Serious Game-Based Training for Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatments in the ICU

Background: Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments (WWLST) are frequent in ICU and raise important ethical, legal, and communication issues. Despite their importance, specific training on WWLST remains limited. Study Objective: evaluating the impact of a serious game on medical students' knowledge and skills regarding WWLST in ICU Population: The study population consists of 164 medical students who are randomly assigned to two groups Study design: prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled, single-blind study. The study will compare two educational approaches: a 25-minute serious game (SG) and a 25-minute narrated PowerPoint lecture (PPL) Parameters: The primary objective is to assess the impact of the serious game on students' competencies, measured by an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) on WWLST in ICU. Secondary outcomes include a multiple-choice 10 questions (MCQ), two Script Concordance Tests (SCTs) immediately after training and satisfaction scales Hypothesis: A serious game-based training program on a highly complex topic such as WWLST in ICU could enable medical students to develop better skills and experience greater satisfaction compared to a conventional teaching method.