The University of Buckingham Shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Collaboration’ in Independent Higher Education awards

The 2024 awards, which celebrate the best in the independent higher education sector, have shortlisted The University of Buckingham’s Medical School, as part of its MB ChB Medicine programme, for pioneering its innovative interdisciplinary learning event: ‘The Major Incident’.

The incident provides third-year medical students with a broad understanding of managing major trauma events, and allows them to work collaboratively with emergency services as well as other parties in a situation as close to real life as possible. ‘The Major Incident’ allows students to see how teams interact and respond in these situations.

The first major incident exercise was scheduled in 2017 as a week-long course, culminating in a simulation of a structural collapse in a building. In 2018 and 2019 it evolved to a plane crash, and a fire on a boat in a harbour. Following Covid, the major incident exercise was re-launched in 2022 with a simulated road traffic accident, which was repeated in 2023 but with 30% more students. In 2024 a rail accident was simulated and a road crash involving a car and a minibus. Next year will involve a bus crash.

An established network of partners whose expertise is drawn upon help make this training happen including Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service, Rapid Response Medical Group, South Central Ambulance Service, Thames Valley Police, Buckinghamshire Council and Bucks New University.

In 2024 around 150 MB ChB Medicine students were involved in ‘The Major Incident’, developing the skills they have been learning in the classroom and to build in aspects of complexity and uncertainty, which is a key requirement of the General Medical Council. Alongside this, Content Creation, Digital Media and Journalism students roleplay and produce post-event stories which also form part of their assessed work and in a cross-university initiative with the University of Bedfordshire, make-up artist students are engaged in moulage work with the large population of actors that act as casualties.

Professor Joanne Selway who leads on these events at the university said, “We are unique amongst medical schools in holding an event of this scale and it’s such a good learning experience for the students. We are being asked to show how we teach complexity and uncertainty among students and it’s very hard to do in a classroom.

“We are delighted to be shortlisted especially in a year when we hear the organisers have had a record number of entries.”

‘The Major Incident’ has been commended by the General Medical Council for promoting inter-professional education to medical students, and provides educational opportunities for other students from the University of Buckingham and beyond.

Watch the news report produced by students studying Content Creation, Digital Media and Journalism.

Find out more about studying Medicine at The University of Buckingham on the MB ChB Medicine course page.

For media enquiries, contact: pressoffice@buckingham.ac.uk