RESUMO
This study evaluated a virtual tour entitled, "Surgery Virtual Tour," offered on a Web site of a university-affiliated pediatric center. A pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the level of health care knowledge, emotional state, degree of utilization, and perceived usefulness of the Virtual Tour. The convenience sample consisted of 138 children having same-day surgery and their parents. The "Surgery Virtual Tour" was used by 55% of 138 families. Children who viewed the Web site had statistically significant higher knowledge scores than those who did not. Although there was no statistically significant difference in emotional distress for children in either group before the surgery (Time 1) to the day of the surgery (Time 2), parents' level of emotional distress increased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 when they took the Virtual Tour. The results of this study will help clinicians and managers build virtual tours for children undergoing same-day surgery and their parents.