Video-game instruction in basic life support maneuvers

Marchiori EJ, Ferrer G, Fernández-Manjón B, Povar Marco J, Suberviola González JF, Giménez Valverde A

Objectives: 1) To assess the usefulness of an educational video game to teach the theory

of basic life support to high school students; 2) to compare video-game instruction to

the traditional teaching of basic life support maneuvers through practical

demonstrations by health care professionals.

Methods: An educational video game was developed according to the ILCOR 2010

guidelines. The study was carried out in a sample of 344 secondary school students in

Aragon, Spain. The students, who were allocated to an experimental group and a

control group, took a test before and after instruction in order to detect change in

knowledge.

Results: Viable data were obtained for 331 students. The 187 students in the

experimental group had a mean grade of 5.41 (out of a maximum score of 10) before

playing the game and a mean grade of 7.48 afterwards. Students in the control group

had a mean grade of 4.95 before and 8.56 afterwards. The differences in each group

were significant (t test). After bivariate analysis of variance, the differences in both

groups remained significant.

Conclusions: The experimental group achieved a significant increase in theoretical

knowledge, although they learned less than students in the control group. The relevance

of these results rests on the lower cost per instructional session for the video game,

which can be played an unlimited number of times without supervision. Furthermore,

the game can be distributed free of charge to institutions or individuals.

Fernández-Manjón B, Ferrer G, Giménez Valverde A, Marchiori EJ, Povar Marco J, Suberviola González JF