Using a serious game to complement CPR instruction in a nurse faculty

•LISSA is a serious game designed to complement CPR teaching in an enjoyable way.•LISSA has been evaluated in a population 109 nursing undergraduate students.•Students using LISSA gave significantly better learning acquisition scores than those following traditional classes.•Students that use LISSA performed the CPR protocol better than the ones that did not use it.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a first aid key survival technique used to stimulate breathing and keep blood flowing to the heart. Its effective administration can significantly increase the chances of survival for victims of cardiac arrest. LISSA is a serious game designed to complement CPR teaching and also to refresh CPR skills in an enjoyable way. The game presents an emergency situation in a 3D virtual environment and the player has to save the victim applying the CPR actions. In this paper, we describe LISSA and its evaluation in a population composed of 109 nursing undergraduate students enrolled in the Nursing degree of our university. To evaluate LISSA we performed a randomized controlled trial that compares the classical teaching methodology, composed of self-directed learning for theory plus laboratory sessions with a mannequin for practice, with the one that uses LISSA after self-directed learning for theory and before laboratory sessions with a mannequin. From our evaluation we observed that students using LISSA (Group 2 and 3) gave significantly better learning acquisition scores than those following traditional classes (Group 1). To evaluate the differences between students of these groups we performed a paired samples t-test between Group 1 and 2 (μ1 = 35, 67, μ2 = 47, 50 and p < 0.05) and between students of Group 1 and 3 (μ1 = 35, 67, μ3 = 50, 58 and p < 0.05). From these tests we observed that there are significant differences in both cases. We also evaluated student performance of main steps of CPR protocol. Students that use LISSA performed better than the ones that did not use it.