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Virtual Reality in Pain Management in Patient Undergoing Minor Surgical Procedures

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Virtual Reality in Pain Management in Patient Undergoing Minor Surgical Procedures

Pain management is one of the major patient care issues faced after surgical

procedures, which could determine patient satisfaction with the care provided. Opioids are

the most commonly used pain management method. Due to the adverse side effects

associated with prolonged use of opioids, which could decrease the efficacy of the treatment

and affect patients’ quality of life, alternative safer and effective pain management solutions

should be considered. Nursing informatics provides an opportunity to take advantage of

technological solutions to improve patient care. Virtual reality (VR) is one of the recent

technological solutions with potential therapeutic implications that can be used as a non-

pharmacological pain intervention (Versyck et al., 2019). VR technology can be used to

reduce post-operative pain during minor surgeries to reduce overreliance on opioids.

Description of the Project

Virtual reality is a computer simulation that creates an artificial environment for a

person to interact with a three-dimensional (3D) visual virtual environment (Huang, 2021).

This technology immerses a person in a computer-generated environment that resembles

reality by using devices that send and receive information. The intervention involves wearing

a VR headset that covers the wearer’s field of view and gives them a 360° view of the 3D

visual virtual computer-generated content. It immerses users into a virtual world, providing

them with a virtual experience and a new reality (Huang, 2021). A trained therapist controls

the experience by guiding the user through the virtual surroundings and redirects thoughts

about the pain (Stamm et al., 2022).

VR technology has been used in other industries, such as entertainment, gaming, and

education, by creating cinematic experiences that resemble real-world scenarios (Jumani et

al., 2022). Similarly, the technology can be used in post-surgical pain management to divert

the patient’s attention from the pain by immersing patients in a virtual environment. VR-
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based pain management can be used as an alternative or adjunctive therapy to reduce

dependence on drugs and reduce risks associated with drugs on patient health. Research has

demonstrated the efficacy of VR in pain management, which has been associated with a

significant reduction in post-operative pain, improved patient satisfaction, and reduced

anxiety levels (Versyck et al., 2019; Hayashi et al., 2019).

Stakeholders

The stakeholders that this project will impact include the post-operative healthcare

team members, including surgeons, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, residents,

pharmacists, post-operative nurses, and other healthcare professionals involved in post-

operative care. The post-operative healthcare team is concerned about the welfare of the

patients after surgery. The team monitors the patients to ensure that they receive the care

needed to recover after surgery by monitoring and managing the patient’s physiological

health, where pain management is one of the priority nursing interventions. The change will

also impact patients and their families due to the associated implications of the project on

patient health outcomes. The post-operative pain management outcomes directly impact

patients and their families as it impacts their quality of life and satisfaction with care.

Treatment outcomes directly impact families as they bear the cost and emotional burden

during post-surgical care.

Patient Outcomes

The project is expected to improve patient’s health outcomes by reducing post-

operative pain scores, improving patient satisfaction, and improving patients’ quality of life.

The reduction in post-operative pain scores would occur due to the use of VR in post-

operative pain management, where the immersive technology will make patients feel as if

they are in another world, taking their attention from the pain. The reduced post-operative

pain would lead to increased patient satisfaction with the post-operative care. The patients’
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quality of life will be improved by the positive treatment outcomes as patients will be able to

live healthy and comfortable lives and enjoy life activities without the stress caused by post-

operative pain. For example, successful pain management would reduce the utilization of

healthcare services and alleviate the need for prolonged drug therapy to manage pain, which

could increase the cost of treatment.

Technologies Required

The technological devices needed to use VR include a cardboard VR headset, VR

goggles, a computer, and a mobile device, such as a smartphone (Bai et al., 2021). The

implementation of VR technology to manage pain would require various components of VR

architecture, including a database, a client application, and a web administration panel

(Sermet & Demir, 2022). The database would store the data that would be required, including

audio content, scenarios, and 3D models that the client application would use. The client

application allows the user to visualize the VR experience and interact with it. The

administration panel is needed to manage the client application and control or modify the data

stored in the database. VR software would be required to create the virtual experience by

combining software and hardware components. The software utilizes advanced technologies

to allow the user to interact with a virtual world by creating a sense of presence that makes

the user feel as if they are physically present in a virtual environment (Huang, 2021). The

software causes immersion by stimulating multiple senses through hearing and vision and

tracking user movements, creating a real-time visual display that aligns with the user’s

perspective (Huang, 2021).

Project Team

The project team will consist of specialists with the skills to create immersive

experiences, including a product designer, a visual designer, and a game designer. Other

project team members would include a VR exposure therapist, the administrator, and the
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nurse informaticist. The product designer will be in charge of creating the architecture of the

system to determine how the various components of the system interact with each other to

create the VR experience. The product designer will lead the project and collaborate with the

other specialists to ensure every aspect of the product converges to create the designed VR

experience. The visual designer will create illustrations showing how the solution will be

employed by creating visual designs, graphics, effects, environments, characters, and other

elements of the simulated experience. The game designer will create a video game that will

be used in the VR experience. After the development of the VR solution, a VR exposure

therapist would be needed to guide the user through the VR experience.

The hospital administrator will be required to provide administrative support. The

finance manager will be involved in the project as there are financial decisions that would

need to be made since there are devices that would need to be purchased and VR technology

specialists who should be involved to design and implement the project. A nurse informaticist

would be incorporated into the project team to link the VR designers with the clinical team

and the patients during the implementation of the project. The nurse informaticist will

facilitate communication between the VR designers and the clinical staff as they understand

both healthcare and technology languages due to their technological and clinical experiences

(Haupeltshofer et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The proposed project is the use of VR technology in post-operative pain management.

The technology has successfully been used in other sectors, such as education and

entertainment, to create virtual experiences that replicate real-world situations. The

technology can be used as an adjunctive or alternative pain management intervention to

opioids, which have been associated with numerous adverse side effects. Research has

demonstrated that VR can be effective in reducing post-surgical pain among patients

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undergoing minor surgeries. The expected outcomes include a reduction in post-operative

pain scores, improvement in patient satisfaction, and improved patient quality of life.
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References

Bai, H., Zhang, L., Yang, J., & Billinghurst, M. (2021). Bringing full-featured mobile phone

interaction into virtual reality. Computers & Graphics, 97, 42-53.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cag.2021.04.004

Haupeltshofer, A., Egerer, V., & Seeling, S. (2020). Promoting health literacy: What

potential does nursing informatics offer to support older adults in the use of

technology? A scoping review. Health Informatics Journal, 26(4), 2707-2721.

https://doi.org/10.1177/146045822093341

Huang, J. C. (2021). From building information modeling to extended reality. Industry 4.0 for

the Built Environment: Methodologies, Technologies and Skills, 471-493.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_20

Jumani, A. K., Siddique, W. A., Laghari, A. A., Abro, A., & Khan, A. A. (2022). Virtual

reality and augmented reality for education. Multimedia Computing Systems and

Virtual Reality, 189-210. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003196686

Sermet, Y., & Demir, I. (2022). GeospatialVR: A web-based virtual reality framework for

collaborative environmental simulations. Computers & Geosciences, 159, 105010.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.105010

Stamm, O., Dahms, R., Reithinger, N., Ruß, A., & Müller-Werdan, U. (2022). Virtual reality

exergame for supplementing multimodal pain therapy in older adults with chronic

back pain: A randomized controlled pilot study. Virtual Reality, 26(4), 1291-1305.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-022-00629-3