New nurse-designed board game aims to reduce medication errors

A board game aiming to minimise medication errors among frontline healthcare staff has been developed by two nursing lecturers. 

The Drug Round Game has been designed for dispensing staff including registered nurses, student nurses, junior doctors and pharmacy teams. 

It sees two teams compete face-to-face by answering questions on topics such as drug calculations and causes of medication errors. 

Sharing knowledge

Players can share best practice, experiences and knowledge via the game, which has been developed by City University London and Focus Games. Its aim is to improve skills and confidence among administration and dispensing staff. 

City University London's senior lecturer in nursing Karen Rawlings-Anderson said the game was developed in collaboration with pre-registration students. 

She said: ‘When you ask students what they are nervous about, medicines management is something that comes up.

Making revising fun

 'They are worried about doing ward rounds on their own and making mistakes. We wanted to find a way of making revising quite a dry subject fun.’ 

Fellow developer and senior lecturer in nursing Janet Hunter said: ‘Students are saying the game is engaging and fun, and they are learning from it.’ 

Future plans include turning the board game, which costs £60 plus VAT, into an app, but nurses have said the current face-to-face interaction promotes informative discussion. 

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