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Students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences (USU) are learning the challenges of treating those in
harm’s way through rolls of the dice.
Educators in USU’s
Military Contingency Medicine (MCM) program have developed several
board games to teach students what to expect when they’re deployed,
covering topics including managing logistics of medical supplies,
supporting troops in the military health system, and even role
playing the relations between opposing factions in foreign
countries.
“We develop games like this because it’s pretty evident these
days that your standard day of teaching with a lecture in front of
200 people doesn’t really convey the information or get adequate
retention from students. An interactive way of teaching is more
ideal,” said Air Force Col. (Dr.) Tony Kim, assistant professor in
the Department of Military and Emergency Medicine (MEM) at USU. “It
takes a lot more effort to [create games], but the dividends are
much better, because the students are more likely to retain the key
points.”
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July 26, 2017 - Uniformed Services University medical students
use the Triage, Transport and Track (T3) board game to learn about
preparing for deployment. The game was developed by faculty members
in USU’s Department of Military and Emergency Medicine. (Uniformed
Services University photo by Sharon Holland)
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Gaming has become so prevalent in educating tomorrow’s military
health care providers that it was this year’s focus of the USU
Faculty Senate’s annual Education Day.
Kim is currently
working with retired Army Lt. Col. James Schwartz, chief of staff in
MEM, on a new game where medical students investigate the origins of
an outbreak at their deployed location. It takes inspirations from
the family-night standby, Clue. Players have to go around the camp
and talk to non-player characters to gather enough information to
properly diagnose the problem, while also following proper military
procedure.
Boiling down a
real-life scenario into a board game that’s played during an
afternoon is no easy feat. Schwartz previously worked with Army Col.
(Dr.) Justin Woodson, former associate professor of MEM at USU, to
develop Triage, Transport and Track (T3), a game that has players
treating patients and transporting them through a health care system
set up in a combat zone. Players have to manage time while ensuring
that patients are sent to the proper facilities for treatment.
“We probably had three or four iterations before we came out
with the final version. It’s been about three years since the
initial one we did. We roll out something that’s developed, but as
you do this, students will find things that you didn’t think about,”
Schwartz said.
Woodson pioneered the use of games to teach
MCM at USU, seeking to engage students more than traditional
lectures do.
Students have really embraced the idea. One game that has
received a lot of praise from students is the “Beer” game -- a
logistics exercise developed by the Michigan Institute of Technology
Sloan School of Management, which Woodson adapted to teach medical
students the importance of managing their supply of medical
provisions in the field.
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July 26, 2017 - Uniformed
Services University Fourth-year students play a modified version of the Michigan Institute of Technology’s Beer Game. (Uniformed Services University photo by Christopher Austin)
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Many international students preparing to take part in Medical
Field Practicum 202, otherwise known as Operation Bushmaster,
alongside USU students also participate in the game. Woodson got to
speak with Israeli military medical students after they had a chance
to take what they learned back to Israel, and was surprised to find
that their experience with the game had helped them in their duties.
“I asked why, and they explained they went to their unit
back home and immediately saw that they had issues with supplies.
They reached back to their experience playing the Beer game and
realized that they needed to build a logistics program in their unit
before they could properly take care of their soldiers,” Woodson
said. “They figured out how to do that in their own system. That was
proof that [the game] worked.”
A longtime fan of tabletop
games, Woodson believes they are great tools in teaching students
because they teach attitudes for handling unexpected scenarios.
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July 26, 2017 - The Uniformed Services University-developed Triage, Transport and Track (T3) board game has student-players treating patients and transporting them through a health care system set up in a combat zone. Players must manage time while ensuring that patients are sent to the proper facilities for treatment. (Uniformed
Services University photo by Sharon Holland)
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This also applies to Operation Bushmaster. The medical field
practicum finds students performing various simulated operations
within the fictional country of Pandakar. Woodson expanded the
setting with inspirations from several countries within the Middle
East, complete with a variety of possible environments in which the
exercises could take place, and various opposing factions with which
to interact. He says he actually tapped into his own background
participating in tabletop role playing games to flesh out the
Pandakar experience.
These role playing games also emphasize readiness, which is key
to making sure USU students are prepared for the unexpected and
ready to treat those in harm's way.
By Christopher Austin
Uniformed Services University
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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