Nursing students’ perceptions towards branching path simulation as an effective interactive learning method

The Internet has become a major source of health related information. Nursing students, as future healthcare providers, should be skilled in locating, using and evaluating online health information.

The usefulness and effectiveness of specific serious games in the medical domain is often unclear. This is caused by a lack of supporting evidence on validity of individual games, as well as a lack of publicly available information. Moreover, insufficient understanding of design principles among the individuals and institutions that develop or apply a medical serious game compromises their use. This article provides the first consensus-based framework for the assessment of specific medical serious games. The framework provides 62 items in 5 main themes, aimed at assessing a serious game’s rationale, functionality, validity, and data safety. This will allow caregivers and educators to make balanced choices when applying a serious game for healthcare purposes. Furthermore, the framework provides game manufacturers with standards for the development of new, valid serious games.