Enhancing emergency competencies in healthcare professionals via murder mystery games: An innovative gamification learning-based approach

Abstract

Background

Enhancing the emergency competencies of healthcare professionals is essential for ensuring patient safety, optimizing emergency response efficiency, and fostering effective team collaboration. However, traditional simulation-based methods often struggle to accurately replicate real-life emergencies, resulting in outcomes that may not fully reflect actual performance, thereby undermining their effectiveness in training and developing the critical skills needed for emergency situations.

Objective

This study evaluated the effectiveness of using murder mystery games (MMGs) as a gamified learning method to enhance the emergency competencies of healthcare professionals.

Methods

Twelve scripts of emergency scenarios were developed for the MMGs, and five assessment scales were established, covering emergency response, scenario decision-making, team collaboration, emotional support, and human care. Questionnaire data were analyzed between the experimental and control groups using Chi-square tests for five dimensions and nineteen indicators of emergency competencies.

Results

The performance of the experimental group in emergency response and emotional support was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.001). The experimental group also showed notable excellence in scenario decision-making, team collaboration, and human care (P<0.005).

Conclusions

Emergency capabilities can be significantly enhanced through murder mystery games, providing robust support for improving the quality of medical services.