[box]Cory Ann Boyd, associate professor of nursing and coordinator of the accelerated nursing track at Quinnipiac University. Jonah Warren, assistant professor of game design and development at Quinnipiac University.[/box]
A group that includes Quinnipiac University’s School of Nursing and itsgame design and development program is one of four teams nationally to receive a $10,000 Innovation in Accelerated Nursing Education grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the New Careers in Nursing Scholarship program.
The grant is to be used for the planning and implementation of an innovative accelerated nursing education project over the course of 10-12 months. Students from Quinnipiac’s School of Nursing and game design and development program will join students from Southern Connecticut State University to create a game that teaches about arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis.
This collaboration with Southern Connecticut was one of the grant requirements. Project coordinators for the grant are:Cory Ann Boyd, associate professor of nursing and coordinator of the accelerated nursing track at Quinnipiac; Jonah Warren, assistant professor of game design and development at Quinnipiac; and Mary Ann Glendon, associate professor of nursing at SCSU.
“It’s a wonderful collaboration,” Boyd said. “It is interprofessional with our game design program and intercollegiate with Southern. In order to apply, you had to partner with another college or university. We have a lot of layers of involvement. It’s really exciting.”
Boyd and Barbara Glynn, assistant professor of nursing, recently presented a paper prototype of a game similar to Old Maid, Go Fish and Uno that used ABG keywords to game design students.
“Game design in education is becoming a very hot topic,” said Warren. “There are a lot of people thinking about games in teaching. It’s becoming more and more common within game design programs to have these kind of cross-disciplinary relationships and projects.”
The nursing students from both universities are Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Careers in Nursing scholarship recipients.
“It’s our great hope that by gathering the ideas and stories of our grantees, we can sustain and encourage replication of NCIN’s successful efforts and expand them to more institutions,” said David Krol, senior program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “These grants are intended to provide information that will help schools of nursing continue to do the important work of increasing the diversity of the nursing workforce, including nurse faculty, and increasing the number of nurses holding BSN degrees or higher.”
Quinnipiac’s Glynn, Greg Garvey, director of games design and development, and Jennifer Rafferty, assistant director of instructional design, are also part of the project. Rafferty will translate the game into Spanish.
The nursing students from both schools will test the game in both English and Spanish. Fourteen game design students will create an application prototype. The game will most likely be web based.
“The game design students are already exceeding my expectations asking questions about ABG analysis that demonstrate a great deal of understanding in a very short time,” Boyd said. “Perhaps the paper prototype game worked, a very promising sign for the final application.”
Boyd she is excited to see what the students develop.
“The game has got to be fun, first and foremost,” she said. “If someone learns something along the way, that’s good too.”
The game will be refined during the spring semester and presented to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in September.
“This semester is basically going to be coming up with ideas and building prototypes,” Warren said. “The best of those will move on to next semester.”