By Conrad Wanyama

Kenya Paediatric Nurses Chapter (KPNC) is a professional association of neonatal, child and adolescent nurses in Kenya. KPNC holds an annual scientific conference every year in august, bringing together paediatric nursing colleagues and other partners who work with children for networking, learning and professional development. The 2018 KPNC annual scientific conference was held at Gelian Hotel, Machakos County, about 70km East of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi from 22^ndto 24^thaugust 2018.

LIFE project team (Conrad Wanyama and Naomi Muinga, both based at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi) were at the conference for the roll-out of the LIFE Mobile: Neonatal Resuscitation, a demo of LIFE VR: Neonatal Resuscitation, and beta testing of eHBB, a new low-cost VR module for LIFE that uses Google Cardboard VR headsets.

Activity 1: Plenary Presentation.

Conrad gave an overview of the LIFE project and the educational benefits of mobile-based simulated serious games as a form of learner-centred refresher training that enhances recall of key steps of emergency care. Conference delegates were guided on how to download the app on Google Play Store but were asked not to play the game yet in readiness for the challenge on day 3 of the conference (see below).

Activity 2: LIFE Mobile Challenge

The aim of the LIFE challenge was to give participants an opportunity to achieve meaningful goals by challenging them beyond their comfort zones. This exercise was based on the premise that ‘teaching is a planned experience which brings about a change in behaviour (the learning of a specified material which will result in a specified outcome’ (Pocket guide to teaching for medical educators, by Advanced Life Support Group & Resuscitation Council (UK), 2^nded.). We wanted to create a forum where learners desire to judge personal performance against that of others, a form of intrinsic motivation described by Malone and Lepper (1987) as social comparison. Participants played the game in groups of 3-10.

Activity 3: Exhibition sessions

We also ran demos at the exhibition site both for LIFE VR (using the VIVE virtual reality headset) and for user testing of a new eHBB VR module to get feedback from the players. LIFE eHBB uses a smartphone and a Google Cardboard.

You can download LIFE Mobile, with the first Neonatal Resuscitation scenario based on ETAT+ guidelines, from the Google Play Store.