Game of Hospitals

Abstract

Background: Systems of health care is a key learning area in medical curricula. An understanding of the health care system with regards to reducing medical errors, improving efficiency in the provision of care and cost containment is recognised as being difficult to teach.

Context: A game-based session was designed and executed as part of a medical student conference. This session incorporated numerous aspects of systems of health care, including teamwork, the efficient and equitable allocation of resources, safety, quality, medical errors, structure of health care systems and political influences in the delivery of health care.

Innovation: Game of Hospitals employs experiential learning, enhanced by role-play and competition. Students take on roles as hospital administrators and doctors to negotiate complex clinical and administrative problems. The scenarios explore themes, and highlight patient outcomes and the finite nature of resources. Student experiences were observed and questionnaire evaluations attempted to explore student perceptions. An understanding of the health care system … is recognised as being difficult to teach IMPLICATIONS: Game of Hospitals appears to be a popular learning activity. Observations during the game demonstrated the active involvement of participants, and questionnaire evaluation revealed this to be a favourite session at the student conference. This paper presents a detailed explanation of the set-up and rules for the game in the hope that others can adopt and modify the game to suit their local context.