Effectiveness of a Game-Based Mobile Application in Educating Nursing Students on Venous Blood Specimen Collection: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Incorporating mobile applications into traditional clinical teaching methods to assess the impact of game-based mobile applications on the practical knowledge and skill levels of venous blood specimen collection among nursing students. Although game-based mobile applications are recognized as teaching aids that replicate clinical practice in a safe environment, their impact and effectiveness are relatively unknown in the education of nursing students. In September 2021, a single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in a university-affiliated hospital in China. One hundred five nursing students were randomly divided into the control group ( = 53) and the experimental group ( = 52). All participants received the same theoretical and operational training. For the next 7 days, the experimental group used a game-based mobile application, and the control group practiced venous blood specimen collection using traditional teaching methods. We observed the before-and-after comparison of the skill performance and learning curve of both groups of participants. The final skill performance scores of the nursing students in the experimental group were higher than that of the nursing students in the control group ( < 0.001). Analysis of the learning curve showed that to master the skills, the experimental and control groups needed an average of 8 and 10 repetitions, respectively. This mobile application has a positive learning effect on nursing students' venous blood specimen collection skills in the short term. It should be applied to the training of clinical nursing skills.