Border nurses went inside a heart this week.
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A new virtual reality training program, attended by 36 over two days at Albury Wodonga Health, allowed nurses to better understand the inner working of the heart in three dimensions.
Facilitated by Bundle of Rays director and registered nurse Ben Chesham, the innovative course delved into cardiac rhythm and ECG interpretation.
Mr Chesham said the program is "really simple" and takes learning from a text book to "all around you".
"Essentially you are taking anatomy from a text book and lifting it up and seeing it in a 3D space," he told The Border Mail.
"It is called spacial computing - so you have a tradition computer desk, that you sit at with your key board but now the computer desk wraps around you.
"You can walk inside the screen.
"For things like ECG and cardiac training that we are doing in Albury, the nurses are able to walk inside the heart, they can deconstruct it, and they can also see how certain parts of the heart relate to others, walk around and hold onto it."
AWH clinical education manager Emma Horsfield said the training allows nurses to see "what is going on inside the heart".
"It allows the learners through virtual reality to get in to the heart and see all the electrical activity that is happening, how that relates to our heart functions and by knowing that info we can have a better idea of what is happening with our patients, she said.
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"You can read a book and practice how to do it but this brings the heart to life.
"This is really exciting using a different methodology, having such an immersive experience is so powerful in building knowledge and understanding.
"Traditionally there is face to face learning or lectures but learning has to be engaging and innovative and this incorporates active learning."
Ms Horsfield said the health service is "always encouraging" further learning.
"It helps us better care for our community," she said.
"A lot of the nurses have told me that through this virtual reality education they have had an 'ah ha' moment.
"They better understand those difficult concepts and know exactly what the heart is doing when we perform a simple ECG on our patients in Albury-Wodonga."
