Increasing Providers’ Awareness of Virtual Reality Therapy for the Management of Pain and Anxiety in Pediatric Patients Perioperatively: An Educational Module

Background: Pain and anxiety management remains a significant challenge in the pediatric population despite advances in healthcare and the availability of pharmacological interventions. This quality improvement project aimed to increase the providers’ awareness of virtual reality therapy for managing pain and anxiety in pediatric patients perioperatively. Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted through CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane to extract research studies related to the PICO question from 2016 to 2023. After systematically evaluating articles, 10 were appraised. An invitation was sent to certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) and anesthesiologists to participate in a pretest survey, followed by the execution of the instructional module and a post-test survey. Statistical analysis was applied to evaluate the impact of the educational intervention. Results: Four out of 9 post-test questions showed marked improvement. Two of the 4 questions showed an 11.1% increase in knowledge, and the remaining 2 questions showed a 22.2% increase in knowledge. No change was observed in the scores for questions 1, 3, 6, and 8, with participants maintaining high accuracy (88.9% to 100%) from pretest to posttest. Discussion: Knowledge of virtual reality therapy for managing pain and anxiety in pediatric patients perioperatively increased. Despite the drawbacks, all participants advocated for virtual reality in pediatric care perioperatively. Limitations included delivery of the educational module and a sample size of 9 participants. Keywords: Virtual reality, anxiety, pain management, pediatric patients, perioperative.