The problem
Clinical simulation is valuable, but physical mannequins can be costly and limited while remote VR can miss tactile practice.
Healthcare simulation
MetaNurse
Mixed reality nursing simulation designed to bridge the gap between remote VR learning and hands-on clinical practice.
- Healthcare simulation
- Mixed reality
- Tactile learning
Problem and solution
Practical healthcare skills need the body, not just the screen.
Nursing training increasingly uses digital simulation, but many procedures still depend on touch, equipment handling and team communication. Fully virtual training can be accessible, but it often lacks the tactile cues that help learners build confidence with real procedures.
MetaNurse explores a mixed reality approach: trainees enter an immersive clinical scene while interacting naturally with real or physical objects. The aim is to keep the reach and repeatability of digital training while restoring more of the hands-on experience.
The concept builds from the same practical insight as TrainTrach: healthcare simulation becomes more useful when visual immersion, physical interaction, instructor observation and repeatable assessment are designed together.
The solution
Mixed reality combines immersive scenes, audio, direct hand tracking and real-object interaction to support practical skills training.
How we worked
The project built on Nudge Reality's healthcare simulation experience, including TrainTrach, and focused on procedure design, haptics and evaluation.
Tactile
Real-world objects can provide practical feedback where controller-only VR falls short.
Collaborative
Multi-user simulation supports communication, observation and instructor-led learning.
Expandable
The concept is designed around a portfolio of procedures rather than a single training scene.
What the simulation explores
A mixed reality model for practical procedure training.
- Immersive clinical environments that can represent different procedures and care contexts.
- Direct hand tracking so learners can interact without holding controllers.
- Physical equipment and tactile props to support muscle memory and procedural confidence.
- Multi-user training so communication and teamwork can be practised alongside technical skills.
- Instructor observation and evaluation, making the simulation useful for feedback rather than just exposure.
Trust signals
Grounded in real clinical training constraints.
- Developed from a clear training gap: scalable digital learning that still supports hands-on competence.
- Uses commercially available headset technology rather than requiring specialist high-cost haptic systems.
- Builds on earlier tracheostomy simulation work and healthcare XR development practice.
- Considers instructor observation, student evaluation and group training from the outset.
- Focused on translating procedure detail into repeatable, reviewable training design.
How we worked
Designed from the gap between VR access and real-world competence.
The project focused on the limitations of both sides of clinical simulation: physical mannequins can be expensive and hard to scale, while remote VR can miss the tactile detail that practical procedures require.
MetaNurse shows Nudge Reality's ability to think beyond a headset demo. For practical healthcare skills, the interaction model matters: what learners hold, how they move, what feedback they receive and how instructors can assess what happened.