Playful Pedagogy in Nursing Education in the Time of COVID

The COVID pandemic presented unique challenges to nurses, advanced practice nurses, and nursing education. These challenges were dealing with increased stress, fear, and a high volume of patient deaths, as well as an increased adoption of technology in the clinical setting and in academia. In this context, the value of playful pedagogy at the graduate nurse practitioner education level became more evident, although there was limited literature on its use and effectiveness. A literature review of playful pedagogy and game-based education in undergraduate nursing education, in counseling, and medicine is included. This literature suggests that it should be useful in graduate nursing education and nurse practitioner education as well, and it should be effective in meeting course objectives and increasing learner participation. This chapter discusses the application of a game-based classroom activity described as Stump the Class, in a public urban graduate nursing program. The student engagement in the activity was high, and their feedback about it was positive. Additional research on its use in nurse practitioner education is needed.