Serious games as an educational strategy for management and leadership development in postgraduate medical education – an exploratory inquiry

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that medical residents are in need of additional training in management and leadership skills. One of the possible ways of teaching this competency is the use of a serious game. This study explores residents’ views of the potential use of a serious game to teach a module on negotiation in practice management and leadership curriculum. METHOD: The aim of this study was to identify the features required to design a serious game for management and leadership education, including potential scenarios for such a game. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six medical residents. After transcription and coding of data, thematic analysis was used to group the data into four themes, namely: 1) CanMEDS leader competency, 2) personal views about negotiation, 3) views about serious games, and 4) educational needs in a serious game. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that leadership and negotiation were two domains where residents felt they needed additional training. Those who were already familiar with medical applications and had them installed on their smartphones or tablets had a more positive attitude toward gaming than those who did not. The residents were mostly interested in how realistic the content of a serious game was and its ability to combine management and leadership skills with medical knowledge and clinical expertise. CONCLUSIONS: The findings in this study demonstrate that serious games have the potential to teach certain aspects of management and leadership. The study shows that residents are receptive to the use of serious games and, if well designed, believe that it can be used to improve their management and leadership competencies.