New nurses were impressed to see the vision for the new University Hospital Monklands become reality through digital technology.

The newly qualified nursing staff, based at the existing Monklands, visited the Immersive Suite on the hospital’s campus to see the plans for their future workplace.

The suite is a digital learning and engagement centre for staff and the public that brings to life design plans through immersive technology.

Fiona Cowan, Monklands Replacement Project Clinical Lead for Nursing, said:

“It was inspiring for these new nurses to see the state-of-the art hospital that they will work in when the new Monklands opens in 2031 at Wester Moffat in Airdrie.

We told them about the background to the replacement hospital, described our revolutionary clinical model and illustrated the hospital design, including high-quality staff facilities.

There were plenty of questions from the very engaged audience before they moved on to have a look at some of the materials to be used, including brick, lino, metal facings and signage.

We then put the immersive experience into full effect as we showed them 3D designs of areas such as a patient bedroom and an operating theatre.”

Among the visitors was Laurie Murray, who has just begun her nursing career on a surgical ward at Monklands.

Laurie said:

“My mother-in-law is a nurse at Monklands so I’d already heard quite a lot about the plans. We’re all very excited about the layout and the introduction of single bedrooms, which are a lot better for patients and their visitors.

It’s great to have the suite as a designated place for all the information we need about the project, and it was cool to see the materials that will be used.

The immersive displays are really useful to help put yourself in an area as it will look and see details right down to where the plug sockets are.”

Any staff teams wishing to visit the Immersive Suite can book a slot by emailing MRP.Team@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk.