Studies in health technology and informatics
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of virtual reality for pain reduction in adults with acute or chronic pain.
The objective of this systematic review was to determine the level of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of VR for pain management in adults with pain. A comprehensive systematic search involving major health care databases was undertaken to identify randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and descriptive studies. Twenty-seven studies were identified that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. ⋯ Moreover, there is limited evidence (Level 2a) of effectiveness of immersive VR compared to no VR for reducing chronic pain. There is currently no published study that has explored the effectiveness of non-immersive VR for chronic pain (level 5). It is concluded that VR can be recommended as a standard or adjunct clinical intervention for pain management at least in the management of acute pain.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialVirtual reality on mobile phones to reduce anxiety in outpatient surgery.
When undergo ambulatory surgical operations, the majority of patients experience high level of anxiety. Different experimental studies have shown that distraction techniques are effective in reducing pain and related anxiety. Since Virtual reality (VR) has been demonstrated a good distraction technique, it has been repeatedly used in hospital contexts for reducing pain in burned patients, but it has never been used during surgical operations. ⋯ In particular, we measured the degree to which anxiety associated with surgical intervention was reduced by distracting patients with immersive VR provided through a cell phone connected to an HMD compared to a no-distraction control condition. A significant reduction of anxiety was obtained after 45 minutes of operation in the VR group, but not in the control group and, after 90 minutes, the reduction was larger in the experimental group than in other one. In conclusion, this study presents an innovative promising technique to reduce anxiety during surgical interventions, even if more studies are necessary to investigate its effectiveness in other kinds of operations and in larger numbers of patients.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyRetention of knowledge after repeated virtual world CPR training in high school students.
We investigated the retention of knowledge and skills after repeated Virtual World MOS (VWMOS) team training of CPR in high school students. An experimental group of 9 students were compared to a control group of 7 students. ⋯ Although we found no significant differences in general basic life support knowledge, the changes that occurred in the CPR guidelines were retained 18 months after the last Virtual World training session in the experimental group. Moreover fewer deviations from the CPR guidelines occurred.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Intensive care admission and discharge - critical decision-making points.
Delivery of intensive care has many critical points impacting the outcomes of critically ill patients. Two important key events in intensive care are patients' admission and discharge procedures. ⋯ To reveal the complex decision-making, we studied the decision-making processes and information needs of intensive care charge nurses during patients' admission and discharge procedures. We identified several interconnected decision-making steps during these procedures.
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Stud Health Technol Inform · Jan 2009
Psychometric properties of the self-assessment of nursing informatics competencies scale.
The objective of this study was to examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and responsiveness of the Self-Assessment of Nursing Informatics Competencies Scale (SANICS). Combined BS/MS nursing students (N=336) completed the 93-item scale, which was based upon published and locally-developed nursing informatics competency statements. ⋯ This study provided preliminary evidence for the factor structure, internal consistency reliability and responsiveness of the 30-item SANICS. Further testing other samples is recommended.