serious games

Digital serious games in developing nursing clinical competence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Nurse Education Today; 06/01/2022
This review aimed to synthesise evidence from experimental studies of the application of digital serious games in developing nursing clinical competence. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Eight databases were searched for randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies published in English from 2000 to 2021. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were adopted in this review. Quality appraisal was conducted using Cochrane's Risk of Bias tool and the Joanna Brigg's Institute Critical Appraisal Tool for Quasi-Experimental Designs. A narrative synthesis of studies, and a meta-analysis and subgroup analysis, was performed on the study outcomes. 22 experimental studies including 13 randomized controlled trials and nine quasi-experimental studies were included. Of these, 19 studies examined nursing students and three examined qualified nurses. These studies applied serious games to develop nursing competencies in management of nursing care, clinical reasoning skills, procedural skills, legal practice and quality improvement. Compared with control groups, serious games improved knowledge (SMD = 1.30, 95% CI [0.75, 1.86]) and skills (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI [0.17, 0.60]). Subgroup analysis for both knowledge and skills outcomes demonstrated that serious games were more effective than control groups with either no intervention or other educational interventions. A large effect size (SMD = 1.13, 95% CI [0.91, 1.34]) was found in favour of serious games for improving knowledge scores in management of nursing care. The reviewed studies identified a broad application of digital serious games for developing nursing competencies. The knowledge and skills performance outcomes supported the use of serious games, which were found to be superior to conventional educational interventions. More serious games are required to be incorporated into undergraduate and continuing nursing education for workplace training, with more rigorous studies examining the effect of serious games in improving the quality and safety of clinical nursing practice. • Digital serious games contribute to nursing competence development. • Digital serious games positively impact nurses' knowledge and skill development. • Digital serious games are feasible for undergraduate and continuing nursing education. • Future studies to incorporate competence development of communication and teamwork • Necessary to evaluate effectiveness of digital serious games in real clinical environments
(AN 156781813); ISSN: 02606917
CINAHL Complete

Expecting parents' perceptions of the digital parental support "childbirth journey" constructed as a serious game-an intervention study

Mon, 23 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Digit Health. 2022 May 16;8:20552076221097776. doi: 10.1177/20552076221097776. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore expecting parents' perceptions of the Childbirth Journey as an intervention that includes medical information for parental support, constructed as a serious game.

METHODS: In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were held with expecting parents in Sweden who were able to talk about specific parts of the Childbirth Journey they appreciated or found difficult to understand. A phenomenographic methodology was employed for data analysis.

RESULTS: Participants perceived the Childbirth Journey to be easily accessible and customized with reliable information. The design and features of the intervention were perceived by the expecting parents to enhance the intervention's usability, appeal, and trustworthiness. When parental couples used the Childbirth Journey together, it gave them an opportunity to discuss and better understand each other's situation. The participants proposed several changes to the existing version of the game, mostly related to extending practical information and illustrated scenarios but also to the further development of the game's design and animations. The participants found the Knowledge portal to be the most appealing part of the Childbirth Journey.

CONCLUSIONS: The Childbirth Journey intervention was concluded to be a valuable digital complement to in-person professional support, especially given the current COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place in Sweden, which do not allow antenatal visits by partners. However, in its current form, the Childbirth Journey has some deficiencies and would therefore benefit from further development and exploration.

PMID:35603330 | PMC:PMC9118415 | DOI:10.1177/20552076221097776

Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Serious Games: A Systematic Analysis in Smartphone Application Markets

Fri, 20 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 May 16;293:179-186. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220366.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment can employ serious games to assess and improve their cognitive status.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the cognitive aspects of the MMSE and ACE-R tests that are supported by available games.

METHODS: We searched cognitive games available in online application markets (Play Store, Galaxy Store, and App Store) using keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, and mild cognitive impairment. Game scenarios were extracted and assessed by a neurologist to determine the appropriateness of the scenarios for patients and cognitive aspects supported by the games.

RESULTS: We found 416 games; 135 of them were duplicates, and 237 of them were completely irrelevant to the study objective. A neurologist evaluated the remaining scenarios to see if aspects of each scenario matched the MMSE and ACE- R tests. There were 37 scenarios left in the end. These scenarios are associated with 18 different games. Most of the available scenarios are suitable for attention and orientation.

CONCLUSION: Existing cognitive games may be used to several different cognitive aspects. Some of these scenarios have been used to assess cognitive status, while others have been used to improve it. The majority of available cognitive games have not been subjected to any research. As a result, it is unclear what impact they could have on the cognitive condition of the elderly with cognitive impairment. As a result, it is critical to assess these games.

PMID:35592979 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI220366

A Tele-Rehabilitation Platform for Shoulder Motor Function Recovery Using Serious Games and an Azure Kinect Device

Fri, 20 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 May 16;293:145-152. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220361.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Tele-rehabilitation is gaining importance due to the increasing need for objectiveness in the evaluation of patients with impaired motor functions. Low-cost marker-less motion capture systems are becoming key enabling technologies as support in the treatment of musculoskeletal diseases.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this work is to investigate the use of the Microsoft Azure Kinect device to develop a tele-rehabilitation platform for shoulder motor function recovery. The platform comprehends a set of serious games, which are fundamental to increase the patients' engagement in shoulder rehabilitation.

METHODS: Starting from a set of functionalities identified together with the medical personnel of an Italian hospital, the Azure Kinect device has been used as motion capture system to interact with the serious games. Mobile applications for patients and physicians have been developed to manage the rehabilitation process.

RESULTS: The solution has been tested by the involved medical personnel. It has been considered interesting and promising. Further improvements in the design of the virtual environment of the serious games are required.

CONCLUSION: The presented platform is a starting point to develop a complete IT solution for the daily shoulder rehabilitation.

PMID:35592974 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI220361

Designing a Serious Game (Above Water) for Stigma Reduction Surrounding Mental Health: Semistructured Interview Study With Expert Participants

Thu, 19 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

JMIR Serious Games. 2022 May 19;10(2):e21376. doi: 10.2196/21376.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Although in many contexts unsuccessful games targeting learning, social interaction, or behavioral change have few downsides, when covering a sensitive domain such as mental health (MH), care must be taken to avoid harm and stigmatization of people who live with MH conditions. As a result, evaluation of the game to identify benefits and risks is crucial in understanding the game's success; however, assessment of these apps is often compared with the nongame control condition, resulting in findings specifically regarding entertainment value and user preferences. Research exploring the design process, integrating field experts, and guidelines for designing a successful serious game for sensitive topics is limited.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to understand which elements of game design can guide a designer when designing a game for sensitive topics.

METHODS: To carefully probe the design space of serious games for MH, we present Above Water (AbW), a game targeting the reduction of stigma surrounding MH, now in its second iteration. The game, AbW, serves as a consistent research probe to solicit expert feedback. Experts were recruited from a range of topic domains related to MH and wellness, game design, and user experience.

RESULTS: By using this deployment as a research probe, this study demonstrates how to synthesize gained insights from multiple expert perspectives and create actionable guidelines for successful design of serious games targeting sensitive topics.

CONCLUSIONS: Our work contributes to a better understanding of how to design specialized games to address sensitive topics. We present a set of guidelines for designing games for sensitive subjects, and for each guideline, we present an example of how to apply the finding to the sample game (AbW). Furthermore, we demonstrate the generalizability to other sensitive topics by providing an additional example of a game that could be designed with the presented guidelines.

PMID:35588056 | DOI:10.2196/21376

Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination

Wed, 18 May 2022 08:19:11 +0000

Author Names: Aster A.,Scheithauer S.,Middeke A.C.,Zegota S.,Clauberg S.,Artelt T.,Schuelper N.,Raupach T.

Database Source: Embase Daily Updates

Journal Title: Frontiers in Medicine

Article Title: Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination

Year: 2022

Issue:

Volume: 9

Abstract: Purpose: Physicians of all specialties must be familiar with important principles of infectious diseases, but curricular time for this content is limited and clinical teaching requires considerable resources in terms of available patients and teachers. Serious games are scalable interventions that can help standardize teaching. This study assessed whether knowledge and skills acquired in a serious game translate to better performance in a clinical examination. <br/>Method(s): Fifth-year undergraduate medical students (n = 100) at Goettingen Medical School were randomized to three groups receiving different levels of exposure to virtual patients presenting with signs and symptoms of either infective endocarditis or community-acquired pneumonia in a serious game simulating an accident and emergency department. Student performance was assessed based on game logfiles and an objective standardized clinical examination (OSCE). <br/>Result(s): Higher exposure to virtual patients in the serious game did not result in superior OSCE scores. However, there was good agreement between student performance in the OSCE and in game logfiles (r = 0.477, p = 0.005). An Item Response Theory analysis suggested that items from the serious game covered a wider range of ability, thus better differentiating between students within a given cohort. <br/>Conclusion(s): Repeated exposure to virtual patients with infectious diseases in a serious game did not directly impact on exam performance but game logfiles might be good and resource-sparing indicators of student ability. One advantage of using serious games in medical education is standardized content, a lower inhibition threshold to learn, and a need of less staff time compared to small-group clinical teaching.<br/>Copyright © 2022 Aster, Scheithauer, Middeke, Zegota, Clauberg, Artelt, Schuelper and Raupach.

Disseminating palliative culture in a fun way with a serious game

Wed, 18 May 2022 08:19:11 +0000

Author Names: Perre A.,Philippe A.,Chapard C.,Allemand I.,Lapouge L.

Database Source: Embase Daily Updates

Journal Title: Revue de l'infirmiere

Article Title: Disseminating palliative culture in a fun way with a serious game,Diffuser la culture palliative de facon ludique avec un serious game

Year: 2022

Issue: 280

Volume: 71

Abstract:

Architectural design game: A serious game approach to promote teaching and learning using multimodal interfaces

Tue, 17 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Educ Inf Technol (Dordr). 2022 May 12:1-32. doi: 10.1007/s10639-022-11062-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The present article introduces and develops an educational tool as an interactive digital game for architectural design, allowing the architectural students to challenge their knowledge and experiences. The framework of this educational tool supports a serious open-ended game, which helps students get involved with the game through self-assessment and a multi-modal natural user interface, including gesture recognition and speech recognition in a familiar CAD environment without any right or wrong solutions. The students can immediately compare their game results with the architecture of iconic buildings and get familiar with the complexity of the design process through five different games in the initial version of this tool without the fear of being judged. According to the results of the questionnaire, this tool can simulate the design process, enhance its quality, and thus, assist the learners with developing their required skills with a wide variety of motivations and opportunities for engagement while helping them connect their experiences and activities to their learning and development in a meaningful way to fill the gap between their knowledge acquisition and knowledge application.

PMID:35578701 | PMC:PMC9096335 | DOI:10.1007/s10639-022-11062-z

Serious Games as a Method for Enhancing Learning Engagement: Student Perception on Online Higher Education During COVID-19

Mon, 16 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 27;13:889975. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889975. eCollection 2022.

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has enforced social isolation in many countries worldwide, which forced teachers at all levels of education, including the university context, to adapt new teaching strategies. This study presents a method developed in this regard, that is, serious games were used as a complement to synchronous online classes to ensure the continuity of pedagogical activities in a physiology course at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. Using serious games is a strategy in the field of gamification, which is a commonly used learning strategy for online teaching as necessitated by COVID-19. This study is quantitative in nature and conducted a questionnaire survey on 108 second-year undergraduate nursing students to determine their perception about this innovation. The results demonstrate that the students well valued the proposed pedagogical innovative model in terms of motivation and engagement. Moreover, they reported that the model can serve as a meaningful learning experience. These perceptions suggest that the model is an efficient strategy for implementing the physiology curricula in the context of online teaching. Moreover, the results imply that the model should be applied to other courses and disciplines in the undergraduate program and provide support that it is a valid strategy for face-to-face teaching. Lastly, the finding points to the potential of the model to be explored as a learning strategy in the age of education post-COVID-19.

PMID:35572251 | PMC:PMC9093592 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889975