The game is developed as a browser-based application so that it can run as a desktop version as well as on a mobile device. The aim of the learning environment is to teach prevention-related contents through a simulation of everyday work in a virtually modelled care company. Within the framework of the game, the learner is asked to deal with the strains and challenges to which nurses are exposed on a daily basis. For this purpose, the effects, correlations and interactions of work-related stresses and strains on nurses are presented in a meaningful way.

The Game
Stress-Rekord is a serious game/educational game for leaders in the outpatient care sector, which addresses issues related to healthcare prevention and health promotion. The overall aim of the project is sustaining and improving the physical and mental capacity for employment of nursing staff.
The project focuses on the outpatient care sector concentrating on the care workers who work directly in patients’ homes, rather than those who work in hospitals or nursing homes. These outpatient care workers suffer from even higher levels of stress due to the changing work environments and the high time pressure they are under, as they have to reach their patients by car.
The second focus is on managers in outpatient care who are responsible for maintaining the health of their employees. It is primarily their responsibility to create a healthy working environment for their staff.
The question is how we can enable the managing staff of outpatient care services to learn how to generate this healthy work environment. To achieve this goal, various partners from the health sector were involved in the development of the resource. These included, for example, a care service and a training provider.

How it works
When a player enters the game, they find themselves in an office fulfilling the role of a manager of a fictional nursing care service. Every activity starts in the office and it is the player’s task to identify and reduce all strains and health issues from which the characters in the game suffer. In order to fulfill the learning task the player has to follow four steps that repeat until they have reached the goal of the game.
The game also includes knowledge base or library, which the player can enter at any time. There, all relevant information on work-related stress can be found, including facts and figures as well as specific effects of stress.