Future Paramedics Jump Into the Virtual Driving Seat to Save Lives

Future Paramedics at West Midlands Ambulance Service are jumping into the virtual driving seat with a state-of-the-art virtual reality driving simulator to enhance their blue light driving skills and save lives.

The driver simulator, which is the first of its kind amongst ambulance Trust’s in the UK, will allow students undertaking their Emergency Blue Light Driving course with the Trust to prepare for driving in a multitude of scenarios which could occur while driving an ambulance under emergency conditions.

The simulator will take an hour of the four-week course, alongside an intensive on-the-road training for those undertaking the role.

In this time, they will be able to use the technology to learn skills which cannot be staged in a real-life environment. For example, extreme weather, unexpected hazards, vehicle faults and incidents where crews must use reverse-flow driving (this is where they must drive the opposite direction down a closed motorway due to an incident on the carriageway).

Driving Instructor, Russell Ames, said: “We are very excited to offer our students such an incredible learning opportunity within their blue light driver training with the Trust.

“These are scenarios that could happen while driving an ambulance, but we cannot stage them in a real-life setting. Yet there is a very high likelihood that our crews will be responding to patients in these extreme or unexpected conditions, and we want to ensure that they are given the chance to prepare for this so that they can respond to patients safely and continue to save lives.

“This simulator is built like an ambulance dashboard, with pedals and the seat will move and react to simulate the movement within a vehicle.

“Our driver trainers are able to see how the students respond to these conditions while they are training and are able to advise and teach them about the correct way to handle each situation.”