Digital educational game as a means for understanding hospitalized children and adolescents about venipuncture procedure

Abstract

The hospitalization of the child/adolescent generates moments of stress, fears and longings, especially for the procedures to which she is subjected, such as the venipuncture procedure, causing her to feel threatened by the painful invasion, making the hospital a place of deprivation and detachment of their daily and school activities. Access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies, through Virtual Learning Environments, allows the child / adolescent to approach the activities and life outside the hospital. The general objective of this study was to identify if the digital educational game can contribute to a better understanding by the hospitalized child / adolescent about the venipuncture procedures that are submitted during the hospitalization period, as well as their satisfaction and the opinion of the health professionals . Three health professionals performing the venipuncture procedure in children / adolescents and 12 hospitalized children / adolescents participated in the study. Data collection was performed in stages, the first analysis of the digital educational game by health professionals and the second evaluation of the game with the child / adolescent. Data analysis of the first stage was done in a descriptive way based on the participants' answers, and the second step was the triangulation of the data obtained through the questionnaire and the field diaries. The results showed that the digital educational game contributes to the understanding of the hospitalized child / adolescent about the venipuncture procedure, both in the opinion of health professionals and in the opinion of the children themselves.