BMC Medical Education (04/11/25) Wu, Ju-Hui; Su, Pei-Hung; Wu, Hsiu-Yueh; et al.

A recent study explored the educational benefits of game-based learning as a method of instructing dental and dental hygiene students about patient safety issues. Before and after the intervention, which consisted of an originally designed board game focused on patient safety, the students took a test to assess knowledge improvement. Another questionnaire administered post-game examined their opinions about the game's educational value. There were 75 participants, divided into three groups (two classes of dental hygiene students and one of dental students). Among all three groups, the findings show meaningful improvements in terms of recall, comprehension, application, and overall knowledge scores after playing the DentSafe game. There were significantly greater improvements in the group with dental hygienists as instructors. The most improved abilities, according to the data, were in "create a patient-safety culture and implement incident management" and "prevent patient falls and injuries." The novel board game was effective for training purposes, the students reported. "DentSafe promotes self-directed learning among students, and its efficiency was significantly increased when used under the supervision of clinical personnel," the researchers concluded, also noting the game's cost-efficiency, portability, and mobility.

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