Ideas That Work: Game-based Education Activities Provide More Than Fun

Practical pearls from your colleagues

We’ve featured quite a few escape rooms over the years, focusing mostly on the camaraderie and fun they provide as staff education and training exercises. But what true long-term growth and improvement do these unusual but ultimately ephemeral experiences produce for those involved?

Heather Wyers, BScN, RN, MN, CPN(C), advanced practice nurse educator with University Health Network in Toronto, says team-based gamification of education and training engenders development of two valuable non-technical behaviors that go beyond rote memorization of facts and can prove crucial in fast-paced, dynamic surgical environments: critical thinking and team communication.

Ms. Wyers recently presented two game-based activities to perioperative nurses. The first, a “building block design challenge,” focused on enhancing team communication. Each team, randomly assigned with varying levels of nursing experience and designation, received an image of an already-built design and was instructed to replicate it using a bag full of random block pieces. Only one person at a time was allowed to build, so the team needed to work together to determine how to best re-create the image by effectively communicating with that one person.

The second was an OR-based escape room designed to enhance critical-thinking skills. Teams again were randomly selected. After the rules were explained, each team received its first clue, based on a clinical scenario. With each correct answer, the team received a puzzle piece and the next clue. Once the puzzle was assembled, one final case scenario question required a correct answer for the team to “escape” the OR.

Ms. Wyers says games like these, based around adult learning principles, often serve as deep emotional encounters that enable participants to think creatively while gaining an understanding of diverse concepts and skills — as well as connecting with each other.

Enjoyable games that maintain participants’ interest, she says, create environments that are conducive to learning. These activities become even more relevant when their development is influenced by input from perioperative staff and focused on specifically identified educational deficiencies, as was the case here.

All 41 participating nurses were surveyed and 100% said they learned at least one new thing. However, Ms. Wyers also found:

• The activities improved team communication and built positive team culture.
• Randomly selected teams allowed staff of different ages and experience levels to work together, eroding generational barriers that can be a big issue in today’s ORs.
• The escape room activity exposed knowledge gaps to be addressed in subsequent activities and education, while stimulating team discussion and clinical reasoning to enhance critical-thinking skills.
• Participants reported increases in positivity.
• Learners felt more encouraged to learn from their mistakes and enhance their knowledge and competence in a safe, controlled, consequence-free environment.

Game-based activities are now integrated into professional development and ongoing education of all perioperative staff at University Health Network, reports Ms. Wyers.

The educational activities, she says, engage nurses across all generations, and the positive impact extends to the interdisciplinary team and patients alike.

“In health care, we put a lot of emphasis on traditional education methods,” says Ms. Wyers. “However, integrating non-traditional teaching methods such as game-based teaching has enabled us to break free from the confines of traditional didactic instruction. Using these diverse approaches, we have been able to harness the enjoyment of gameplay and stimulate critical thinking and curiosity while making education an immersive and joyful experience.” OSM