Investigating virtual reality in reducing patients' pain

Introduction: Relieving patients' pain is one of the main challenges of the nursing profession. On the other hand,virtual reality is a new technology with broad pain management applications while performing medical procedures. Therefore, in this study, to investigate the effectiveness of virtual reality in reducing patients' pain, research conducted in this field has been studied. The findings could pave the way for the implementation of this technology in hospitals. Methods: The present study was conducted as a review in 1399. Using the keywords Virtual reality, Nursing, Pain, Augmented reality, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus databases were searched in July 2020. Full text of articles related to the present study was collected based on inclusion criteria (access to the full text of articles, summary of articles related to study, publication date 2020-2000, the publication of articles in Persian or English) and exit (lack of access to the full text of articles). Endnote software was used to organize articles. Also, to evaluate the articles' quality, they were reviewed, and eight articles were selected, and related data were extracted. Results: In this study, eight articles were reviewed. Of these, five studies have been performed to reduce pain in patients with ulcers, two studies have been performed to reduce pain and anxiety in cancer patients, and one case has been performed to reduce labor pain. 62% of the studies stated that the clinical use of virtual reality effectively reduces the level of pain perceived by patients when performing painful procedures. Twenty-five percent of studies have shown that the use of virtual reality in combination with medication is effective in reducing patients' pain. In contrast, one study found no significant association between the use of virtual reality and the reduction of patients' pain and anxiety. Also, two studies emphasized that virtual reality has been effective in reducing the time required to perform procedures. One study found that reducing the symptoms of anxiety and fatigue due to virtual reality in women undergoing chemotherapy. Conclusion: Virtual reality is a non-pharmacological pain relief method that has brought benefits to nurses and patients. This method is easy for nurses to use and does not rely on a doctor's prescription. Also, it does not cause side effects for patients. These benefits have increased the willingness of staff to use this method and have strengthened patient collaboration. The use of virtual reality reduces the time required to perform the procedure and improves clinical efficiency.

Keywords:

Virtual Reality , Augmented Reality , Pain , Nurse.