The Dimensional Patient

Inspiration
This game stems from interviews with nurses at University College Absalon conducted over a 2 month period. These conversations highlighted two significant challenges faced by upcoming nurses during their hospital training: strict time constraints and the feeling of being unprepared for unfamiliar patient scenarios. The need to follow a planned schedule often led to patients being viewed as tasks rather than individuals needing comprehensive care.

Description
In response to these findings, we created a game designed to stimulate conversations around the dual themes of time management and patient care. The game encourages players to explore the complexity of human beings, moving beyond surface-level understanding to appreciate patients as individuals with emotions, experiences, and personal relationships. Players must make decisions and prioritize tasks within limited time frames, mirroring real-life nursing challenges.

The Dimensional Patient

The game is set in a hospital environment, featuring four patients with different medical conditions. Each patient is represented by a set of cubes:

• The first dimension (big cubes) provides all medical information.
• The second dimension reflects the patient’s mental health.
• The third dimension represents their relationships and how these might be affected by their condition.

Players use time units to explore these dimensions, placing them on top of the selected cubes. As time units are limited, players must carefully prioritize which patients and dimensions to focus on.

Engagement Rules
After understanding the game concept and board layout, participants spend a few minutes familiarizing themselves with the patient cases by unfolding and organizing the cubes on the board. The group then collectively decides where to allocate their time units, choosing which patient dimensions to explore and justifying their decisions. Limited time units mean not all dimensions can be fully explored. Finally, participants discuss their choices, reflecting on the ethical and professional implications of their decisions and considering how they would handle similar situations in real life.

Conclusion The game is designed to provoke thought and discussion rather than provide definitive answers. It challenges players to consider:

• How it feels to prioritize between patients and their physical or mental health.
• What the most ethical and professional actions would be in these scenarios.

By encouraging reflection and discussion, the game aims to enhance understanding of the complex decisions nurses face in their professional lives.

Team Members:
Andrei Toth
https://www.linkedin.com/in/an...
Ioana Paliuc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/io...
Praveenth Mahendran
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pr...
Lee Edward Jepsen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/le...