ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — At the Center for Clinical Advancement in Englewood, HealthONE registered nurse Mary Aung is going through a virtual reality simulation of a fire in an operating room.

She gets to work using her headset and controllers, trying to save the patient.

“I was freaking out,” Aung said.

The VR takes some time to get used to, she said, but it is very helpful for her continued training.

“You feel like you are doing it in the real world, and even if you get it wrong, that’s fine. You can go back and redo it,” she said.

The leadership team is very proud of the tool.

“To my knowledge, we are on the forefront here,” said Carolyn Vitale, vice president of clinical education for HealthONE.

VR training like ‘choose your own adventure’

She said the VR is used to train nurses for high-pressure emergency situations. It offers different outcomes based on the nurses’ actions.

“As the nurse performs one action or doesn’t choose one action, it’s like choose your own adventure: The program, just like real life, proceeds as if that truly were happening,” Vitale said.

She said the training is realistic — plus, VR can be fun.

“There’s a little bit of a gaming aspect to it. They want to beat their last score. There’s some competition amongst one another,” she said.

And nurses don’t have to go to the training center to use the VR. The sets pack up into a small case and can go where ever they are needed.