Paper-based gamification to enhance competency-based education in an obstetrics clerkship

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Gamification in Healthcare
• Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME)

Background:

• Clinical clerkships are vital for medical education but face challenges with variable learning opportunities.
• Digital gamification tools are often difficult to implement in clinical settings.
• This study explored a low-resource, paper-based gamification tool for obstetrics and gynecology clerkships.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a paper-based gamification tool in a medical clerkship.
• To assess its impact on student engagement, learning, and task completion.
• To determine its feasibility in a resource-limited clinical environment.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental study involving 102 fifth-year medical students.
• Comparison between a conventional clerkship group (n=50) and an intervention group using a paper-based "stamp rally" (n=52).
• Intervention involved 20 observable clinical tasks requiring instructor verification; outcomes included satisfaction, achievement, self-efficacy, self-directed learning, task completion, and exam scores.

Main Results:

• The intervention group reported significantly higher satisfaction, sense of achievement, self-efficacy, and self-directed learning.
• Documented task completion rates were higher in the intervention group (92.3% vs. 75.9%).
• The intervention group also achieved higher short-term written examination scores.

Conclusions:

• A paper-based gamification tool enhanced motivation-related outcomes and task completion in a medical clerkship.
• This low-resource approach effectively operationalized competency-based medical education (CBME) objectives.
• Further research is needed to confirm long-term competency development and workplace performance.