COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A U.S. hospital is using virtual reality games to distract burn patients while nurses attend to the patients’ wounds, a study found.

Instead of traditional distraction strategies, such as books and music, doctors and nurses at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, are using a device that allows patients to escape into a computer-generated world complete with its own environment, creatures and sounds.

Patients wear a virtual reality helmet and they interact in the virtual environment with the help of child life specialists, trained to assist kids through stressful medical treatments.

"It’s long been known that the actual treatment for a burn is far worse than the actual injury. Initially, the wound has to be cleaned and the dressing applied, and that can be a very painful and lengthy procedure," Catherine Butz, a psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said in a statement.

"Research shows a very strong connection between anxiety and pain -- distraction does a great job in decreasing any kind of anxiety that might be associated with the anticipated procedures, so by distracting patients and keeping anxiety at a minimum, procedures tend to go much more smoothly and be much less painful for the child."