Operationalizing resilient healthcare concepts through a serious video game for clinicians

Resilient healthcare emphasises the importance of adaptive capacity in quality healthcare. This theory has had extensive theoretical development, but comparatively limited translation for clinicians in practice. This study is the first to present resilient healthcare principles in a serious video game. Serious games are an effective tool for engaging users, sharing ideas and eliciting reflections. The aim of this study was to communicate principles from resilient healthcare to clinicians through a serious video game, and to evaluate the game's feasibility as a prompt to reflect on practice. The game, Resilience Challenge, is scenario-based and requires players to resolve dilemmas in clinical practice. It was disseminated online, and was played 1949 times during the four-month study. The game was evaluated using an immediate cross-sectional survey, which included both Likert-style and free text responses. Participants reported that the game was engaging (93%) and that they would recommend it to others (89%). Fewer participants reported learning about resilient healthcare concepts (64%). Resilience Challenge is a promising way to prompt reflections about clinical work, and demonstrates mixed outcomes in communicating resilient healthcare principles to clinicians. •Resilient healthcare was translated into a series of scenarios in a videogame about a patient's journey through the hospital.•Resilience Challenge was found to be acceptable, feasible, and engaging.•Serious video games can prompt reflection on practice, and have potential as teaching tools.