Examination of Gamulation to Measure Leadership Characteristics in Bachelor of Science Respiratory Care Students

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 impacted respiratory care education and faculty were scrambling looking for new, innovative, and engaging teaching and learning strategies. Gamulation has been used in corporate America, business schools, and healthcare administration education, yet has not been studied in respiratory care leadership education. Gamulation is a type of avatar experience that places students in real life situations that must be dealt with in a timely manner using a logic model. This type of learning has been reported to be effective. This

Methods: IRB was submitted and determined exempt. Gamulation was developed to measure leadership characteristics using a logic model. After completing course content focused on leadership and management, this activity was last in the course schedule. Students were assigned the gamulation as a course activity and had 2 hours to complete the gamulation. Student perception questions were presented first to learn students experience with other avatar type gamulation. The gamulation placed students in three scenarios: Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Office,r and Director of Respiratory Care. After the gamulation, perception questions of the experience as an earning tool were asked. All data were deidentified and analyzed for descriptive analysis.

Results: All students (n = 44) completed the gamulation. Of the 44 students, 13.6% n = 6) scored highest in caregiver category, while 6.8% (n = 3) scored highest in the patient focused category and 2.2% (n = 1) scored highest in strategic thinking category. More than half of the students (n = 30) felt that the gamulation was too long, while 75% of the students (n = 33) felt the gamulation was easy to use and understand.

Conclusions: Gamulation is an engaging tool capable of identifying leadership characteristics in BSRC students. The use of gamulation may be further researched across all BSRC programs.