Clinical Playground

Eric B. Bauman

After over a year’s collaboration and work Game-Based Teaching and Simulation in Nursing and Healthcare by Eric B. Bauman, PhD, RN is available for pre-order from Springer Publishing Company. This innovative text provides practical strategies for developing, integrating, and evaluating new and emerging technology, specifically game-based learning methods, useful in nursing and clinical health sciences education. The text draws upon existing models of experiential learning such as Benner’s “thinking-in-action” and “novice-to-expert” frameworks, and introduces current theories supporting the phenomenon of the created learning environment.

Chapters explain how simulation and game-based learning strategies can be designed, implemented, and evaluated to improve clinical educational thinking and outcomes and increase exposure to critical experiences to inform clinicians during the journey from novice to expert. The text describes how game-based learning methods can support the development of complex decision-making and critical thinking skills. Case studies throughout the text demonstrate the practical application of harnessing technology to assist the contemporary teacher in engaging what Marc Prensky has termed the digital native.

This text couples Dr. Bauman with many of his colleagues in creating this truly creative resource.  Many of the co-authors completed graduate training in the Games+Learning+Society research group at the University of Wisconsin – Madison under the tutelage of  renowned game-based learning scholars including, Betty Hayes (ASU), Kurt Squire (UW-Madison), Jim Gee (ASU), Constance Steinkuehler (UW-Madison), and Rich Halverson (UW-Madison).

“Game-Based Teaching and Simulation in Nursing and Healthcare is a timely, exhaustive look at how emerging technologies are transforming clinical education. Anyone looking for firsthand, direct account of how game-based learning technologies are reshaping clinical practice needs this book.”

Kurt Squire, PhD Associate Professor
Games+Learning+Society [GLS]
School of Education
University Of Wisconsin – Madison

Co-Authors include: Moses Wolfenstein (Academic ADL Colab), Allan Barclay (University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health), Ben DeVane (University of FL – Gainesville), Penny Ralston-Berg (Penn State World), Miguel Lara (Indiana University), Renee Pyburn (Sidra Medical & Research Center – Qatar Foundation), Matt Gaydos (UW – Madison), Pamela Kato (VU University Amsterdam), Beth Bryant (Games for Health),  Gerald Stapleton (University of IL – Chicago), and Mary Jo Trapani (technical editor).

Parvati Dev, PhD

Congratulations to Dr. Parvati Dev and the CliniSpace team on there fantastic Grand Prize performance at the 2012 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge. CliniSpace BattleCare was built with the goal of training basic battlefield trauma triage concepts. The target audience for this application is the 18-24 year old military medic who is familiar with interactive technology and expects to use mobile technology devices, like the iPad for entertainment and educational opportunities alike. BattleCare uses a mobile tablet to present an interactive graphic novel approach to  guided learning.

BattleCare Episode Opening

In BattleCare, the learner plays the role of Airman Collins, who is the medic on duty in Gardez near the Afghanistan border. Airman Collins learns the basics of triage, including routine assessment skills like airway, breathing, and circulation evaluation in a trauma patient. His mentor, Sergeant Rodriguez, a non-player character allows Collins to make his own choices (Discovery Learning) but provides feedback on the choices (Guided Discovery). The episode begins with the arrival of the trauma case and ends with successful stabilization and helicopter evacuation of the patient. The rendering style, character positioning, and page layout is based on graphic novel conventions. Gesture-based interaction makes the learner feel like they are touching the patient. Exploration gives a sense of game play while the mentor’s guidance means the learner does not get lost.

Wounded Warrior from BattleCare

Clinical Playground, LLC has had the wonderful and collaborative opportunity to work on several projects with Dr. Dev and the CliniSpace team. These projects include the recent proof of concept virtual to mannikin-based simulation presented at the 2012 CAE HPSN Conference recently held in Tampa, FL and the CliniSpace Nursing Platform. Congratulations again Dr. Dev and all of your colleagues on the CliniSpace team – this is a well deserved honor.

Click here for a video demo of CliniSpace BattleCare

The 32 Annual Dialysis Conference

Eric B. Bauman

Dr. Eric B. Bauman gave two talks on using game-based learning and simulation for patient and clinical education on February 27th at the 32nd Annual Dialysis Conference in San Antonio,Texas. His talks focused on how educators can and should use multimedia tools like virtual environments and video games to engage current nursing, medical, and other clinical health sciences students. His talks also provided examples of how clinicians can leverage game-based learning to engage patients in transformative and translational ways. We know that many of our patient education strategies are ineffective. In the dialysis patient population even small gains in behavioral changes related to diet and medication understanding (and compliance) among patients can have a huge effect on outcome (mortality and morbidity). Video games can provide engaging mechanisms for knowledge transfer and behavioral change.  Furthermore, multimedia technology such as smart phone and tablet technology provides some very interesting mechanisms for data collection related  to patient behavior that may in time provide a correlation between game-play and health status.

Click here for: Dr. Bauman’s Presentation Slides

CAE Human Patient Simulation Conference (HPSN)

Screenshot from Virtual World-to-Mannikin Based World Demonstration

After wrapping up at the Dialysis Conference in San Antonio Dr. Bauman headed Southeast to join his colleagues Dr. Parvati Dev from CliniSpace and Karen Boggio, RN from Waukesha County Technical College at the 2012 CAE HPSN Conferencein in Tampa, Florida. The trio introduced the concept of a hybrid virtual world-to-mannikin based simulation in during a live real-time demonstration on February 29th. This demonstration was very well attended by enthusiastic participants who generated interesting and exciting questions and discussion about multimedia learning opportunities. Virtual world and game-based learning environments provide unique learning opportunities often not available in either real-world clinical spaces or in the created physical spaces of the modern day simulation laboratory.

Piano Lessons

Ms. Boggio also gave a talk with her colleagues from Waukesha County Technical College on multi-discipline simulation involving her school’s nursing and EMS programs. Inter-Professional Education (IPE) is a topic of recent and advancing robust discussion.  If students and later practicing clinicians do not or will not train together it becomes very difficult to situate learning activities in a way that translates to actual clinical settings.  Simulation and game-based learning provide collaborative and symbiotic opportunities for clinical education, including IPE.

Augmented Reality Trainer from University of Pittsburgh Medical Simulation R & D Center

Brandon Mikulis

The 2nd annual Serious Games Showcase at IMSH 2012 in San Diego was a huge success.  Last year there were about 12 people presenting new and innovative technology.  This year there were some 36 people presenting their products and innovations.  Sem Lampotang from the University of Florida - Gainesville was showing off an impressive augmented reality simulator focusing on central line placement.  One of the most impressive innovations, another augmented reality tool came from the University of Pittsburgh Simulation and Medical Technology R & D Center. Their augmented reality model superimposed a multilayer surgical anatomy field onto a mannikin-based simulator.  Even more impressive than the graphics was the drug recognition system that used salinity of the fluid in the syringe as a proxy for actual medications.  In this way learners must use proper and safe drug administration techniques when using this simulator.  There is no reading the bar code label or simply verbalizing a given drug. Further, drugs are mapped to physiology. In this way if you give a drug like epinephrine the heart rate increases in the monitor, but you can also actually see the hear beating faster.

Transcension HealthCare iPhone App

A number of impressive iPad and iPhone apps made their debuts as well, including a "Baby CPR" game for the iPhone by Transcension Healthcare LLC..  The hapics on this tool are great, right down to the back slaps which you do by delivering the back slaps to your phone as part of the choking infant sequence.

There were just too many new technologies, games, innovations and virtual environments to list here. This said virtual environments made a big splash at this years Showcase. Among those demonstrating virtual environments for clinical education were  BreakAway LTD , CliniSpace,  Virtual Heroes, SimQuest, and Lockeed Martin. Many of these environments were based on Unity platforms, but Virtual Heroes new HumanSim environment is running  the Unreal game engine. The Unreal engine is the programing engine behind many top shelf entertainment video games.

A very special thank you to BreakAway Games LTD, Virtual Heroes, ClinicSpace, CAE Healthcare, Games For Health, and University of Pittsburgh Simulation and Medical Technology R & D Center for their generous support of this rears Serious Games Showcase. Stay tuned, we hear there are some exciting opportunities on the horizon for the Serious Games and Virtual Environments Track for IMSH 2013.

User Interface Design for Virtual Environments; Challenges and Advances by B. Kahn is now available.  Clinical Playground, LLC founder and managing member, Dr. Eric B. Bauman co-authored chapter 18 of this text titled An Interface Design Evaluation of Courses in a Nursing Program using an E-learning Framework: A Case Study. The other co-authors for this chapter, faculty and staff from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay include  Brenda Tyczkowski, MS; Susan Gallagher-Lepak, PhD; Christine Vandenhouten, PhD; and Janet Resop Reilly, DNP.

This text focuses on challenges that designers face in creating interfaces for users of various virtual environments. Chapters included in this book address various critical issues that have implications for user interface design from a number of different viewpoints. This book is written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of challenges associated with user interface design issues for globally-dispersed users in various virtual environments.

Elisabeth Hayes

Dr. Elisabeth “Betty” Hayes one of the principle champions of the game-based learning movement was recently featured on the White House Champions of Change blog. Dr. Hayes’ post titled Using Games and Digital Media to Engage Girls in Computing discusses the importance and role of video games in shaping the science interests of school aged boys and girls. Hayes argues games do not offer girls the same opportunities that exist for boys. Girls have less opportunities for access to sophisticated games and peer networks that support technology based learning in and around the sciences.

“Simply playing games is not the crucial factor, but having the opportunity to create new content for games, modify the underlying software code, and in the process gain an understanding of how computers work as well as a desire to learn more about them.  Games become exemplars for the amazing things that can be done with a knowledge of computing”

(Hayes, 2011)

Dr. Hayes’ played an integral part in creating two after-school programs that have attempted to make these opportunities more available to young women. Some of her projects include: TechSavvy Girls, funded through the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative and Compugirls, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Hayes spent many years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Education where she held faculty appointments as full professor in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.  She is one of the original Games+Learning+Society faculty members. Dr. Hayes was also the advisor for Clinical Playground, LLC founder and managing member Dr. Eric B. Bauman. Dr. Hayes is currently a professor at Arizona State University. Her research interests focus on gender, digital technologies and learning, particularly the development of IT fluency.

Eric Bauman

Dr. Eric Bauman was at the Stony Brook Medical Center leading a seminar for the Medical Education Fellowship program on December 7, 2011.  The Fellowship program is led by the very innovative Dr. Elza Mylona, Associate Dean for Faculty Development. Drs. Bauman and Mylona met earlier this year while presenting at the “Medsation” Medical Education Conference hosted by Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.

Dr. Bauman’s seminar focused on contemporary theory for simulation and game-based education. In addition, several hands on games were introduced and played to provide examples of how face-to-face group activities can help to prepare learners for other types of experiences involving technology including simulation, virtual environments, and video games. The importance of understanding the contemporary student body in terms of their media literacy and educational expectations was also discussed. The Fellows represented a diverse group of physicians and scientists and were very receptive about considering new and innovative approaches to clinical education.