Stan makes dummy run with students

?Medical expert Tom Warrender is helping to educate a new generation - with the help of a dummy called Stan.

He quit his job teaching nurses at Birmingham University to set up a company called Classroom Medics.

And now the human physiology graduate from Wolverhampton travels to schools across the UK helping give youngsters a hands-on biology lesson.

For the next few weeks Tom is working with teenagers at Wednesfield High School where they are getting the chance to work with Stan his patient simulator .

He says that he enjoys seeing the reaction from children when his team turn up at the school.

"As soon as I pull Stan out of the car I get them saying 'is that a dead body'," said Tom, aged 30, of Pendeford, a former pupil at Ounsdale High School, Wombourne.

"We get a great reaction when we come into the school because we are all dressed up in scrubs with pieces of medical kit, which the children have never used before.

"They get to use a real needle on Andy our injection arm, and that is something they never forget and hopefully it inspires them to go into a career in health."

Tom, who runs the business with wife Davina, has been working with students on the BTEC health and social care course

He says: "The students usually find the ECG or Stan the most interesting as with Stan we can show how drugs work on him and they can actually kill him or bring him back to life.

We want to help them make a more informed decision about their life.

"Stan has been built to mimic how a human body works.

"He has all the normal vital signs, he has a heart beat, breathes and talks."

Among students involved in the workshop are Jerolyne Kalule, who has enjoyed watching her heart rate on the ECG.

"We seem to have learned so much today such as how to find a vein and inject into an arm as well as listening to someone's heart and finding out what our lung capacity is," said Jerolyne, 18.

Gurdip Kaur, 17 and Charlotte Haugh, 16 said it is interesting to see what their own health is like.

Gurdip said: "Today I have found out that I have low blood pressure, which was surprising, whereas Charlotte's is normal.

"We have had a hoist to teach us how to pick someone up who isn't strong enough to stand and move around."

Charlotte added: "It has made us think more about going into nursing as it is something we have both thought about for a while."

Teachers Sally Roberts and Rebekah Lister say workshops are very useful for students.

Ms Lister said: "The school is keen on raising the profile of BTEC qualifications and the feedback we have had from the girls has been really positive.

"They were really excited about it and have been looking forward to it all week and I think it will have inspired a few of them to think about a career in health."