JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Engaging students in interprofessional education (IPE) for higher order thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills is challenging. The study reports the development of Virtual ER, a serious game played with a virtual platform, and how it can be an innovative way for delivering IPE in medical and nursing undergraduates.

Objective:

In this study, we reported the development of a serious online game named Virtual ER and its evaluation on teamwork enhancement and clinical competence. Also, we explored if Virtual ER would be an effective pedagogy to engage medical and nursing students with different learning styles.

Methods:

Virtual ER is a custom-made, learning outcome-driven case-based webpage application. We developed a game performance scoring system with specific mechanisms to enhance serious gaming elements. Sixty-two students were recruited from our medical and nursing programs. They played the games in teams of 4 or 5 members, followed by an instructor-led debriefing for concept consolidation. Teamwork attitudes as measured by The Human Factors Attitude Survey were compared before and after the game. Learning style was measured by the modified Honey and Mumford’s learning style questionnaire.

Results:

Students were satisfied with the Virtual ER with satisfaction level of mean = 5.44 out of 7 (SD=0.95). Overall, Virtual ER enhanced the teamwork attitudes by 3.02 units (95% CI= 1.15, 4.88, p-value=0.002). Students with higher scores as activists (estimate= 9.09, 95% CI= 5.17, 13.02, p-value<0.0001) and pragmatists (estimate= 5.69, 95% CI= 1.18, 10.20, p-value=0.01) had significantly higher degree of teamwork attitudes enhancement while students with higher scores as theorist and reflector did not demonstrate significant changes. However, there was no difference on game performance scores among students with different learning styles.

Conclusions:

Students were satisfied with the Virtual ER with satisfaction level of mean = 5.44 out of 7 (SD=0.95). Overall, Virtual ER enhanced the teamwork attitudes by 3.02 units (95% CI= 1.15, 4.88, p-value=0.002). Students with higher scores as activists (estimate= 9.09, 95% CI= 5.17, 13.02, p-value<0.0001) and pragmatists (estimate= 5.69, 95% CI= 1.18, 10.20, p-value=0.01) had significantly higher degree of teamwork attitudes enhancement while students with higher scores as theorist and reflector did not demonstrate significant changes. However, there was no difference on game performance scores among students with different learning styles. Clinical Trial: Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster Joint Institutional Review Board (UW 21-302).