iCare Adventure

iCare Adventure is a game based information system designed to mitigate anxiety, fear and discomfort experienced by children and their parents while that wait in the hospital emergency waiting room.

Pain, dehydration and anxiety in children are common paediatric emergency department (ED) diagnoses but are not well managed, particularly when wait times are long. The time children and their families wait in the ED can present a unique opportunity to engage them in their own management as well as improve their care in terms of reduced pain and anxiety, improved hydration, shorter wait times and improved parental confidence in their ability to care for their own child at home/or less uncertainty.

EverAge Consulting, in partnership with the IWK hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has developed a game based information system designed to mitigate anxiety, fear and discomfort experienced by children and their parents while they wait in the hospital emergency waiting room.  The application is the base of a new and exciting research project aimed at improving specific ED health indicators (pain, hydration, anxiety, wait times) with children and their parents.

The application incorporates iPads used by the children and parents, allowing for communication not only with staff, but also between patients.  Children will also get to watch videos which introduce coping techniques as well as reframing common diagnosis by providing information on how amazing their body is.  Coping technique introduced in the videos is also reinforced by a robot with which they can interact via the iPads.

Find our more from the recent article in the Izzak magazine.

http://digitallibrary.iwkfoundation.org/i/411642/42