Virtual Medicine

NURSING STUDENTS LEVEL UP WITH NEW ONLINE

LEARNING PLATFORM Preparing Nursing students for career success through online gaming technology

As a new academic year begins, the popular phrase, “back to the books” may apply to some, but for a group of Nursing students across the province, their learning is going digital.

Although textbooks will be a component of their learning, students will be learning through gaming in a new virtual simulation program developed by Dr. Jane Tyerman, a faculty member in the Trent/Fleming School of Nursing, and her team of nursing educators across Ontario.

Currently, Nursing students prepare for simulations, in a traditional sense with lectures, readings, and PowerPoint slides. Professor Tyerman’s research will see that presimulation teaching shift to an online virtual gaming format.

Throughout the summer, Prof. Tyerman and her research team have written, developed, and filmed four different scenarios Nursing students might encounter in simulation labs or in their future career in hospitals or clinics. From these four scenarios, 13 virtual games were developed.

Launching this fall at Trent, and at four other institutions across the province, the new program will be embedded in the third-year acute Nursing courses, where students will be assigned different pre-simulation learning techniques—traditional text book learning, or the new gaming option Prof. Tyerman and her team have developed. Through testing of these student groups throughout the semester, the team hopes to find that students taking part in the

pre-simulation online game they’ve created will lower student’s anxiety, increase their knowledge and encourage self-efficacy when they step into a simulation lab. In addition, a cost analysis for developing these games in relation to learning will be conducted.

“How better to reach this generation than through gamification,” says Prof. Tyerman about the project, adding that she is looking forward to implementing the gaming technology in her classes at Trent this fall.

The project received a significant funding boost in the spring thanks to a $100,000 grant from eCampusOntario, as part of almost $1 million in funding to develop unique new online programs at Trent University.

“This grant not only supports a valuable collaboration within Trent University between Nursing and Trent Online, but also involves a multi-site collaboration among Ontario nurse educators,” she explains. “Through this grant, we will further advance knowledge for simulation education, design, and delivery within a virtual gaming platform.”

The gaming platform is bilingual, mobile friendly, and also easy to replicate. With the planned success of the new learning tool, not only will it benefit Nursing students, but practicing Nurses as well. Through the development of the game, Prof. Tyerman has added a few different scenarios that would apply directly to the healthcare system to offer further training for nurses.

“The program will be free of charge, and offered as a way to give back, share resources, and enhance quality of care for patients,” says Prof. Tyerman. “We already have three hospitals in Ontario, including Peterborough Regional Health Centre, looking to use the program.”

“How better to reach this generation than through gamification.”

– Prof. Tyerman