Behind the award-winning CitySCaPE project

Sandra Partington, Lorna Saunder and Steve McCombe with the HENCEL Quality Award for CitySCaPE (picture by Dr. Rachel-Anne Knight)

Last month, a team of staff from LEaD and SHS were recognised for innovation in developing healthcare learning materials at an NHS awards ceremony. Their work on CitySCaPE, a multimedia simulated reality learning package targeted at improving healthcare for people with learning disabilities, won a £10,000 first prize at the annual HENCEL (Health Education North Central and East London) Quality Awards.

CitySCaPE was designed to be used by the non-specialist teacher to ensure an essential part of practice – providing a good standard of health care for patients with learning disabilities – was not neglected in nurse education. The resource uses videos, audio interviews, text, quizzes, interactive images and web resources to take students through a simulated experience. Formal evaluations are currently underway, but initial feedback from students has been very positive, with it being seen as a valuable method of learning that gives students a means of observing aspects of practice that they may not otherwise be able to do.

Lorna Saunder, academic lead for the project, had the following to say about CitySCaPE:

I think we have formulated a simple model that uses easily accessible technology that could be easily replicated in other disciplines. It was challenging at times with competing demands but we have all been committed to the project from the start. It has been a real privilege to work with all the team, but we have also had a lot of contributions from specialists, service users and colleagues along the way. Julie Attenborough and Rachael-Anne Knight have supported the vision of the project from the outset and without this organisational support, it wouldn’t have been possible. It was also great fun working with our actors who had learning disabilities and autism themselves and I hope this goes some way to improving the care that they and people like them receive.

Lorna has previously written about the project on this blog here and here.

To learn more about CitySCaPE, view the short case study film on the project below.