technology
workers in the home. How do you
improve an experience? This is a very
tangible way to bring something that is
entertaining, something that becomes a
topic of conversation.
Imagine if you’re a nurse. You go in
daily for a dressing and you’ve seen this
person four times a week, five times a
week. This other element gives a new
avenue for conversation to go down,
so it actually provides a level of variety,
both for the nurse and for the client. It
improves the communication between
the two.
Client Peter Russel enjoys a virtual reality experience while
Bolton Clarke nurse Rajwind Kaur changes his wound dressings.
that cause anxiety and/or pain, and how
with virtual reality we can intervene with
something other than a drug to try and
distract them from the thing they are
anxious about, or the procedure that
causes them pain.
There’s great research to show that it
works really well in dental clinics, and
we used to use it in a dental clinic, in
a cancer hospital, as well as for taking
blood, lumbar punctures and wound
dressings. There’s been extensive research
in the burns units in hospitals [that shows]
how virtual reality can improve the
patient experience.
What are some of the environments that
users are transported to?
Interestingly, most people like the
underwater content. Now, when I first
started working with virtual reality
I would often use nature scenes
and photographs, because we were
concerned that animation might cause
nausea, dizziness or other unwanted
side effects. But that wasn’t the case.
People loved being underwater, and
what they liked more was the computer-
generated underwater experience with
dolphins, whales, starfish and turtles.
That seemed to transport them more.
We know, scientifically, that immersing
yourself in water does lower your blood
pressure. So this gives us a hint that there
is something relaxing and transportive
about the underwater environment.
What differences have the VR headsets
made to clients and to their approach to
receiving wound care? What feedback
have you received?
The clients we’ve trialled it on tend to
think the wound dressing procedure went
for a shorter time. So their sense of time
perception is altered when using virtual
reality, which is a positive because they
think the dressing happened very quickly,
compared to those having their wounds
dressed without the virtual reality.
As well as a change in time perception,
they experience less pain, because the
distractive technique of virtual reality
means your brain can’t compete with
two overwhelming stimuli. So with
the pain stimuli and the experience
of being surrounded and disoriented
underwater, your brain can’t process both
of these stimuli with the same intensity.
Something loses, and what usually loses
is pain. So clients in the end use less
pain medication.
The other thing with repeat procedures
is there is a lot of anticipatory anxiety with
clients. So just imagine if you’re having
a blood test every day, or every week.
There’s a level of anxiety before it occurs,
a level of anxiety before the needle is
inserted. So virtual reality runs active
interference with that anxiety.
We see from the research and our own
clients’ feedback that they experience
less anxiety.
What impact has it had on staff and
their ability to complete the wound
management procedure?
I think the staff can make the procedure
longer, because they have to prepare
another level of equipment: they have to
be familiar with the headsets, know how
to work them and troubleshoot problems.
But the staff are really motivated to
try something different, because we’ve
had a lot of focus at Bolton Clarke on
improving the client experience, and
what that means for nurses and care
So will virtual reality be used only for
clients who are anxious or resistant to
wound dressings being changed? Or
are there plans to use it for clients with
different care needs in the future?
We’ll be exploring a range of applications
of virtual reality within the organisation.
There’s certainly emerging evidence of
its use within aged care facilities, and
how to reduce anxiety and distress with
residents who have dementia. So there
is a real application for virtual reality in
those contexts, especially if the only
alternative is to sedate people. We want to
be looking at all the non-pharmacological
interventions that can improve a person’s
state of mind.
We have also purchased a 360-degree
camera so we can make our own
video content. One idea we’ve had
is for people in residential aged care
who have dementia – we could record
their family members, home and other
familiar environments. When they are
distressed, we can play that content
that is specifically tailored to them to
see if it calms their mood and reduces
their anxiety and fear, because they are
looking at things that are familiar to them,
and it’s an immersive environment. So
we’re really keen to explore its use in aged
care facilities.
We are also keen to explore its
use for those people that are going
through death and dying and how an
experience in a forest may provide
a mental break for them during
that period.
We see lots of other applications. For
example, to use with our staff, so they
can experience what it is like to do an
assessment, what it’s like to walk into
a person’s home, and they can learn
from each other, start to video-tape
and document how we do things. It is a
great training tool as well. ■
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