Volunteer patients are helping educate the doctors of tomorrow | Latest news

Members of the public have been volunteering their time as clinical or simulated patients to help Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) train medical students.

Medical students undergo five years of training to become doctors, and learning to speak to and assess patients is a vital part of this. Volunteer patients are a crucial part of the students’ education, allowing them to practise their skills on real patients with real problems in a safe environment, and develop their communication, diagnostic, and clinical skills.

Eileen Martin, from Bingham, has been a patient volunteer for more than 10 years. She takes part in scenarios for her own respiratory condition as well as role-playing a patient with a variety of ailments.

Eileen said: “I heard about being a volunteer patient through my doctors and nurses at the time and decided to do it as I wanted to give something back. I really enjoy it.

“It is so important for the students not to just get everything out of medical books, but to have real patients for them to examine and learn how to build a rapport with patients.

“I would really encourage anyone who can to be a volunteer patient, it is such lovely team, and all the staff are wonderful. It's such a nice feeling knowing I am helping train the next generation of doctors.”

The volunteers could pose as transplant patients, or those with complex cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, musculoskeletal disorders, and those with complex surgical histories. They might be interviewed about their medical history or asked to simulate health issues such as shortness of breath and trauma. 

John Holmes, 77, has also been a patient volunteer for more than 10 years. John found out about the role when he was working as a radio presenter and interviewed a member of the Undergraduate Medical Education Department promoting the role and encouraging people to become patient volunteers.

“The NHS has been very good to me, and continues to be, and I thought I want to give back. Over the years I've role-played countless conditions, and now I do lots of scenarios based on an actual condition I have. I love the acting side of it as I wanted to be an actor,” said John.

“It is really rewarding, and I’ve met some lovely people over the years. It’s about giving back but also it a bit of fun and a challenge, and now at my age it gets the grey matter going remembering the scenario. The people organising it are great, and I feel part of the NUH team.”

Every year, volunteers, staff and students come together for a thank you event at the Undergraduate Medical Education Department. 

Nick Kythreotis, Medical Education Manager, said: “In order to enhance the training of our future doctors and the medical students who are based at NUH, we require the input of our patient volunteers. 

“We have a variety of patients who support the work we undertake, from volunteer patients with real clinical signs and diagnosis, to those who are trained simulated patients, who come along to simulate a clinical scenario.

“Their input is crucial to support the journey the students go through, and it enhances the quantity and quality of teaching we can provide to our medical students.   

“We hope that the thank you event we held, in some small way acknowledges the huge contribution that they make to NUH.”

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact, alison.wells16@nhs.net or elis.roes@nhs.net or contact the Undergraduate Medical Education Department on 0115 924 9924 ext. 80295.