Quirónsalud Valencia incorporates virtual reality glasses to reduce the perception of pain in its pediatric emergencies

The Quirónsalud Valencia hospital incorporates virtual reality glasses for the care of children in its pediatric emergency service. These devices are included within the different implanted procedures whose objective is to reduce the perception of pain during the actions and medical processes that take place in the center and, in this way, to reduce the perception of pain in the children treated.

A boy with glasses during his attention in the emergency room

The operation of these devices allows keeping the child's attention out of the procedure that is applied during their assistance. As explained by Dr. Gonzalo Pin, head of the Pediatric Service of Quirónsalud Valencia, "These devices are used according to each child in a personalized way in situations that require reducing anxiety, such as taking blood samples, reducing fractures, etc. Among the many benefits obtained with its use include faster sample extractions, less use of anesthetics in painful actions such as reduction of a fracture and the effect of retrograde amnesia in the memory of the child that, by not remembering the episode as something traumatic, favors a positive predisposition to future visits to a health center. "

Among the procedures put in place by the Pediatric Service of Quirónsalud Valencia are the training of all staff to improve empathy with parents and family members, the improvement of communication and information about the technique that will be carried out to adapt it to the age and the patient's understanding, the active participation of parents and children during the procedures, the use of pain scales and their recording in the clinical history to be able to know the evolution and the use of a positive reinforcement after each one of the interventions , among other practices.

All these actions are very beneficial, both for minors and their families and health personnel. "Children do not suffer unnecessarily, so their memory of being in the hospital ceases to be painful, we improve their state of anxiety and, with it, that of parents and relatives," explains Dr. Pin. "In addition, different studies have shown that the implementation of these techniques reduces the length of hospital stay and increases the perception of the quality of care," he adds.