A Virtual Nursing Simulator with Haptic Feedback for Nasotracheal Suctioning

Presently, there are a myriad of virtual reality applications being devised for the full spectrum of disciplines. Of particular interest are military and healthcare applications. The importance of simulators for training becomes clear for critical tasks such as flight or surgery. Moreover, there is merit to be found in simulators that educate nurses for critical procedures, especially for procedures that have the potential to cause serious pain and injury. The application presented in this paper is nasotracheal suctioning. This application trains and evaluates in an intuitive way, using force feedback, an elaborate visual interface, and a variety of auditory cues (sounds and verbal instructions). It allows the practitioner to perform this procedure repeatedly in a safe environment before conducting it on a live patient