Designing and Validating ‘Health Unit in Focus’: A serious Game for Enhancing Undergraduate education on Older Adults Health (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Population aging underlines the critical need for improving health professional training to adequately care for older adults (over 60 years old). OBJECTIVE Develop and validate a serious game on older adult health for undergraduate nursing students. METHODS This quantitative and descriptive methodological study, conducted between February and December 2023 at a public university in the Federal District, involved the active participation of 27 8th-year undergraduate nursing students. The game, 'Unidade de Saúde em Foco' ('Health Unit in Focus'), was developed and validated with their input. It features 75 clinical cases distributed across three themes: pharmacology, metabolic syndrome, and semiology. The application was validated using the SUS, and the students' feedback. RESULTS Of the 40 students initially enrolled, 27 completed the study. The game received an average SUS score of 85.75 (median: 86.57), classified as excellent—all evaluated items scored above 75. Participants considered the game easy to use, accessible, practical, and rich in well-founded, useful content. This high usability score, coupled with the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the students who found the game easy to use, accessible, practical, and rich in well-founded, useful content, instills confidence in the game's effectiveness. Furthermore, 100% of students agreed that learning through games is effective and expressed interest in incorporating more interactive games into their training. CONCLUSIONS The Serious Game' Unidade de Saúde em Foco' ('Health Unit in Focus') is not just a valid and reliable tool for training nursing students, but also an engaging and interactive approach to learning. Its ability to captivate and involve students in the learning process is a testament to its potential to revolutionize nursing education.