Palliative Care Stay Room – designing, testing and evaluating a gamified social intervention to enhance palliative care awareness.

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The message of palliative care can be promoted using creative thinking and gamification. It can be an innovative strategy to promote changes in behaviour, promote thinking, and work on skills such as empathy. Aim: Design, test and evaluate a gamified social intervention to enhance palliative care awareness. Methods: Participatory action research study with mixed methods, Design Thinking and using the Public Engagement strategy. Forty-three undergraduate students participated in a Palliative CareStay Room and completed the Test of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (TECA) before and after the game. At the end of the game, a ten-minute debriefing was held with the participants and an open-ended questionnaire was handed out. The content analysis was done independently and the sum of the scores of each dimension was compared before and after the activity. Findings: Older participants (N=43: female=23; male=20; x̄ 19.6 years old) presented higher values in perspective adoption (intellectual ability to put oneself in the other’s place) p=.046 and in emotional understanding (ability to recognize emotional states) p=.018, after participating in the game. Females had the highest scores on empathic joy (p=.08). Students stated that the game gave them knowledge and new perspectives. Conclusion: Gamification can be used in teaching and transmitting positive attitudes in Palliative Care and can help young university students to think positively about care issues.