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Scholarly Commons > HCA Healthcare Journal > Vol. 7 > Iss. 2 (2026)

 

Keywords

capacity assessment; emergency medical services; game-based learning; gamification; graduate medical education; paramedics; patient volume

Disciplines

Interprofessional Education | Medical Education | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Background

As medical education evolves, innovative techniques are being explored to enhance learning and engagement. While existing literature on gamification in medical education primarily focuses on graduate medical education, its application in other fields, such as nursing or emergency medical services (EMS), remains underexplored. This study evaluates the feasibility of using gamification to teach EMS personnel about patient capacity assessment and examines its impact on the frequency of pre-hospital transport.

Methods

A relay race with 3 stations was developed by emergency medicine residents, EMS fellows, and emergency medicine and emergency medical services teaching faculty to teach capacity assessment. Each station challenged participants to accurately identify and recall key components of patient capacity through differing approaches. Points were awarded and time until completion was recorded at each station to incentivize participation. A researcher-generated survey was completed before and after the activity to measure each participants’ comfort with and knowledge of determining patient capacity. Data on patient volume and non-transport cases were analyzed from electronic patient care records between April 2023 and March 2024. Paired student t-tests and chi-square tests were used for statistical analysis.

Results

Fifty-seven paramedics participated, with 44 completing both pre-activity and post-activity surveys. Participants reported high satisfaction (average 4.65/5) and motivation (average 4.45/5). Post-activity surveys indicated an increase in confidence in determining patient capacity (P = .07). Over half of the participants improved their post-activity test scores, with an overall 12% increase in performance (P < .05). In the subsequent 6 months post-activity, there was a notable decrease in non-transport cases (18.3% to 15.2%).

Conclusion

The findings of this study suggest that gamification is a viable method for teaching the topic of medical capacity to EMS providers in an engaging manner. Future studies should compare gamification with traditional teaching methods and explore its long-term impact and applicability to other medical topics and professionals. Limitations include the small, unequal sample size, focus on a single topic, lack of assessment of longer-term knowledge retention, and use of a non-validated survey.

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