Teaching good infection control practices with fun: impact of the serious game Flu.0

Abstract

Introduction: Flu outbreaks usually reveal that practices and knowledge about the diagnosis of influenza, its treatment and infection control measures must be improved. A serious game, “Flu.0”, was created to teach the 8 key points to know and do when facing one or more patient infected by influenza. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of playing to 'Flu.0' on the knowledge and practices of nurses and physicians. Methods: Flu.0 is free and can be played online or downloaded; A call for participation to play and evaluate the game was performed. Players were asked to complete a questionnaire before and after the game to give their opinion on sentences about flu, to write what they learned with the game and the main thing they would do differently. A descriptive analysis was performed and the evolution of the answers was analysed. Results: Physicians were 264 to participate (including 213 fellows), senior nurses 62 and nurses students 577; 95% learnt at least something. The main knowledge acquired was about rapid test for influenza (32%) and additional precautions (19%). Significantly, players agreed more after the game that seasonal flu is a not benign disease, that flu vaccination of health care workers is useful, knew more about antiviral treatment and felt better prepared to face a flu case (p<0.001). Thanks to the game 47% of physician/senior nurses and 80% of nurses students declared they would perform better additional precautions. Conclusion: A serious game is an innovative quick and efficient tool for infection control team to improve patient safety.