Needles that make me laugh
Niño Jesús Hospital
Virtual reality as pediatric therapy.
Needles that make me laugh is an initiative of the Hospital Niño Jesús in Madrid, a center of reference in the humanization of health care for the little ones.
The objective of this project was to reduce the stress or fear that children in the extraction room may experience when they have to face the needles. For this, a virtual reality game starring Dr. Cuac was developed, which in turn also materialized in a physical pet that accompanies children to make their lives more bearable during the period they are hospitalized.
FOLLOW US
YEAR
2019
The experience
When the children access the hospital room where they are going to draw blood, they are placed in virtual reality glasses with which they move to a story starring Dr. Cuac. The narration has a direct correlation to the work that the nurses are doing. In the story, the children are asked to help Dr. Cuac find the amulet that will save the world. During the game, references are made to cold (cotton with alcohol) and fire (needle prick), so that when health professionals hear that the story has reached that point, they proceed to perform the prick, and since the child he is immersed in history and does not perceive it as something traumatic.
For the design of Dr. Cuac, a female duck from the Retiro park in Madrid was taken as a reference and a specific environment suited to the story told was modeled to achieve the highest possible quality and realism in the experience.
