Abstract:

To address the education needs of International Educated Nurse (IEN) students in Ontario, Canada, we developed a freely available, open-access, editable virtual serious game (VSG) to teach entry to practice nursing competencies. IENs are an underutilized healthcare provider resource in Ontario and Canada in general. Most IENs are not successful in completing the Internationally Educated Nurses Competency Assessment Program (IENCAP); moreover, no open-access educational resources are available from the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO). The open-access VSG closed this gap and championed diversity and inclusivity while embracing IEN students' voices to meet their learning needs and prepare them to practice as a Registered Nurse (RN) or Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) in Ontario. Additionally, the project supported ecampus Ontario and our universities vision for made-in-Ontario digital tools for virtual learning, supportive education for labour market reskilling, lifelong learning, and global outreach.

Keywords:

International educated Nurses, co-design, virtual serious game, open-access, nursing education.