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Background: Medication safety is intrinsically interprofessional, requiring coordinated action across professions as well as involvement of patients/informal caregivers. Interprofessional content should therefore be learned interprofessionally and through practical approaches reflecting the complexity of real medication processes. Gamification has been shown to be both motivating and effective in collaborative learning settings by promoting engagement and active problem-solving [1]. Learner-centred educational design requires consideration of the perspectives and constraints of actors involved in the medication process. The persona method provides a human-centred framework, translating complex data into narrative-based characters that support perspective-taking and authentic learning experiences [2]. Combining gamification with the persona method, the interprofessional collaboration unit of the CAS Medication Safety programme at the University of Bern was developed as a half-day, experimental, learner-centred module [3].

Project description: The module consisted of short, role-based vignettes implemented as educational games. Using the persona method, roles within the medication process were represented as narrative personas with specific responsibilities, risks, and decision-making contexts. This enabled participants to engage with medication safety challenges from multiple perspectives. Collectively, the games reproduced key stages of the medication safety process, spanning workplace safety, prescribing and validation, handling of look-/sound-alike medications, communication and error management across care settings, as well as medication preparation, administration, and intake from the perspective of patients/ informal caregivers. Gamification elements such as time pressure, scoring mechanisms, and cooperative tasks were integrated to enhance motivation while maintaining alignment with authentic clinical risks. Debriefings facilitated reflection, interprofessional dialogue, and transfer to participants’ practice.

Evaluation: Evaluation was exploratory, based on written feedback from nine participants. Participants reported high acceptance of the gamified format and emphasized the value of role-switching and practical interprofessional collaboration. Several participants later approached the teaching team to request permission to reuse the games in their own pharmacies, indicating perceived relevance and transferability.

Conclusion: Combining gamification and the persona method represents a promising learner-centred approach to teaching interprofessional medication safety to postgraduates. By aligning game mechanics with human-centred design, the module supports engagement and perspective-taking across the medication process. Future work will focus on systematic evaluation and adaptation to other patient safety contexts.

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Literatur

[1] Tolks D, Lampert C, Dadaczynski K, Maslon E, Paulus P, Sailer M. Spielerische Ansätze in Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung: Serious Games und Gamification [Game-based approaches to prevention and health promotion: serious games and gamification]. Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2020;63(6):698-707. DOI: 10.1007/s00103-020-03156-1
[2] Valaitis R, Longaphy J, Ploeg J, Agarwal G, Oliver D, Nair, K, Kastner M, Avilla E, Dolovich L. Health TAPESTRY: co-designing interprofessional primary care programs for older adults using the persona-scenario method. BMC Fam Pract. 2019;20(1):122. DOI: 10.1186/s12875-019-1013-9
[3] Universität Bern. CAS in Medication Safety. Bern: Universität Bern; 2025. Zugänglich unter/available from: https://www.unibe.ch/continuing_education_programs/cas_in_medication_safety/index_eng.html