Table 1 Description of Night Shift
Duration: Three hours of gameplay possible. | |
Objective: To change physicians’ archetype of a representative severe injury | |
Conceptual framework | |
|  | • Highlight relevant contextual cues within the context of a narrative to facilitate integration into a mental model of the decision problem (analogical encoding). |
• Provide personally-relevant and emotionally-compelling feedback that increases retention of the message (narrative engagement) | |
Premise: The player takes on the role of Andy Jordan, a young emergency medicine physician, who moves home after his grandfather’s disappearance and accepts a job at a local community hospital covering night shifts. | |
Content | |
|  | Medical: Physicians interview patients who present to the Emergency Department, and have the option of investigating further, discussing the case with a consultant, or discharging the patient home. The patients include: • 5 deceptive trauma cases with severe injuries adapted from clinical practice. These patients have injuries classifed by the American College of Surgeons as ‘life-threatening or critical’ but that might appear minor. They return with complications if under-triaged, and allow the player to gain experience with relevant contextual cues and receive to feedback on performance. • 5 non-trauma cases adapted from the clinical case records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, presented in the New England Journal of Medicine. These patients serve as a diagnostic challenge to facilitate player engagement in the clinical task. • 2 obvious trauma cases with severe injuries adapted from clinical practice. These patients serve as a management challenge to facilitate player engagement in the clinical task. |
|  | Non-medical: Robert Jordan, Andy’s estranged grandfather, has disappeared. The prologue hints that his disappearance may or may not have occurred voluntarily. The player must solve the mystery by uncovering clues revealed through conversation with in-game characters and by exploring the environment. |
Game mechanics | |
| Â | 1. Connect the dots: clues (medical and non-medical) appear on a notepad on the screen. The player can draw connections between clues to uncover information and to unlock additional dialogue options. |
2. Tap to act: the player can tap on the screen to move through the world and interact with other characters. This mechanic also allows the player to perform key patient-care actions, including procedures like lumbar punctures and intubations. | |
3. Points: players receive points for uncovering non-medical clues, which unlock in-game lore. Specifically, they can access letters written by Andy and his grandfather, which should provide additional insight into their characters and motivations. | |