Future paramedics are honing their skills using a new virtual reality driving simulator.

This state-of-the-art technology, a first among ambulance trusts in the UK, is being used by West Midlands Ambulance Service to improve the blue light driving skills of their students.

The simulator is set to play a key role in the emergency blue light driving course, allowing students to prepare for a variety of scenarios they might encounter while driving an ambulance under emergency conditions.

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The training will take up an hour of the four-week course, alongside on-the-road training.

The technology aims to help students learn skills that cannot be staged in a real-life environment, such as extreme weather, unexpected hazards, vehicle faults, and reverse-flow driving, where they must drive the opposite direction down a closed motorway due to an incident.

Driving instructor Russell Ames said: "We are very excited to offer our students such an incredible learning opportunity within their blue light driver training with the trust.

"These are scenarios that could happen while driving an ambulance, but we cannot stage them in a real-life setting.

"Yet there is a very high likelihood that our crews will be responding to patients in these extreme or unexpected conditions, and we want to ensure that they are given the chance to prepare for this so that they can respond to patients safely and continue to save lives."

The simulator is designed to mimic an ambulance dashboard, complete with pedals and a seat that moves to simulate the dynamics of a vehicle in different scenarios.

This allows trainers to see how students respond to the conditions and to advise and teach them the correct way to handle each situation.

Mr Ames added: "This simulator is built like an ambulance dashboard, with pedals, and the seat will move and react to simulate the movement within a vehicle depending on the scenario.

"Our driver trainers are able to see how the students respond to these conditions while they are training and are able to advise and teach them about the correct way to handle each situation."