Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have launched a new video game designed to help boost recruitment for pharmacy roles.
The game features virtual patients who must be given the right medication as prescribed by a virtual doctor, in a race against the clock. It is intended to demonstrate to those with an interest in pharmacy how the team operates within a hospital at ward level, and can be played using a computer, mobile phone, or tablet, making it “ideal to take out to careers events at local schools and colleges”.
Rachel Craven, pharmacy business, service and performance manager at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, thought up the idea as a way of helping to address the “short supply” of pharmacists in the region.
She commented: “I was trying to think of ways we could promote a career in pharmacy, which were outside the box, and came up with the idea of a video game. I approached The Grimsby Institute and they were delighted to help us with this. The game they’ve designed is absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait for people to play it.”
Students studying BA Game Design at The Grimsby Institute were called upon to help create the game, working for free on the project over a timespan of 12 months, before presenting the final product ‘Pharmacy Rush’.
Simon Priestley, chief pharmacist at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, said that the game had “exceeded expectations”, and will help to attract more people into pharmacy roles.
To try out the game, please click here.
In related news, staff from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust’s Wellbeing Hub have shared how they collaborated with game makers for the development of a video game following a character experiencing psychosis, in order to achieve “truthful representation” of the condition.
Elsewhere, Medway NHS Foundation Trust has published its clinical strategy for 2024 – 2027, highlighting digital and data plans including a frailty virtual ward and electronic pharmacy systems.
