Institut Narcís Xifra

First Aid in VR: practice emergencies before they happen

National project · Healthcare emergency training

3: ages
Real: protocols
Live: teamwork

This project (AINN23/00182, “Aplicación de industria 4.0 en el cuidado de pacientes en situación de emergencia”) was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (2023 call for applied innovation and research projects and knowledge transfer in Vocational Training).

The context

Two vocational schools, one company and a shared challenge

Institut Narcís Xifra and CIFP EASO Politeknikoa joined MetaMedicsVR with one question: how do you train for the pressure of a real emergency without putting anyone at risk? Teachers and developers adapted the CPR, choking and recovery position protocols to virtual reality and took them into classrooms in Girona (May 2026) and Donostia-San Sebastián (June 2026). The project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

You can't rehearse a real emergency.

Theory is taught well; what can’t be reproduced is the urgency and pressure of a real emergency. Mannequins help, but they are scarce and rarely recreate the chaos of a critical situation.

The scenarios

A library of emergency scenarios in VR

Built on real healthcare protocols and repeatable on demand: adult, pediatric and neonatal.

Adult CPR

Neonatal cases

Using the AED

Airway obstruction

Advanced CPR

Calling for help

In the classroom

Train as a team, then review what happened

Nursing students practising patient care together in a simulation classroom

A person wearing a virtual reality headset during an immersive training session

Hands demonstrating chest compressions on a resuscitation training manikin

Why it matters

Repetition without risk, where it counts most

The simulations are collaborative — several students enter at once and coordinate by voice — and each session ends with automated reports and a replay. Every learner gets the practice time that scarce mannequins and limited placements rarely allow.

If you recognize your own situation here, let's talk about how it could work for you.

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