Efficacy of Gamification With Escape-Room for Arrhythmia Identification in Critical Patients

Introduction: Health education provided through the escape-room is still a recent approach in educational methodology and tends to be a strategy that benefits nursing students, particularly in gaining knowledge and skills. However, few studies have explored the use of both in-person and virtual escape-room as an educational methodology in nursing. Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the gamification strategy through the in-person escape-room model compared to the virtual model in enhancing cognitive and affective competencies for recognizing cardiac arrhythmias in critical care patients within the nursing field. Method: A randomized clinical trial to be conducted with nursing students from higher education institutions in the Federal District, Brazil. Students will undergo a theoretical class on cardiac arrhythmias in critical patients and will then be randomized to experience either the in-person or virtual escape-room scenario. Knowledge tests, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, Satisfaction and Self-confidence Scale in nursing management learning, and perceived gains will be administered pre and post-intervention. Results with p≤0.05 will be considered significant. Expected Results: It is anticipated that this study will contribute to the enhancement and broadening of cognitive and affective competencies in nursing students, improving the quality of care through an active educational strategy like the escape-room, and consequently reducing costs for the Unified Health System by minimizing errors in recognizing clinical changes in critical patients. Additionally, the study aims to address gaps in understanding the use of educational escape-rooms in the field of nursing.