A trial of SmileyScope virtual reality headsets is making a big difference for paediatric patients at Wyong and Gosford Hospitals who require a pathology sample taken, helping them remain calm and comfortable during their visit.

 NSW Health Pathology’s col­lec­tion ser­vice at Wyong and Gos­ford Hos­pi­tals is help­ing make blood tests less stress­ful for chil­dren and anx­ious patients through the intro­duc­tion of Smi­leyScope, which is a vir­tu­al real­i­ty head­set in pathol­o­gy col­lec­tion rooms.

The immer­sive tech­nol­o­gy is designed to help patients feel calmer and more relaxed dur­ing blood col­lec­tions by pro­vid­ing engag­ing visu­al expe­ri­ences that dis­tract from the pro­ce­dure. Users can choose from sooth­ing envi­ron­ments includ­ing beach­es, under­wa­ter scenes, zen gar­dens, and play­ful puppies.

Cen­tral Coast Local Health Dis­trict Clin­i­cal Nurse Spe­cial­ist Eri­ca Orchard said the ini­tia­tive is help­ing cre­ate a more pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence for patients and families.

“Smi­leyScope doesn’t take away the need for blood tests — but it changes the expe­ri­ence. By giv­ing chil­dren some­thing engag­ing and com­fort­ing to focus on, it can help reduce fear, ease anx­i­ety, and cre­ate a sense of calm in what can oth­er­wise be an over­whelm­ing moment,” Eri­ca said.

NSW Health Pathol­o­gy Wyong Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er Lau­ra Pol­lard said the head­sets have been a “game chang­er” since being intro­duced in February.

“They’re a sim­ple yet pow­er­ful way to deliv­er care with empa­thy. For par­ents, they offer reas­sur­ance, and for patients, they can turn a stress­ful expe­ri­ence into some­thing much more man­age­able,” Lau­ra said.

“Staff have under­gone com­pre­hen­sive train­ing in how to use the VR head­sets and sup­port chil­dren and their fam­i­lies dur­ing visits.”

Laura said the ini­tia­tive was devel­oped after recog­nis­ing that many high­er-needs pae­di­atric patients were being referred to the pae­di­atric out­pa­tient clin­ic for blood col­lec­tion, even when seda­tion was not required.

“This placed strain on the pae­di­atric clin­ic and also reduced staffing capac­i­ty in the pathol­o­gy col­lec­tion cen­tre, as our col­lec­tors were often required to attend the clin­ic,” she said.

“We explored ways to bet­ter sup­port these chil­dren with­in the col­lec­tion cen­tres and iden­ti­fied two unused Smi­leyScope VR head­sets at an off­site com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre that could be repur­posed to assist with pae­di­atric col­lec­tions in pathology.”

With a sec­ond head­set avail­able, the Gos­ford col­lec­tion team was also able to join the project.

“All col­lec­tions are per­formed by NSW Health Pathol­o­gy col­lec­tors, and the VR head­sets are now used to sup­port high­er-needs pae­di­atric patients, pae­di­atric patients more broad­ly, and even ner­vous adult patients,” Lau­ra said.

The ini­tia­tive high­lights how small inno­va­tions can make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence to patient care by cre­at­ing a more sup­port­ive and com­pas­sion­ate health­care experience.

“Some­times, the small­est things can make the biggest dif­fer­ence, espe­cial­ly when they come with a smile and a lit­tle escape to some­where fun and excit­ing,” Lau­ra said.

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