VR and screen-based clinical simulation for nurses, physicians and EMS

Last updated October 21, 2026

Virtual patients and emergencies that nurses, physicians and medics can practice on before they see the real thing.

This guide lists 8 providers of immersive clinical and nursing simulation, in alphabetical order: Body Interact, Elsevier (Shadow Health), Laerdal Medical, Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS), PCS, SimX, UbiSim and VRpatients. The order is not a ranking. Each provider is described with the same fields, from its own materials and public records, with sources.

1. Questions buyers ask

2. Overview

Clinical simulation software lets nurses, physicians, EMS crews and students assess and treat virtual patients, on a VR headset or a computer screen, and see the consequences of their decisions without risk to real patients. Most products pair a scenario library with feedback, debriefing and performance reports.

In nursing education, simulation is shaped by board-of-nursing decisions on substituting it for clinical hours, by INACSL standards for how sessions are run, and by the Next Generation NCLEX's focus on clinical judgment.

Products differ mainly in hardware (headset, browser, or both), who they serve (prelicensure nursing, medical school, EMS, hospital onboarding, military medicine), how much faculty facilitation they need, and whether AI handles patient conversation and scoring.

The problem

Clinical placements and lab time are limited, so programs look for ways to give every learner practice with assessment, prioritization and deterioration. NCSBN's 2014 study found that high-quality simulation could replace up to half of clinical hours with comparable outcomes, under specific conditions.

Licensure now tests clinical judgment directly: NCSBN built its Clinical Judgment Measurement Model as a framework for measuring clinical judgment and decision making, and it underlies Next Generation NCLEX items and case studies.

Mandates and programs

• NCSBN Simulation Guidelines for Prelicensure Nursing Programs. NCSBN's 2015 guidelines, based on its 2014 National Simulation Study, are meant to help boards of nursing judge whether programs are ready to substitute simulation for clinical hours. The study's outcomes held when faculty were trained, resources adequate, scenarios realistic and debriefing theory-based.
• INACSL Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice. INACSL publishes ten standards: professional development, prebriefing, simulation design, facilitation, debriefing, operations, outcomes and objectives, professional integrity, interprofessional education, and evaluation; four were revised in 2025. All simulation-based education activities must include a planned debriefing process.
• Next Generation NCLEX and the Clinical Judgment Measurement Model. NCSBN's licensure exam measures clinical judgment using its Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, which many simulation products cite when they say scenarios are aligned with the exam.
• AACN Essentials. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials set competency-based expectations for professional nursing education; AACN runs faculty workshops on simulation grounded in the Essentials and INACSL Standards.

3. Providers compared

Every provider below is described with the same fields and the same length limits, from its own published materials and public records. Where a provider does not publish something, the entry says “Not published.” Providers are in alphabetical order.

4. What to ask a vendor

1. Which learner groups and specialties does your scenario library cover today? Libraries vary widely in depth across nursing, medicine, EMS and specialties; buyers should check the scenarios they need already exist.
2. Does it run on headsets, in a browser, or both, and what hardware must we buy? Some products need headsets bought separately, while others run on laptops or tablets with no headset.
3. How do you support prebriefing and debriefing in line with INACSL standards? INACSL requires a planned debriefing process for every simulation-based activity.
4. Can it document hours or outcomes our state board accepts for clinical substitution? NCSBN's guidelines are meant to help boards of nursing judge whether a program is ready to substitute simulation for clinical hours.
5. What does the AI do, and how are its patient responses and scores validated? AI features range from patient dialogue to automated grading, and some are still labeled beta.
6. Can our faculty build or edit scenarios, and how long does it take? Authoring tools let programs match local protocols and populations rather than rely on stock cases.
7. Does it work offline or behind our firewall, and where is learner data stored? Some products run without internet, while others require a stable connection.
8. What implementation and faculty training is included, and at what cost structure? Some vendors sell implementation as a separate package from the software license.

5. How buying works

Academic programs usually buy annual institution- or program-level licenses quoted by the vendor, sometimes with a separate implementation package; some vendors price per student per year with minimums.

Headset-based products can require buying VR hardware separately from the software license.

Federal buyers such as the VA and the Army have bought VR medical simulation software through individual contract awards listed on USAspending.gov.

For SBIR, GSA schedules, OTAs and other routes in general, see How buying works.

6. More questions