Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2026
Pioneering Patient-Specific Approaches for Precision Surgery Using Imaging and Virtual Reality
Published on: April 5, 2024
Evaluation of a virtual tour for children undergoing same-day surgery and their parents
Jocelyne Tourigny1, Debbie Clendinneng, Julie Chartrand
1School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Insights
This study found that a virtual surgery tour improved children's healthcare knowledge. However, while children's distress remained stable, parents experienced increased anxiety after using the virtual tour.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare
- Health informatics
- Patient education
Background:
- Same-day surgery can cause anxiety in children and parents.
- Virtual tours offer a potential tool for pre-operative education and anxiety reduction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the "Surgery Virtual Tour" for pediatric same-day surgery patients and their parents.
- To assess the tour's impact on health care knowledge, emotional state, utilization, and perceived usefulness.
Main Methods:
- A pre-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest design was employed.
- A convenience sample of 138 children undergoing same-day surgery and their parents participated.
- Health care knowledge and emotional distress were measured before and after tour engagement.
Main Results:
- The virtual tour was utilized by 55% of participating families.
- Children who viewed the tour demonstrated significantly higher knowledge scores.
- Parental emotional distress increased significantly from pre-surgery (Time 1) to surgery day (Time 2) after tour use, while children's distress levels showed no significant change.
Conclusions:
- The "Surgery Virtual Tour" effectively enhances children's understanding of surgical procedures.
- Clinicians and managers can leverage these findings to develop effective virtual tour interventions for pediatric surgical patients and their families.
- Further research may explore strategies to mitigate parental anxiety associated with virtual tour engagement.
Abstract:
This study evaluated a virtual tour entitled, "Surgery Virtual Tour," offered on a Web site of a university-affiliated pediatric center. A pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the level of health care knowledge, emotional state, degree of utilization, and perceived usefulness of the Virtual Tour. The convenience sample consisted of 138 children having same-day surgery and their parents. The "Surgery Virtual Tour" was used by 55% of 138 families. Children who viewed the Web site had statistically significant higher knowledge scores than those who did not. Although there was no statistically significant difference in emotional distress for children in either group before the surgery (Time 1) to the day of the surgery (Time 2), parents' level of emotional distress increased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 when they took the Virtual Tour. The results of this study will help clinicians and managers build virtual tours for children undergoing same-day surgery and their parents.
