The Effect of Preoperative Virtual Reality Glasses Use on Postoperative Pain and Anxiety in Women Having a Caesarean Section

Cesarean is a major surgical operation that is widely performed around the world. Pain after cesarean is more significant than expected, and pain control remains a problem. In addition, the women undergoing cesarean experience stress and anxiety due to the surgical process. Anxiety and pain experienced after cesarean affect the mother physiologically and psychologically, negatively affecting the healing process. Therefore, it is essential to determine interventions that will reduce pain and anxiety in women undergoing cesarean. This study aims to examine the effect of preoperative virtual reality use on postoperative pain and anxiety in women undergoing cesarean.

This study has a randomized controlled experimental design. The research will be carried out in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic of a public hospital in the North of Turkey. Women who had a cesarean will be included in the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control group using a computer-generated list. A data collection form including an Introductory information form including sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) will used for each participant. After obtaining written informed consent, the anxiety levels of women in the intervention and control groups will be determined by applying a pre-test (STAI). Then, the women in the intervention group will be shown a relaxing video (video with a nature view accompanied by nature sounds) through preoperative virtual reality glasses. No intervention will be applied to women in the control group. After surgery, the anxiety levels of women in both groups will be evaluated in the first 4 hours, and the pain levels will be evaluated in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th hours. The IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 21.0 package program will be used to evaluate the data obtained in the study.