Peer-reviewed article
Take Care: development and evaluation of a serious game about violence against children and adolescents
Izabela Andréa da Silva, Isabela Makiolka Montingelli, Silla Carlos Nascimento Junior, Deborah Ribeiro Carvalho, Márcia Regina Cubas ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001Researchers developed and tested a serious game called 'Take Care' designed to train nurses and physicians in primary health care to identify and respond to violence against children and adolescents. The game uses clinical case scenarios set in a virtual doctor's office and was evaluated with 48 healthcare workers. Players reported high satisfaction, improved knowledge, and increased concentration, though notably 70% did not report the violence they encountered in the game scenarios.
Key points
- Seventeen clinical cases representing different types of violence were developed and validated by experts
- The game achieved a Cronbach's alpha of 0.970, indicating strong internal consistency
- All participants said they would play again and 91% felt safe using the game
- 70% of players did not report the violence encountered in game scenarios, suggesting a gap between knowledge gain and action
- Participants reported improved knowledge, concentration, and clarity of objectives as key benefits
Limitations
The study measures only player satisfaction and perceived knowledge improvement, not actual changes in healthcare workers' real-world ability to identify, report, or respond to violence. The small sample size (48 participants) and lack of control group limit generalisability of the findings.
Abstract
to develop a serious game for nurses and physicians in Primary Health Care based on clinical cases that address types of violence against children and adolescents, and evaluate the serious game based on player satisfaction. applied research of technological nature. Four stages were carried out: development of fictitious clinical cases as a basis for the serious game; evaluation of clinical cases by eight experts intentionally selected for participating in the Protection Network; development of the serious game by an interdisciplinary team; and evaluation of satisfaction with playing the game, using the e-GameFlow scale, with the participation of 33 nurses and 15 physicians. seventeen clinical cases were developed, representing different types of violence. "Take Care" was developed as a simulation using Unity® software, set in a virtual doctor's office. The game's evaluation achieved a Cronbach's alpha of 0.970. The areas of greatest satisfaction were: improvement in knowledge, concentration, and clarity of objectives. All participants said they would play again, 91% felt safe, 89% would not give up, and 70% finished without reporting the violence. "Take Care" was evaluated positively. It is suggested that it be used for continuing education, as an aid in identifying and reporting situations of violence.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Serious game simulation ('Take Care') using clinical case scenarios in a virtual doctor's office setting
- Population
- 33 nurses and 15 physicians working in primary health care
Key finding
100% of participants said they would play again