The International Congress at Minho University, Portugal of the 16-17 October 2023 marked the conclusion of the Serious Games – Developing Emotional Competence for Nursing Students (SG4NS) Project . SG4NS is an project led by the University of Minho, Portugal. The University of Malta is one of six European partners participating in the project. is co ordinating the UM’s participation in this project.
The and the at the University of Malta (UM) were instrumental in the development of a serious game for nursing students. The Serious Game provides educational support towards the development of emotional competence amongst nursing students. Immersive augmented reality is employed in this Serious Game using virtual reality headsets.
The evaluation which was carried out by and , both nurse academics at the Department of Nursing, was presented at the this international congress. and worked on the project from the Institute of Digital Games. The evaluation was carried out amongst registered nursing students at the UM. It sought to explore the experience and outcome of pursuing a short training opportunity regarding the development of emotional competence and the use of the serious game.
The findings of the evaluation present cautious encouragement for the increased integration of gaming in health care education. Further research to mitigate the challenges, limitations and disadvantages of the use of gaming for educational purposes is recommended.
