A Virtual Patient to Assess Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Nurses' Pain Assessment and Intervention Practices

Pediatric intensive care (PICU) nurses play a crucial role in managing children’s pain. While virtual patient (VP) technology has shown significant benefits in assisting with the practice of healthcare, there has been little research effort in this particular setting. This paper presents a pilot evaluation study to determine the validity of VP vignettes including PICU nurses’ recognition of the facial expressions (smiling and grimacing) of VPs and nurses’ descriptions as to whether the VP vignettes are consistent with their professional experiences. The results of our initial study (n=20) confirm that nurses identified given expressions correctly (98.5%) and validated the similarity of the vignettes to their experiences with patients in the PICU (87%). A better understanding of nurses’ pain management practices will aid the development of future VP interventions.