Gamification in pharmacy education: a systematic quantitative literature review

Abstract

Objectives Gamification involves applying game attributes to non-game contexts and its educational use is increasing. It is essential to review the outcomes and the efficacy of gamification to identify evidence to support its use in pharmacy education. This article systematically and quantitatively reviews and evaluates the alignment of learning outcomes and the quality of peer-reviewed literature reporting gamification in pharmacy education. Key findings A literature search was undertaken in February 2022 using CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, Science Direct, Scopus and ERIC databases, via keywords (game* OR gaming OR gamif*) AND pharmac* AND education. Google Scholar was searched using ‘gamification of pharmacy education’ and ‘serious games in pharmacy education’. Data extracted included type of gamified intervention, mode of delivery, game fidelity, intended learning outcomes and outcomes reported. Quality assessments aligned with key aspects of the SQUIRE-EDU Reporting Guidelines. Of 759 abstracts and 95 full-text papers assessed, 66 articles met the inclusion criteria. They described gamification from 12 countries in the education of 8272 pharmacy and health professional students. Gamified interventions ranged from board games to immersive simulations, with escape rooms most frequently reported. Reporting quality was inconsistent, with observed misalignment between intended learning outcomes and outcomes reported, an apparent overreliance on student perceptions as primary data and a lack of reference to reporting guidelines. Summary Gamification is included in the curricula of many pharmacy degrees, across multiple subject areas. This review identified evidence gaps and reinforces the need for improved quality of gamification research, critical alignment of learning outcomes with evaluation, and use of reporting guidelines.

Gamification in Critical Care Education and Practice

“…While little gamification has been deployed in CCM education training, it has been used more extensively in other venues. Gamification is currently used across multiple disciplines to introduce new knowledge, reinforce existing knowledge, learn new techniques and their application, decision-making, and procedural mentoring and can be extended to patient education as well (23,24,(37)(38)(39)(40). Gamification modalities include escape rooms, simulation competitions, leaderboards, clinical team training exercises, and augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR)-based games.…”

Investigating the Role of Geriatrics Pharmacies in the Health care Supply Chain

“…Research on geriatric pharmacy mainly focused on two specific themes: (1) the role of pharmacists in geriatric such as in Petrovic et al (2016), Riordan et al (2016), Lee et al (2015), Marengoni et al (2015) (2) geriatric pharmacy education such as in Hope et al (2023), Woodall et al (2022), Odegard et al (2007). The review of literature revealed the scarcity of geriatric pharmacy research in the Middle East, and only two research studies were found; Awad et al (2020) and Awad and Hanna (2019) and both were conducted in Kuwait.…”

Assessing the reaction to and efficacy of the Screener drug discovery and development board game as a pedagogical tool in postgraduate courses

“…Over the last ten years (2012-2022), the number of research papers using the term game-based learning has dramatically increased from 381 to 6,765 results, according to a SCOPUS research. The use of games as a strategy for active learning has been applied in all areas of healthcare ( 1 ), including pharmacy, as recently reviewed ( 2 , 3 ) and specific disciplines, such as pharmacology ( 4 ). This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the use of games or game elements improve student engagement and that learning is optimized by gaming mechanisms, such as immediate feedback, active participation, repeated practice, motivation, and teamwork ( 2 , 3 ).…”

“…The use of games as a strategy for active learning has been applied in all areas of healthcare ( 1 ), including pharmacy, as recently reviewed ( 2 , 3 ) and specific disciplines, such as pharmacology ( 4 ). This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the use of games or game elements improve student engagement and that learning is optimized by gaming mechanisms, such as immediate feedback, active participation, repeated practice, motivation, and teamwork ( 2 , 3 ). Although game elements are widely recognized as important for enhancing student motivation and learning outcomes, the underlying mechanisms are not yet well-understood.…”