UHP educator helping to teach colleagues through games
Karen Savva-Irwin, a Clinical Educator at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP), is changing the way healthcare colleagues learn thanks to a new game called PAIR-UP.
Last year, Karen Savva was on a secondment with the Medicines Safety team in Pharmacy when a job caught her attention – a role in the Cardiothoracic Education team which was expanding to include Clinical Educators working purely clinically alongside staff. Part of the interview process for this role was a 10-minute teaching segment. It was this challenge which sparked Karen’s creativity and started the ball rolling on her journey to developing the PAIR-UP game.
Talking about where the idea for the game came from, Karen said: “I decided to create a game for my interview as I thought it would be a fun way to deliver the teaching session. I had previously come across similar ideas working elsewhere in the Trust and thought to myself, ‘I wish I had thought of that’.
“I liked how it helped to break down the barriers of learning and made the process less formal, so I set about designing a pairs matching game. I was thinking that if the game went well during the interview, it might be something I could use within the role if I was successful.”
The concept of the game, which was later named PAIR-UP, is based on the simple rules of matching games. If you pick up two cards that match, you can discuss why they match, and then you get to keep the pair. If you pick up two cards that don’t match, you can discuss why they don’t match and place them back in the game. This design means that the game is both playable, with the winner being whoever has the most pairs at the end, but also a tool for learning. Each pair creates an opportunity for discussion and teaching, whether they match or not.
Another benefit of the design of the game, is that it can be played at different levels. The cards are simple, and it is the discussion which facilitates the learning, therefore, the facilitator can lead the discussion and set the level of detail that will be discussed. This makes the game suitable for students, clinicians developing their training, and those needing a refresh.
“I was aware that there are lots of different ways that people learn, and sometimes it can be hard to engage every learner through the same teaching style. I was hoping that by taking the game I used in my interview, and progressing it further, I would be able to use it as a tool to improve up my teaching sessions, and get the learners involved. I hoped it would help interest those who struggle with traditional learning methods.
“Sometimes when you look across the room and see the learner you’ve lost gazing out of the window, you think about how you’ve wasted their time, your time, and there is less opportunity for improvement to patient care. This game is an interactive way of learning, which helps to keep people engaged and reduces the risk of people losing focus during teaching sessions.”
The game can be used as a learning tool both in formal and informal training. Informally, the game requires minimal space and is quick to set up, meaning it can be used anywhere as a quick refresher or training opportunity. Alternatively, it can be used to recap formal training, so after a teaching session or during training, the game can be used to test learners’ knowledge and how much they have absorbed from the session. It can also help them benchmark where their strengths and weaknesses are so they can work on them.
So far, Karen has developed two versions of the game, the first one has a focus on blood gases, and the second one explores cardiac rhythms and their features. However, she hopes that with the support of other speciality nurses, she can continue to develop the suite to cover more areas of clinical education.
Currently, both versions of the game are used for training within the Cardiac Intensive Care team at UHP, but the topics of these games can translate to any area where colleagues need to make decisions related to blood gases and cardiac rhythm analysis. Karen is hoping to make more copies available to enable other educators to facilitate the games within their different teams where these skills are relevant.
K aren has been working with UHP and Focus Games to bring her educational games to life and final version is now available to purchase. Find PAIR-UP Cardiac Rhythms here, and PAIR-UP Blood Gas Analysis here.
