More than kids play: How games can help hospitals reduce lawsuits
If you think video games are playtime for kids and guilty pleasures for adults, it’s time to think again. Health care systems and medical schools are using games to train health care professionals to deal with serious life and death situations.
At the 2010 Triangle Games Conference (TGC), Amar Patel and Dr. Graham Snyder from Wake Med demonstrated how hospitals are using ‘serious gaming’ to elevate the quality and effectiveness of medical training.
This approach is premised on the fact that people retain more knowledge from doing than passively receiving information. Research shows people retain five percent of what they learn in the classroom versus 70 percent retention via hands-on approaches.
Through life-size models linked to online systems, practitioners can receive very life-like, interactive medical training that goes far beyond what most people would traditionally think of as ’simulated training.’
Training subject matter ranges from trauma situations to birthing. Imagine a code blue situation on a full-scale model of an ER – adding IV’s, incubating, using a crash cart. At TGC, Patel and Snyder demonstrated how this might happen using audience volunteers with CPR training. It was amazingly life-like, particularly when a doctor tried to use paddles on the ‘patient’ only to find the dead batteries in his defibrillator. Even for an experienced physician, the exercise introduced new learning.
Some virtual simulations go far beyond working on models. One system captures data that can be assessed and shared. In fact, Wake Med indicated two-thirds of the learning happens in post-training debriefing. Participants spend 20 minutes in simulation and 40 minutes discussing what happened.
There are even models of female patients giving birth., Obstetric care is a significant area of legal liability for health care providers. Gaming technology that reduces errors for the practitioners will also reduce lawsuits.
Medical education is serious business and health care purchasers take it seriously. That means when evaluating these training tools they look beyond the price. They have to know the system has been tested and proven. It has to deliver serious training that meets the rigor of health care. And that’s not kids play.
Comments
The army has been using "serious gaming" for years to simulate combat for training purposes. It's good to see this idea moving into other areas.
The games are so layered and complex now that simulating real-world scenarios is getting more and more realistic.
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