Criticality: an interactive learning tool to formatively assess nurses undertaking critical care education

AIM: The aim of this presentation is for the author to share her experience of developing an interactive board game called Criticality which is used to formatively assess students on a critical care module, and for the audience to view the game. Exposure of the game to a wider European audience will allow dissemination of this idea and allow the author to judge its potential usefulness outside of the UK. The use of games as educational tools are widely used throughout higher education (Bochennek et al 2007, Blakely et al 2009). Critical care nursing is a complex and dynamic speciality. The aim of the Foundations in Critical Care Module at Northumbria University is primarily to increase the knowledge base of qualified nurses who work in the speciality of critical care. Critical illness is a very complex area of practice with many patients suffering from acute, single or multiple organ failure (DoH 2000). The difficulty for nurses is in the understanding, recognition and management of this complex set of illnesses. The assessment strategy for the module is an exam and is was envisaged that the development of the game would enable students to integrate knowledge from all of the sessions in the module and to identify subjects for revision prior to their final exam. The game is based on a hybrid of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. The aim of the board game is for nurses to work in teams and compete against each other by asking and answering questions. Players have one hour to save their patient. In the hour they must collect a series of interventions required by the patient. Competition is introduced by working in teams competing against each other and the clock. The questions produced for the board game are similar to those used in the exam. Students have positively evaluated the game.