Effectiveness of Digital Escape Room Game-Based Disaster Midwifery Training: MERCI Model

Plain-language summary

Midwives play important societal roles during the post-crisis transition and recovery phase. Specific guidelines regarding the roles and responsibilities of midwives, who constitute a significant majority among healthcare professionals, in disaster management need to be developed, and the concept of disaster midwifery needs to be developed. Providing midwife candidates with disaster awareness throughout their undergraduate education will also positively impact individuals' self-efficacy. In recent years, educational plans for emergency obstetric care and management have evolved from traditional theoretical and clinical training to game-based learning, gamification, and training using mannequins and simulators. It is suggested that using different learning strategies in the training of healthcare professionals in emergency obstetric situations will improve the quality of care and reduce maternal mortality rates. Natural disasters such as disasters can cause serious obstetric emergencies requiring immediate intervention and management. Supporting the professional training of midwives, who play important roles and responsibilities in disaster management, with diverse teaching strategies is crucial for enhancing their individual competencies. This study is based on a game-based learning approach through an interactive, educational digital escape room game developed on the Genially platform. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the effects of a digital escape room game-based disaster midwifery training on midwifery students' knowledge, self-efficacy in disaster response, and confidence and anxiety levels in clinical decision-making. This experimental study, designed with a randomized pretest, posttest, and follow-up design and a control group, will be conducted with third- and fourth-year midwifery students in the Department of Midwifery at the Health Sciences University (SBU), Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences (HSBF), during the spring semester of the 2025-2026 academic year. The sample size was determined using Koca and Arkan's study. Based on a Cohen's d = 1.35 effect size and a power level of 95%, a total of 80 participants were planned, with 40 students in each group. Participants included in the study will be administered the "Informed Consent Form," "Introductory Information Form," "Disaster Midwifery Information Form," "Disaster Intervention Self-Efficacy Scale," "Self-Confidence and Anxiety Scale in Clinical Decision Making," and "Game Experience Scale." Discussions and conclusions of the study will be written based on the findings.

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