Mobile Serious Game on Nursing Students’ Knowledge, Motivation, Satisfaction, and Views: Tracheostomy Care Example

This study is a pre-post test without control group intervention research conducted to determine the effect of mobile game application for tracheostomy care on the knowledge, motivation and satisfaction of nursing students. The study was conducted between May-June, 2019. The population of the study consisted of the fourth year students of the Nursing Department, and the sample consisted of 24 students who had the opportunity to practice tracheostomy care on the patient. The data were collected with descriptive features form prepared by the researchers, tracheostomy care knowledge test, mobile learning scale, motivation scale related to teaching material, application evaluation and satisfaction form. Permission from the ethics committee and institution, and consent from students was obtained. Students who completed the descriptive features form and the tracheostomy care knowledge test (pre-test) were loaded with a mobile game of approximately 10 minutes and six stages prepared by the researchers on their mobile phones, and a four-week period was given for them to play. At the end of the period, the students completed the knowledge test (post-test), mobile learning scale, motivation scale about teaching material, application evaluation and satisfaction form. Average measurements and Wilcoxon test were used to evaluate the data. A statistically significant difference was determined between the preliminary and final knowledge test scores of students playing mobile games (p ˂ 0.001). It was determined that the average score of the students from the mobile learning scale was 169.04±18.19 (maximum: 190) and the average score they got from the motivation scale related to the teaching material was 134.1250±15.31 (maximum: 165). It was determined that the satisfaction averages of the students in remembering the game and care were 7.66±1.71 (0-10). Mobile educational games allow students to repeat their knowledge whenever and wherever they want. Therefore, it is recommended to develop and implement similar applications.