Video-based tools to enhance nurses' geriatric knowledge: A development and pilot study

Background: The need for health care professionals with geriatric knowledge is expected to increase due to aging of society. Educational tools that fit the specific learning styles of nurses and nursing students might be useful for this. Serioussoap.nl (available in Dutch and English) is an educational tool that integrates video-based gaming and storytelling, and it might be an effective way to improve the geriatric knowledge of nurses or nursing students. Objectives: To investigate the effect of Serioussoap.nl on the geriatric knowledge of nurses and nursing students, and to evaluate its usability. Design: We conducted a development and an explorative pilot study, using a pretest posttest quantitative design to investigate the effect of Serioussoap.nl on geriatric knowledge. A qualitative approach was used to evaluate its usability. Participants and setting: Three vocational nursing schools (n = 119 second/third year students), one baccalaureate nursing university (n = 77 first year vocational nurses) and one home-care organization (n = 44 vocational nurses) in the Netherlands participated in the quantitative study, and 94 vocational students participated in the qualitative study. Methods: We measured the effect on geriatric knowledge with the Knowledge of Older People Questionnaire (KOP-Q, score 0–30). The qualitative study included observations of 94 participants while they played Serioussoap.nl, four semi-structured focus groups and eleven individual interviews. Results: The study demonstrated a significant increase of geriatric knowledge of 7.8% (+2.3 score on the KOP-Q, 95% Confidence Interval (1.4–3.2, p < 0.001). The qualitative data showed that Serioussoap.nl contributed to the reflective learning-style and enhanced meaningful learning. Conclusion: Serioussoap.nl increased the students' geriatric knowledge and was perceived as a suitable and effective educational tool for vocational nursing students and nurses.