Gamification and the effects on confidence in the student nurse

Nursing educators are challenged with conveying vast amounts of complex nursing arts and science content to learners every day. The relationship between learner and nursing educator should be one of collaboration to ensure the smooth instruction of broad and deep nursing concepts. Knowledge acquisition, confidence, learner engagement and enjoyment are critical to the learning process, but often students are challenged with these behaviors (Garrison et al., 2021). Research in the last five years has suggested that the use of gaming in the nongaming setting, like clinical healthcare, can strengthen knowledge, increase content retention, and subsequently increase confidence (Marquez-Hernandez et al., 2019). Learners and educators have identified that gamification can provide an interactive and innovative approach to learning, cost-effectively while increasing knowledge and nursing skills (Ruiz-Alba et al., 2019). The literature notes that gamification can meet current essential skills of the contemporary professional nurse in the areas of increased problem-solving, knowledge retention, and improved decision-making, which can lead to improved patient outcomes and clinician contribution at the bedside.