Pain management using distraction in school-age children

Memory of children about painful experiences can influence their reactions in the face of such events. In younger children, negative memories, create a negative perception of clinical care. Distraction is a technique of pain management for reducing pain and stress behaviour in children who undergo invasive therapeutic procedures. The purpose of this study was to review distraction methods using virtual reality. The study was done by reviewing published and available internal and external resources between 2000 and 2014, in the databases such as ProQuest, Scopus, PubMed, Elsevier, SID and IranMedex. Among the several articles obtained, 8 review and intervention articles about the effectiveness of virtual reality on pain management in children were revised. Various studies used or emphasized on role of several methods such as hypnosis, distraction, thoughts and ideas guided for pain relief in children. Distraction is the most common method used for painful procedures which lasts a short time. Therefore, distraction using the five senses is one of the interventions reduces not only the pain but also stress of medical procedures. Distraction techniques, such as three-dimensional virtual reality glasses, are as effective as medical procedures or even better. Totally, distraction using virtual reality caused the modification of pain, fear and anxiety in children, so it reduced their resistance to treatment. Therefore, nurses can perform the procedure more easily and quickly.