Games!

I just finished reading Jane McGonigal’s remarkable book Reality Is Broken, the selection for this year’s Penn Reading Project. Ms. McGonigal’s book gives a completely different meaning to all kinds of game-playing including reaching, connecting, interacting, judging, engaging, competing, teaming, problem solving, and planning, among many other concepts very familiar to nursing practice. The book’s subtitle “Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World” is a concept that we are exploring at Penn Nursing. One of our strategic goals as a school includes the use of innovations, games, and entrepreneurship as vehicles for developing and providing care that is more congruent with a future of technology, informatics, limited resources, collaboration, and community focus. We are proud to have on our faculty a game and innovation champion, Dr. Nancy Hanrahan, who will guide our School community in integrating these ideas into our work. As the University celebrates the Year of Games: Body & Mind, we invite you to share your ideas for incorporating aspects of gaming into nursing education.

My dream? To have a blockbuster game developed by our nursing students. This game (or games!) would popularize nursing as a very visible career choice and could encourage players to make healthy lifestyle choices as a driver for well-being. Our bright students can do it.

What do you think are the best ways to make it happen?