Development and contribution of a serious game to improve nursing students' clinical reasoning in acute heart failure : a multimethod study

Abstract

Clinical reasoning is essential for nurses and nursing students to recognize and intervene when hospitalized patients present acute heart failure. Serious games are digital educational interventions that could foster the development of clinical reasoning through an engaging and intrinsically motivating learning experience. However, elements from a playful approach (eg, rewards, narrative elements) are often absent or poorly integrated in existing serious games, which may limit their contribution to learning. Thus, we developed and studied the contribution of a novel serious game on nursing students' engagement, intrinsic motivation, and clinical reasoning in the context of acute heart failure. We adopted a multimethod design and randomized 28 participants to receive two serious game prototypes in a different sequence, one that fully integrated elements of a playful approach (SIGN@L-A) and one that offered only objectives, feedback, and a functional aesthetic (SIGN@L-B). Through self-reported questionnaires, participants reported higher levels of engagement and intrinsic motivation after using SIGN@L-A. However, negligible differences in clinical reasoning scores were found after using each serious game prototype. During interviews, participants reported on the contribution of design elements to their learning. Quantitative findings should be replicated in larger samples. Qualitative findings may guide the development of future serious games.