[Game Products: Innovative Pathways for Nursing Education and Clinical Training].

Abstract

To excel in their work, nurses must have specialized tools to support their tasks and professional development. Games, as a crucial pathway to achieving nursing education and clinical training goals, demonstrate significant potential and application value, making them an innovative product. Nursing education games come in various forms, including virtual reality, augmented reality, tabletop, and digital, and may be designed as needed for individual, two-player, or team play (Avşar et al., 2023; Bermejo et al., 2023; Tsai et al., 2024). These games, beyond their entertainment value, have clear educational objectives embedded in their design. Through levels, challenging tasks, and reward mechanisms, they stimulate learning enjoyment and promote nursing development. In this column, experts and scholars in the field of nursing engaged in game development share their experiences and achievements. Integrating games into nursing delivers a wealth of tools and resources for nursing education and clinical practice, offering immersive learning experiences, instant feedback, and individualized learning paths. For nursing students, gamified products offer safe and risk-free learning environments in which they can practice critical tasks and make decisions in simulated medical scenarios, increasing their clinical experience and confidence and enhancing their clinical judgment and decision-making skills (Wu et al., 2023). For patients, many therapeutic games have already been designed that use gameplay to improve health by facilitating user engagement in rehabilitation exercises, promoting healthy eating, and fostering social interactivity (Tsai et al., 2024). For nurses, various games are being used to promote continuous professional growth in an interactive and enjoyable learning environment, improving overall quality of care and job satisfaction (Hsieh et al., 2023). In summary, the application of game products in nursing education and clinical training has introduced new learning and training models that provide multifaceted benefits for nurses, nursing students, and patients. We hope that readers will gain a deeper understanding of related game products after reading this column and use games effectively to enhance nursing quality.