First aid training tool launched by City, University of London & Focus Games

A new game based educational resource is now available which helps frontline healthcare staff to improve their knowledge and confidence when dealing with emergency situations outside the workplace.

Health professionals may encounter situations outside their usual working environment where their skills could help to save a life. But administering first aid in an unknown environment can be a dauting prospect, and staff may lack confidence to assist in an emergency.

The First Aid Game has been developed in a collaboration between senior academics from the School of Health Sciences at City, University of London, and Focus Games Ltd, specialists in educational games for healthcare training. It is designed to help all grades of staff improve their confidence around managing an incident, providing first aid and caring for injured people outside of their workplace.

This is the third board game for health and social care professionals which has been developed at City, University of London in collaboration with Focus Games Ltd. The First Aid Game follows the already successful Drug Round Game and Drug Recovery Game.

‘At City, University of London’s School of Health Sciences we pride ourselves on providing excellent and innovative education to our students and health care professionals. Serious games can have a significant impact on learning and when designing the First Aid Game the focus was on making learning fun whilst providing an evidence based teaching tool. This resource, developed by our senior academics, continues our tradition of game-based learning, and will encourage students to develop their skills and confidence in the crucial area of first aid.’ Dr. Rachael-Anne Knight, Associate Dean, Excellence and Innovation, SHS, City, University of London.

The First Aid Game leads players through four common emergency scenarios – road traffic collision, scald, choking and chest pain, challenging them to think about safety, prioritising casualties and incident management to provide safe and effective first aid. Questions and scenarios in the game are designed to stimulate discussion, encouraging players to share knowledge and experiences and to learn from each other. The game explores:

• Professional & legal responsibilities outside the workplace
• Managing an incident
• Prioritising casualties
• Keeping yourself and others safe
• Communicating information to the emergency services
• Helpful tools including DR ABC, SBAR and AMPLE
• Knowledge of first aid required in the given scenarios
• Other basic first aid knowledge, including FAST test and anaphylaxis