Improving delirium education: the role of experiential learning in a serious game

Delirium, an acute state of confusion, is a frightening experience for patients. For healthcare professionals, it is challenging to provide good care to these patients. We investigated whether a serious game (The Delirium Experience) is a suited strategy to improve delirium education. We showed that a serious game is an effective strategy to improve delirium education for medical and nursing students. Specifically, this serious game enhanced understanding of the patient’s experience and allowed students to gain knowledge on how to provide quality care to delirious patients. To enhance students’ understanding of the patient’s experience, it is important to incorporate a realistic patient’s perspective and experiences into delirium education. To increase knowledge on how to provide quality care to delirious patients, delirium education should include perspectives of people involved in delirium care. Furthermore, delirium education should be interactive in such a way that students can experiment with different care options in a safe environment. This environment should be realistic and resemble the real-life care for a patient with delirium. Finally, delirium education should incorporate feedback in multiple ways, encouraging and supporting students to find answers to their questions via active experimentation.