A college classroom designed to replicate a hospital ward has 'amazed' staff from the James Paget University Hospital.
The new £73,000 clinical skills suite, which includes a mock hospital ward and lab, officially opened at the East Coast College campus in Great Yarmouth on Tuesday.
The facility will allow students learning the T-level in health to practice skills involved in careers such as nursing.
A T-level is a new qualification which follows GCSEs and is equivalent to three A-levels.
Ruth Thacker, 62, curriculum manager, said the new suite gives the students the opportunity to practice skills in a clinical setting before going on placement to locations like the James Paget hospital at Gorleston.
She said: "We give them a patient to care for. They have to work together to plan and implement a care plan.
"I think it makes the theory come alive for them," she added.
The students, who are planning to go to university to study a range of nursing courses from midwifery to neonatal care, spend between three and four days at the suite.
The mini hospital ward and lab was built and installed over the summer across two classrooms.
Ms Thacker said: "It's exciting. It's lovely to see all the facilities you need."
On Tuesday, the five students who started the course in September were wearing their scrubs and taking care of their patient, a mannequin they have named 'Doris'.
Katia Bentley, 16, from Gorleston, who is studying the Health T Level and wants to go into forensic nursing, said that when she eventually starts a job, it won't be as daunting because of the practice she is getting at the college.
"When you go on placement, it's not as overwhelming," she added.
Madison Hubbard, also 16, from Hopton, said: "I didn't expect there to be so many beds. I think we're really privileged to have this place."
The college has a working relationship with the James Paget University Hospital, East Coast Community Healthcare and the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.
Louise Frosdick, a HCA practice facilitator from the James Paget, was visiting the college for a first look at the new clinical skills suite.
She said: "It's amazing, it's so ward-like, in the equipment they have.
"You really can't beat that hands-on experience the students will get here. It's a really great program."
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