectures, spearheaded by international simulation experts Professor Victoria Brazil and Jesse Spurr.
Participants were provided with a grounding on how to design and deliver simulation-based education effectively, as well as focusing on debrief techniques and reflective discussions which will help translate educational outcomes to clinical practice.
Key topics included throughout the programmes were:
- Designing and delivering simulation-based learning
- Designing and delivering scenarios
- Debriefing and debriefing dilemmas
- Hot topics – simulated patients / buy in and sustainability.