Digital psycho-prophylactics: a pilot study on how pregnant women navigate through a virtual delivery ward

Abstract: INTRODUCTION AND AIM Virtual Visit Tool is a computer tool containing a total documentation of the delivery ward of Ystad Hospital in Sweden. Virtual Visit Tool places the user within a photo-realistic simulation of the delivery ward. This pilot study has two aims: 1) to analyse how pregnant women walk through the virtual delivery ward and to see what catches their attention during the virtual walk, and also 2) to see if sufficient analysis were possible to do by use of Virtual Visit Analysing Tool, constructed for the analysis of data in this study. The hypothesis predict that actual use of Virtual Visit Tool will depend on test-users' socio-economic status and computer skills and that Virtual Visit Analysing Tool will be a useful tool for analysing virtual walk patterns in Virtual Visit Tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 30 first time pregnant women (22 to 35 years old) attending psycho-prophylactic courses volunteered to answer a questionnaire and make a 15 minutes walk through the virtual delivery ward. Their walk patterns were analysed by Virtual Visit Analysing Tool, a prototype of a tool for instant visual analysis of data. Virtual Visit Analysing Tool compiles walk patterns into coloured "flowers" on the plan drawing of the delivery ward. RESULTS All 30 women were able to walk through the virtual delivery ward, independently of their socio-economic status and computer skills. Motivation and graphical user interface seemed to be more important factors for actual use of Virtual Visit Tool. The most used (and most successful) way to navigate between rooms in the virtual delivery ward was by clicking on the plan drawing. The rooms most visited (and most liked rooms) were the delivery and postnatal rooms. Virtual Visit Analysing Tool was possible to use for the analysis, but to be really useful it need to be modified and further developed. KEYWORDS Virtual Visit Tool, Virtual Visit Analysing Tool, socio-economic status, computer skills, knowledge gap hypothesis