Two-Screen Virtual Board Game Didactic for Teaching Wilderness and Environmental Medicine topics to Emergency Medicine Residents

Amy Briggs; Robert Katzer; Isabel Gonzalez; Megan Osborn

doi:10.5070/m56455102

Learning to Beat the Shock Clock: A Low-Fidelity Simulation Board Game for Pediatric and Emergency Medicine Residents

MedEdPORTAL ◽

10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10804 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

Author(s):

E. Page Bridges ◽

Catherine E. Foster ◽

Dan B. Park ◽

Kathy L. Lehman-Huskamp ◽

Dan W. Mark ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Medicine ◽

Board Game

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P073: The GridlockED board game: using serious games for medical education

CJEM ◽

10.1017/cem.2018.271 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (S1) ◽

pp. S82-S83

Author(s):

S. Y. Huang ◽

P. Sneath ◽

D. Tsoy ◽

J. Rempel ◽

M. Mercuri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Medicine ◽

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Serious Games ◽

Patient Flow ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Real Life ◽

Teaching Tool ◽

Board Game ◽

Emergency Physicians

Introduction: The management of patient flow in the emergency department (ED) is crucial for the practice of emergency medicine (EM). However, this skill is difficult to teach didactically and is learned implicitly in the latter half of residency training. To help expedite the learning process, we developed the GridlockED board game as an educational tool to simulate ED patient flow. By having junior medical trainees play this game, we believe that they will develop a greater understanding of patient flow and resource management in the ED. Additionally, since GridlockED is a cooperative game, players may also benefit by improving their communication and teamwork skills. Methods: GridlockED was developed over twenty months of iterative gameplay and review. Feedback from attending emergency physicians, residents, and medical students was integrated into the game through a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model. Emergency medicine nurses, physicians and residents at McMaster University were recruited to play GridlockED. Each player completed a pre-survey to collect demographic data and to assess their prior experience with playing board games. All play sessions were recorded for data collection purposes. Following each game session, a member of the research team conducted an exit interview with the players to gather information about their play experience and the educational value of the game. A post-survey was also sent to each participant for further feedback. Results: Eighteen gameplay sessions were conducted from June to August 2017. A total of thirty-two participants played the game (13 emergency physicians, 15 residents, and four nurses). Overall responses to the post-gameplay survey showed that players endorsed GridlockED as a useful potential teaching tool (75%, n=24/32) and the majority felt that it had the potential to improve patient flow in the ED (56%, n=18/32). Most participants found that the game was easy to play (91%, n=27/29), and that the instructions were clear (87.5%, n=28/32). Respondents also felt that the game reflected real life scenarios (56%, n=18) and that cases reflected the types of patients that they saw in the ED (78%, n=25). Conclusion: Our results have shown an overall positive response to GridlockED, with most participants supporting it as both an engaging board game and potential teaching tool. We believe that future studies with larger sample sizes and medical students will further validate the use of serious games in medical education.

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LO13: GridlockED: an emergency medicine game and teaching tool

CJEM ◽

10.1017/cem.2017.75 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (S1) ◽

pp. S31-S32

Author(s):

P.E. Sneath ◽

D. Tsoy ◽

J. Rempel ◽

M. Mercuri ◽

A. Pardhan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Medicine ◽

Medical Students ◽

Patient Flow ◽

Real Life ◽

Incident Management ◽

Teaching Tool ◽

Board Game ◽

Emergency Physicians ◽

The Hours ◽

Game Board

Introduction/Innovation Concept: In the controlled chaos of the emergency department (ED) it can be difficult for medical trainees similarly recognize that there is definite order to the chaos, and many may never truly appreciate its complexity. How should medical learners develop this skill? Didactic teaching cannot effectively portray the complexities of managing the ED. Much like education in cardiac arrest, trauma, and multi-casualty incident management, it is our belief that the management of patient flow through the ED is best learned through simulation. Thus, we developed GridlockED, a board game that requires players to work cooperatively to manage a simulated ED to win the game. Methods: GridlockED development took place over a six-month period during which iterative cycles of gameplay and redevelopment were used to optimize game mechanics and improve player engagement. The patient cases were created by medical students (PS, DT, JR) and subsequently reviewed for content validity by two attending emergency physicians (TC, AP). Input from attending emergency physicians, residents, medical students, and laypeople was integrated into the game through a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: Our game includes: 1) The game board; 2) Patient cards, which describe a patient, their level of acuity, and the tasks that must be completed in order to disposition the patient; 3) Event cards, which cause random positive or negative events to occur-much like random events occur in real life that change the dynamics of the ED; 4) Game Characters, which move around the board to denote where tasks are being completed; 5) A tracking sheet to follow how many tasks each character has performed in each turn; 6) A shift-time clock, which is used to track the ‘hours’ of your shift; 7) A ‘Gridlock counter’, which tracks how many ED backups or adverse patient outcomes occur (‘Gridlocks’). The goal of the game is to work cooperatively with your teammates to complete patient tasks and move patients through the ED to an ultimate disposition (e.g. admission, discharge). The game is won if you finish your shift before reaching the maximum number of ‘Gridlocks’ allowed. Conclusion: Initial responses to GridlockED have been very positive, supporting it as both an engaging board game and potential teaching tool. We are excited to see it validated through research trials and possibly incorporated into emergency medicine training at both student and postgraduate training levels.

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