The effect of gamification-based evaluation application on drain care learning of nursing students

The study was contucted as a quasi-experimental to determine the effect of gamification-based assessment application on students' learning about drain care. The study, conducted with of second-year students enrolled in the Surgical Diseases Nursing lecture of Nursing Department of the Faculty of Health Sciences of Karadeniz Technical University, and the students in the 2022-2023 fall semester of the academic year constituted the control group and the 2023-2024 fall semester constituted the experimental group. The study was completed with a total of 90 students, 45 in the experimental group and 45 in the control group. Data were collected face to face using the "Student Information Form", "Drain Care Knowledge Test", "Drain Care Skill Chechklists" and "Gamification-Based Assessment Application Opinion Evaluation Survey". The knowledge levels of both groups were measured before and after the theoretical lesson on drain care. Unlike the control group, in the experimental group, the theoretical lecture was taught in three parts and after the lecture, a quiz was applied with a gamification-based evaluation application. Students' skills were measured with an Objective Structured Clinical Exam after the theoretical lecture. Four weeks after the application, students' knowledge retention and skill measurements were evaluated. Frequency, percentage, t-test in independent chi-square test, Bonferroni test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. While there was no significant difference between the pretest and posttest between the experimental group and the control group in terms of drain care knowledge test scores, the permanence test was found to be statistically high in the control group (p<0.05). When the skill scores between the groups were evaluated, the penrous drain care score of the experimental group after the application was found to be significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05), while there was no significant difference in other skill scores (p>0.05). As a result, it was determined that the gamification-based assessment application had a positive effect on increasing the knowledge and on knowledge retention of nursing students about drain care but the gamification application should be made more attractive in order to increase the skill. In this context, while developing a gamification application, it is recommended to create interesting game designs that will appeal to the current student profile and to integrate the developed gamification application into the lecture.