THE next generation of nursing staff will soon descend on the Delta Business Park with the opening of Oxford Brookes new Swindon campus.

The university has moved from its former Ferndale Road campus to a new larger building in Westlea, as part of a £10m investment over the next decade.

It has been named the Joel Joffe building in honour of Liddington resident and former human rights lawyer, Lord Joel Joffe who was given a sneak preview of the new facilities which include a model ward

Once fully operational the campus will be able to accommodate more than 500 trainee nurses and operating department practitioners on the path to their dream careers.

The new state-of-the-art campus includes a library, skills labs, and catering facilities,

And the facilities also includes a simulation room complete with two dummies that breathe, and can mimic life-threatening situations.

Lord Joffe said he was proud to be supporting the new academic venture.

“I feel honoured as a life-long Swindon resident to have this campus named after me. This really puts Swindon on the map and is the first step to having a university in the town at some stage in the future,” he said.

“Higher education is such an important part of Swindon and I’m delighted to be able to support Oxford Brookes today.”

Clair (CORR) Merriman who will run the simulation suite, gave a fascinating insight into the work the students will be doing.

“The dummies settings are controlled by me via computer. They can be anything from breathing normally to going into complete cardiac arrest or a complete catastrophic event, which is all monitored by state-of-the-art equipment,” she said.

“There are cameras to capture the students best moments, for example if they do a particularly good piece of team work they can look back on it.

“Simulations can also be paused mid-operation so we can go through difficult areas and give advice.”

The 40-strong teaching team will welcome their first trainees next week with head of nursing Dr Liz Westcott saying excitement was building.

“With the national nursing shortage we feel delighted that we will be training more nurses to go back into the local community,” she said.

“It’s really good to know that we are contributing to the potential medical staff of the future.

“With the new facility we are able to give our students the most up-to-date training, research facilities and skills to really be a success in the future.