After acquiring important theoretical knowledge in lectures and seminars, the associated skills and abilities are trained in the skills and simulation center. These are deepened and expanded in subsequent practical assignments. Experiences from the practical assignments are also reflected on in the skills and simulation training. This allows students to further develop their own skills and transfer them to different situations. 

The skills and simulation center uses skills training and simulation as learning methods, which are anchored in the didactic concepts of both degree programs and build on each other semester by semester.  

It is important to us that students first master the skills before linking them to chains of action in case studies and simulations and applying them to specific situations .  

Knowledge and complexity increase as the course progresses and our methods adapt to this . 

Skills trainingrefers to the learning and training of individual skills and abilities that are required to perform an action correctly. Using the cognitive apprenticeship method, individual actions are trained and reflected on in small groups with the help of action plans and checklists.

During the simulation, complex situations are practiced and reflected upon. This enables learners to learn how to act in different situations and further develop their skills. The situations are based on real-life professional situations. In addition to the skills of individual learners, teamwork can also be practiced, e.g. in emergency situations.

In the simulation, either fellow students, simulation persons or simulators & models (e.g. a full-body mannequin or body parts) can be used in the role of the patient.

The simulation follows a fixed structure. In the run-up to the actual simulation, all participants are trained about the situation to be simulated and their roles. This is followed by the actual simulation of the professional situation. (Gabler, 2019, cited in Schlegel et al. 2020). Following the simulation, the simulation is debriefed and the resulting insights are jointly developed and transferred to practical action (Schlegel et al., 2020). 

As a rule, the simulation training takes place following or building on the skills training, so that the learners first practice core skills and then use these skills and existing knowledge to master complex and highly complex case situations.

The debriefing of the simulations always follows a predefined structure so that students and educators can focus on the content in order to gain the greatest possible benefit from the simulation. 

The Simulation Network for Education and Training in Nursing (SimNAT Pflege) specifies the following objectives for learning in skills and simulation training:

• Enabling the acquisition of skills, abilities and knowledge in a risk-free and anxiety-free learning environment and gaining confidence in one's own actions 
• Improvement of professional competence 
• Promoting the safety of patients (Loewenhardt et al. 2014, 65 cited in Sander, 2017, p. 3) 

At the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society (HWG), the training takes place in a skills and simulation center for the primary qualifying degree programs in midwifery and nursing. This joint use also opens up potential spaces for interdisciplinary training and thus promotes interprofessional exchange. 

It is important to us that our education staff have the appropriate professional qualifications as midwives, in nursing or medicine and that they also have the appropriate pedagogical teaching qualifications and experience in this field in addition to their professional experience. 

We also regularly undergo further professional and pedagogical training - e.g. as part of the CRM simulation instructor training or on the use of other digital methods.