Enhancing Public Health Nursing Competencies Through Game-Based Education

Community and public health nursing (C/PHN) needs to expand to meet evolving population health needs, yet baccalaureate nursing graduates often lack the competencies required for these roles. The aim of this study was to enhance nursing student self-efficacy in C/PHN competencies through virtual simulation games (gamulations). Researchers developed 6 public health scenarios in collaboration with a software company and piloted gamulations with 90 senior nursing students, 3 faculty, and 1 practicing PHN. Pre- and post-assessments measured self-efficacy in C/PHN competencies. Two-tailed t-testing showed significant improvement in overall self-efficacy scores from pre-assessment (M = 44.76) to post-assessment (M = 54.93) (t(47) = -7.78, P < .001). Paired competency self-efficacy scores across all 19 individual competencies showed significance (P < .001) in self-efficacy improvement. Cohen's d ranged from 0.44 to 0.72. Implementation of game-based educational approaches has the potential to improve new nurse graduates' self-efficacy in C/PHN competencies, thereby improving entry to practice in community and public health roles.