Investigating the effect of serious games on nurses' education: A systematic review

Introduction: Considering the effect of quality and speed of clinical response on patient prognosis and nurses' presence in the front line of health care, education is necessary to increase their skills. Games are mentioned as one of the standard educational methods approved by the education system in most countries, which accelerates and stabilizes education and learning. Games are one of the most effective educational methods for all ages, and experts always mention them to stabilize educational data in the minds of the audience. Serious Games is an emerging strategy explicitly designed for educational purposes. In the form of computer simulations, these games can enhance the knowledge, experience, and confidence of health professionals. This study aimed to investigate the effect of challenging games on nurses' education.Methods: Using the PubMed database, related English language articles (from 1990 to November 2020) were searched based on the keywords serious game, Game-based learning, Nursing education, and Nurse student in the title and abstract. Inclusion criteria included all studies published in English that examined the impact of serious games on nurses' education.Results: From a total of 2209 studies, 75 articles were selected by title. After reviewing the abstract, 20 articles remained to be reviewed. After evaluating the full text of these articles, six eligible articles were selected for final review. In these six articles, serious games have attracted nursing students' satisfaction and have increased motivation and enthusiasm among them. In line with the primary purpose of 5 articles (83%), serious games have a significant positive effect on learning. Among them, in 3 articles, it has led to an increase in students' grades and skills. In one article (17%), serious games did not have a significant effect on learning.Conclusion: According to the present study results, serious games have been influential in increasing the learning, satisfaction, and motivation of nursing students. However, due to the increasing development of game technology and the acceptance of its use among people, especially young people, and because of the small number of studies in this field, there is a need for more studies to achieve broader goals.

Keywords:

Serious games , Nurses training , Nursing students , Game-based learning