High-tech simulations bring healthcare training into the 21st century at Edinburgh Napier University


A pioneering approach to training future nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals is blurring the lines between the clinic and the classroom at Edinburgh Napier University – with impressive results.
According to Cathal Breen, Scotland’s only professor of simulation and clinical skills, the university’s high-tech tactics are helping students to learn better and faster, producing a future workforce that’s prepared for anything.
If you're looking to train as a nurse, midwife or AHP or social worker, or want to expand your career horizons with postgraduate studies in public health, neonatal care or healthcare management, Edinburgh Napier University offers some of the best training in the country.
Rated a top 10 UK modern university for nursing in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025, at the heart of its unique offering is the 1000sqm Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre which is taking simulation-based learning to new heights.
And the launch of a new online Clinical Healthcare Technology MSc can offer clinicians the chance to explore the use of health technologies to improve healthcare experiences and outcomes without giving up your day job.


An accelerated approach to learning
With a background in cardiology and research, Prof Breen is taking the way that students learn clinical skills in a new direction, one that’s harnessing the power of the phones in their pockets.
“By using smartphone platforms, we can provide the learner with access to a technological resource that enables them to rehearse and practise a clinical skill,” he explains. “They can engage by using their own devices and learn in their own time, helping to reduce the time it takes to learn the basics.”
This accelerated approach means time spent on campus is genuinely worthwhile, with the chance to get (virtually) involved from the outset in the state-of-the-art Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre which boasts some of the best training facilities and specialist equipment in the country.
Prof Breen says the immersive aspect of using kit like VR headsets can allow students to experience the patient’s point of view, simulating poor hearing or the inability to communicate. And high-tech learning isn’t a solo activity: software made by Edinburgh firm SMOTS UK allows simulated medical procedures to be livestreamed into lecture theatres for group teaching too.
While the benefits of efficient learning for future healthcare heroes are clear, teaching our students how to react when they encounter a rare clinical event or serious threat is afforded via simulation practice learning. He says. “We can teach the commonly encountered day to day activities but where we really impact the student experience is through focusing on high acuity, low occurring (H.A.L.O.) events. By making these rarely occurring events part of the fundamental training, we can guarantee our students are prepared for clinical practice in our healthcare settings.”


Putting simulation into practice
Edinburgh Napier University is one of the largest providers of nursing and midwifery education in Scotland, and the only university to offer all four nursing specialisms (adult, child, mental health and learning disabilities) as well as midwifery.
Its Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre is a hub of research as well as teaching, with health practitioners and even medical filmmakers using the facilities to replicate hospital environments. And its unique approach to tech offers students a unique advantage as it has everything on hand to offer focused simulated practice session, no matter what is happening in the health service, says Prof Breen.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council allows for 600 hours of simulated practice learning as part of the total 2,300 hours required for entry onto the NMC register. And these provide a value replacement for students’ time that might be challenging to acquire in a hospital setting.
“In the Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre, we can teach you exactly what you would observe in a hospital. Combining interprofessional learning - a teaching approach that involves students from multiple healthcare professions learning together to improve patient care and collaboration - with livestreaming means that students can feel immersed in our simulated environment.
In fact, as well as properly reflecting how disciplines work together in the NHS, this focus on inter-professional learning means a better patient experience when students are out in real-life settings.
Develop your knowledge of healthcare technology
If you are keen to learn more about how health technologies are transforming our health service, and our lives, a new online Clinical Healthcare Technology master’s makes it even easier to access the incredible teaching on offer.
“This new MSc which is starting in September 2025 can help clinical staff prepare to lead positive changes in their own areas of clinical practice to improve healthcare experiences and outcomes. Plus, because the programme is online, clinical staff can continue working while they gain their masters’ qualification,” says programme lead Dr Adele Goman.
With a programme that considers both the barriers and the benefits of health tech, the portfolio of work from which the course is derived is led by Professor Alison Porter-Armstrong and the Health Technologies Research Group, a group of healthcare researchers from the School of Health and Social Care. These academic experts are looking at how healthcare staff and service users can harness healthcare technologies as alternative methods of delivering and accessing services, and host a broad range of technology-led studies including using robotic devices to support people living with dementia and their caregivers, using app-based technology for anxiety management, or improving hearing aid technologies.
Dr Goman explains why the research is so important: “Even when technologies are available, they aren’t always used. It is important that the needs of service users are considered so that we can reduce barriers to healthcare technology, improve service delivery and enhance patient outcomes.”
Want to find out more?
To find out why ENU was rated a top 10 UK modern university for nursing in The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025, visit www.napier.ac.uk/courses/study-areas/nursing-and-midwifery to see the range of courses on offer.
Or if you’re a clinician and you think the Clinical Healthcare Technology MSc might be for you, visit www.napier.ac.uk/courses/msc-clinical-healthcare-technology-postgraduate-oneline-learning today to find out more.