Precourse Preparation Using a Serious Smartphone Game on Advanced Life Support Knowledge and Skills: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND In the past several years, gamified learning has been growing in popularity in various medical educational contexts including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training. Furthermore, prior work in Basic Life Support (BLS) training has demonstrated the benefits of serious games as a method for pretraining among medical students. However, there is little evidence to support these benefits with regard to Advanced Life Support (ALS) training. OBJECTIVE We compare the effects of a brief precourse ALS preparation using a serious smartphone game on student knowledge, skills, and perceptions in this area with those of conventional ALS training alone. METHODS A serious game (Resus Days) was developed by a Thai physician based on global ALS clinical practice guidelines. Fifth-year medical students were enrolled and randomized to either the game group or the control group. Participants in both groups attended a traditional ALS lecture, but the game group was assigned to play Resus Days for 1 hour before attending the lecture and were allowed to play as much as they wished during the training course. All students underwent conventional ALS training, and their abilities were evaluated using multiple-choice questions and with hands-on practice on a mannequin. Subject attitudes and perceptions about the game were evaluated using a questionnaire. RESULTS A total of 105 students participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either the game group (n=52) or the control group (n=53). Students in the game group performed better on the ALS algorithm knowledge posttest than those in the control group (17.22 [SD 1.93] vs 16.60 [SD 1.97], <i>P</i>=.01; adjusted mean difference [AMD] 0.93; 95% CI 0.21-1.66). The game group’s pass rate on the skill test was also higher but not to a statistically significant extent (79% vs 66%, <i>P</i>=.09; adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.22; 95% CI 0.89-5.51). Students indicated high satisfaction with the game (9.02 [SD 1.11] out of 10). CONCLUSIONS Engaging in game-based preparation prior to an ALS training course resulted in better algorithm knowledge scores for medical students than attending the course alone. CLINICALTRIAL Thai Clinical Trials Registry HE611533; https://tinyurl.com/wmbp3q7

The Use of Serious Games for Learning Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Procedures: A Systematic Mapping of the Literature

“…Another interesting information raised was that eight studies [22,24,25,32,34,44,45,50] explained in their texts the use of the Unity3D game engine [60], a wellknown tool as a game engine and quite popular among game developers.…”

“…Amount Published works 2021 01 A16- [17] "Comparative Effectiveness of Simulation versus Serious…" 2020 10 A07- [18] "Hands 2 Help: Educational "Serious Game" for teaching…" A08- [19] "Use of the serious game as an innovative educational strategy…" A11- [20] "Comparing Basic Life Support Serious Gaming Scores With…" A12- [21] "Developing a virtual simulation game for nursing…" A14- [22] "Precourse Preparation Using a Serious Smartphone Game on…" A19- [23] "A Pilot Study of CPR Quality Comparing an Augmented…" A20- [24] "Immersive Virtual Reality-Based Cardiopulmonary…" A22- [25] "Virtual Reality simulation technology for cardiopulmonary" A33- [26] "A Serious Game on the First-Aid Procedure in…" A34- [27] "Exploring User Needs in the Development…" 2019 10 A03- [28] "Proposal to build a serious game as an instrument for…" A05- [29] "Building a Health Game for Basic Life Support: Teaching…" A13- [30] "FASim: A 3D Serious Game for the First Aid Emergency" A15- [31] "Comparative evaluation of video-based online course versus…" A17- [32] "Virtual Reality Simulation Technology for Cardiopulmonary…" A21- [33] "Feasibility of an augmented reality cardiopulmonary…" A26- [34] "Holo-BLSD-A Holographic Tool" A29- [35] "Gamifying autonomous CPR training" A30- [36] "Comparing the effects on learning outcomes" A35- [37] "From experiencing to critical thinking: a contextual…" 2018 03 A04- [38] "Developing a Digital Game for Building First Aid Basics" A09- [39] "CPRforblind: A video game to introduce cardiopulmonary…" A31- [40] "Data analytics of mobile serious games" 2017 05 A06- [41] "Simulators for teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation:…" A23- [42] "Affordable Hi-fidelity VR based CPR simulator" A24- [43] "Development and Evaluation of a Corrective" A28- [44] "A Serious Game For cardiopulmonary" A32- [45] "Designing an Engaging and Informative Application…" 2016 06 A01- [6] "Health in...…”