Rotherham Media Make-up Students Simulate Injuries for Sheffield Hallam Student Paramedic Training

Students from Rotherham College and University Centre Rotherham have teamed up with Sheffield Hallam University’s Paramedic department to provide a range of realistic injuries to train on.

The students used mannequins to create wounds and lacerations including broken bones, bloody cuts, blue lips and bruises for the Paramedic students to respond to accordingly, providing them with realistic experience of injuries they may tend to during their career.

Hosted at the Lifewise Centre, South Yorkshire’s only interactive safety centre, Media Make-up students were briefed on a range of scenarios by Sheffield Hallam lecturers including a patient who had fallen off a roof, a bike incident and a car accident. They then had to use their make-up skills to create realistic looking broken bones, cuts and head injuries for the Paramedic students to tend to and be assessed on. While real-life models or actors are usually utilised at events like this, due to the pandemic, specialist mannequins were used instead. The high-tech mannequins are incredibly realistic and can be injected into and even have pupils that dilate, which makes the experience more realistic.

Rotherham College Level 3 Media Make-up student Faye Hilton was at the event and created blood and bruising effects for a head injury and the appearance of blue feet due to loss of circulation.

Faye said: “I’d never done anything like it before, so I really enjoyed the experience and it was really useful to learn how to do a special effect type of make-up. The realness of the injuries is incredible; when you watch films or TV, you don’t really appreciate how much work has gone into making injuries look so realistic from the make-up teams.”

Sheffield Hallam University Course Lead in Paramedic Science Sharyn Edwards says the partnership is hugely beneficial on both sides.

Sharyn said: “The students from the College are always so professional, it’s hard to believe they are still students. They get to showcase and practice their specialist make-up skills – over the years they’ve created impressive burns, opened fractures, impaled objects and pregnancy bumps – which provides a realism and a different dimension for our students to work within a safe learning environment.”

“We do lots of simulations without make-up, but with make-up it a provokes a more natural response from our students – if we say: someone is bleeding, but there’s no make-up, they have to imagine that scenario, but to actually see that response to deal with that injury is completely different and helps prepare students for real-world experience.”

The Media Make-up students usually take part in lots of productions throughout the year, but this has been limited by events and productions being cancelled and Coronavirus Government guidance. Taking part in the Lifewise events with Sheffield Hallam University has offered students the chance to gain invaluable industry experience, something which Rotherham College Media Make-up Curriculum Team Leader Katie Asgari encourages her students to get involved with.

Katie says: “It’s very meaningful for our students; we’re not medics by any stretch, but it does help increase the knowledge around medical conditions and anatomy and physiology of the body which is important for elements of media make-up. Students get to collaborate with the paramedics and it allows them to experience a different kind of work and a different environment too.

“Whenever we attend these events, students amaze me with their work, dedication and commitment. To see all the planning that goes into it and what they’ve created is incredibly rewarding.”