New York (CNN Business) As hospitals worldwide face severe shortages of health professionals, people are being called off the sidelines to help COVID-19 patients — even those with little to no experience in treating infectious diseases.

To train thousands of doctors and nurses with expertise in other areas such as knee surgery or neurology -- and retired practitioners reentering the medical field -- some hospitals are implementing an unlikely method: virtual reality simulations.

At Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, more than 300 doctors have learned skills, such as how to assess a patient's symptoms or perform CPR while wearing protective gear, through VR.

"It feels like you are in the room with a patient," said Russell Metcalfe-Smith, the director of the Women's Guild Simulation Center for Advanced Clinical Skills at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which has been rapidly training staff for COVID-19. "Based on the decisions you make in the simulation, one direction will lead to another. We have [doctors] jump quickly into a virtual environment like this to get them to where they need to be."

Doctors and nurses at hospitals nationwide are undergoing a variety coronavirus-specific trainings right now, including how to correctly put on and take off protective equipment, how to utilize ventilators that are typically only used by critical care staff, learning new guidelines around concepts such as basic CPR and life support, and managing a diagnosis.

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