VR and simulation training for healthcare communication

Last updated October 21, 2026

Practice for difficult conversations in medicine, such as breaking bad news or calming an angry patient, with virtual patients, AI or filmed actors, for hospitals, health systems, the VA and military health.

This guide lists 11 providers of immersive healthcare communication training, in alphabetical order: Bodyswaps, Embodied Labs, Engineering & Computer Simulations (ECS), Moth+Flame, Mursion, Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS), PCS, SimConverse, SimX, UbiSim and Virti. 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

Healthcare communication training lets nurses, physicians and other staff rehearse hard conversations before they happen, such as delivering serious news, discussing goals of care, handing off a patient, or calming an agitated patient. Practice partners range from trained actors (standardized patients) to AI-driven virtual humans and VR scenarios.

Hospitals and health systems, private and public, have several reasons to invest. CMS's HCAHPS survey asks patients how well doctors and nurses communicated and plays a role in hospital payment, Joint Commission standards require workplace violence prevention programs that include staff education and training, and AHRQ's TeamSTEPPS offers evidence-based tools for team communication.

Government health systems add their own requirements. VA policy requires patient-experience and workplace violence prevention training and VA publishes goals-of-care conversation training, while the Military Health System centrally manages shared medical simulation capabilities and surveys patients about their inpatient and outpatient experience.

The problem

Serious-illness conversations often happen late or not at all; Ariadne Labs says only one third of patients in their last year of life report having them. In 2020 the VA contracted to update training addressing a gap in clinical staff's ability to hold goals-of-care conversations with Veterans.

Workplace violence is common in health care. A 2022 article in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data, reports that health care workers incurred nearly three-quarters of violence-related nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2018.

Experience alone may not build these skills: a 2018 Cochrane review notes research suggesting communication skills do not reliably improve with experience. Patients also rate hospitals on how well doctors and nurses communicate, through an HCAHPS survey whose scores are publicly reported and play a role in hospital payment.

Mandates and programs

• The Joint Commission workplace violence prevention standards (R3 Report Issue 30), effective January 1, 2022. New and revised standards for hospitals and critical access hospitals seeking Joint Commission accreditation took effect January 1, 2022. They require a workplace violence prevention program that includes staff education and training, according to a 2022 Joint Commission journal article.
• CMS HCAHPS survey and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program. The HCAHPS survey captures patients' experience of communication with doctors and nurses, communication about medicines and discharge information. Hospital scores have been publicly reported since 2008 and, since 2012, have played a role in hospital payment through the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program.
• AACN Essentials, Domain 6: Interprofessional Partnerships. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing's Essentials competency framework includes Domain 6, Interprofessional Partnerships. For entry-level sub-competency 6.1b, AACN's tool kit lists using standardized communication tools and techniques to convey patient information accurately and concisely during handoffs and team discussions.
• VHA Directives 1160.08(1), 1003 and 1004.03(1). VA's workplace violence directive makes PMDB, which includes verbal de-escalation, the only approved curriculum for mandatory workplace violence training. Directive 1003 requires Own the Moment patient-experience training for every VHA employee at onboarding and annually. Directive 1004.03(1) on advance care planning lists no formal training requirements.
• MHS patient experience surveys: TRISS, JOES and JOES-C. The Military Health System measures beneficiary experience with the TRICARE Inpatient Satisfaction Survey (TRISS), which uses questions developed for the HCAHPS initiative, and with the Joint Outpatient Experience Survey (JOES) and JOES-C for outpatient care.

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 conversations does each scenario train, and who wrote and reviewed the clinical content? Content is easier to adopt when it matches frameworks staff already use, such as AHRQ's TeamSTEPPS for team communication or VA's SPIKES and REMAP cards for serious news.
2. Do learners speak freely with an AI or human role player, or choose from scripted options? Practice partners range from trained actors portraying patients to AI-based virtual humans; ask how responses are generated and how consistent they are across learners.
3. Does it run in a browser or on phones, or only on VR headsets? Headset-free options reach staff without hardware; one county program chose a web version because headsets can disorient some participants.
4. What does the assessment measure, and can results feed our learning management system? Leaders need evidence of skill, not only completions; VA, for example, assigns and tracks required workplace violence training in its Talent Management System.
5. Does the course carry CME or CE credit for our nurses and physicians? Credit-bearing courses fit more easily into clinicians' continuing education plans; DHA's Continuing Education Program Office, for example, awards CE/CME credit for accredited events.
6. How does it fit the training we are already required to deliver? Joint Commission standards require workplace violence training, and in VA PMDB is the only approved curriculum, so a de-escalation product may add practice without replacing required training.
7. Where is learner voice and video data stored, and what security reviews has the product passed? Conversation practice platforms collect learners' responses and performance data on their servers; agency IT and privacy reviews will ask where it is stored before staff use it.
8. What independent evidence shows behavior change with real patients, not just learner confidence? Effects can be modest: a 2018 Cochrane review found communication training improved some skills, such as showing empathy, but found no difference in patient satisfaction (very low-certainty evidence).

5. How buying works

In hospitals, these tools can support new-graduate transition to practice and nurse residency programs. One vendor describes use for transition to practice and nurse professional development, and its case study describes a hospital nurse residency that brings VR headsets to night-shift staff.

Patient-experience results can support the case for purchase: HCAHPS scores, which include communication with doctors and nurses, are publicly reported and have played a role in hospital payment through the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing program since 2012.

VA buys this training nationally and locally. USAspending shows VA's Technology Acquisition Center placing goals-of-care simulation task orders under a GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract, and VA network contracting offices buying a communication course and VR simulation training through local purchase orders.

Grants and research funds also pay for tools. NIH and the Defense Health Agency have funded communication and medical simulation training through SBIR awards, and Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation funded a children's hospital's VR de-escalation module through a workforce safety grant.

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

6. More questions