When you think of nursing in the classroom, virtual simulation gaming (VSG) probably isn't the first educational method you'd consider.

But that's something for which Nurse Educators Laura Roberts and Nicole Lewis, through Western Regional School of Nursing, landed a $20,000 nationally funded grant from Colleges and Institutes Canada to investigate.

They had an opportunity to share their findings at the Sharing Best Practices in Health Care: Practice, Research and Education Symposium, held by Western Health and Western Regional School of Nursing, late last year. Their presentation was titled Creation of Innovative Experiential Learning Experiences to Enhance Nursing Practice Education: Virtual Simulation Gaming.

"Simulation embodies the very essence of experiential learning," said Ms. Roberts. "Participation in simulated clinical experiences provide nursing students with the chance to engage in direct hands-on learning in order to enhance clinical judgement."

According to the International Nursing Association of Clinical Simulation and Learning, adherence to evidence-based best practice standards in simulation ensures students are well equipped to get the most out of these experiences through effective simulation prebriefing, design, facilitation, and debriefing processes.

In addition, maintaining a psychologically safe environment that poses no risk to actual clients is of upmost importance in order to foster greater student confidence and clinical judgement (INACLS, 2021).

Virtual simulation games or serious gaming is a prospective and innovative approach to nursing education. The use of "games" within the classroom is not a new pedagogical approach to increase student engagement and clinical reasoning skills (Verkuyl et al., 2017).

"Scholarly literature and research surrounding serious gaming through the use of VSG is quite scarce due to its more recent introduction into nursing education," Ms. Roberts, who is also the simulation co-ordinator at WRSON, adding that the grant afforded them the opportunity to create two virtual simulation games. "We hope by sharing our experiences in creating these virtual simulation games, we can enhance interdepartmental knowledge of the wonderful experiential learning that is occurring right here at WRSON and explore possibilities of future interdisciplinary collaboration amongst colleagues at Western Health."