Children and teens who receive a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), often to treat cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, experience long and intense medical treatments.
These therapies put them at a high risk for physical, psychological and social stress. Currently, there is a significant lack of psychosocial support programs to help them cope.
New research led by Assistant Professor Erica Timko Olson in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities School of Nursing aims to improve physical and psychosocial symptoms of children and adolescents undergoing HSCT with a nature-based virtual reality intervention.
“Nature virtual reality offers an innovative approach to improve wellbeing of children and adolescents undergoing HSCT,” says Timko Olson.
Nature virtual reality utilizes a VR headset to explore audio-guided nature scenes. Participants, who are hospitalized at the University of Minnesota Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, choose from 15 different scenes. They vary from exploring oceans and forests to fields of dinosaurs or butterflies. The experience includes guided audio that encourages them to listen to the wind and waves or notice the turtles crossing the sand.
The pilot study is examining the feasibility, adherence and acceptability of nature virtual reality and attention-control interventions.
Ultimately, Timko Olson’s goal is to design a protocol for a 12-week nature intervention using virtual reality to support psychological health and wellbeing of young adult cancer survivors.
“About 90 percent of these kids are going to go on to live very long lives. But they will have effects [from] their treatment,” says Timko Olson. “If we can minimize those psychosocial effects, they can go on to college, have careers and have healthy relationships rather than have the negative effects of their treatments carry them through the rest of their lives. It’s a goal to get to a point where cancer is a part of the story rather than the story.”
