Training for the unexpected: an immersive simulation serious game for chemical incident management

Professionals working in production and quality control units handle high-risk products on a daily basis and may face critical, sometimes unusual situations. Recent incidents have shown difficulties in quickly applying the appropriate procedures when unexpected events occur. These incidents highlight the need to train professionals in standard procedures in order to ensure rapid and appropriate management and limit the consequences of incidents or accidents, but also to help them adapt their response to unexpected and potentially serious situations.
The aim of this work was to design an immersive healthcare simulation serious game dedicated to chemical risk management in hospital pharmacy practice. The tool was developed in accordance with the healthcare simulation recommendations of the French National Authority for Health (HAS). It places participants in realistic chemical incident situations requiring an immediate response: alerting, evacuation, management of the exposed person, and management of the chemical incident.
A working group including four pharmacists and one pharmacy resident used an Ishikawa diagram to identify the main factors involved in chemical risk situations and to structure the scenarios. The originality of the tool is based on the combined use of “location”, “chemical incident”, and “type of exposure” cards, allowing 327 random and coherent scenarios to be generated. Many of these scenarios involve situations that have not been encountered before, allowing procedures to be tested and participants’ responses to new situations to be evaluated.
The game is played as a team and includes players, observers, and a game master. The game master gives an initial briefing, supervises the session, and provides feedback during a structured debriefing aimed at reinforcing learning by linking the actions performed to recommended practices.
Three one-hour sessions involved 18 participants. Analysis of the observation grids showed a mean of 23.5 correct criteria out of 29, with good performance in securing the area and following protective clothing and cleaning procedures. In contrast, management of the exposed person needed improvement. At the end of the game, the knowledge questionnaire showed satisfactory results, with a mean score of 7.7 ± 1.9/10, while the mean satisfaction score was 4.81 ± 0.49/5.
The immersive nature of the game, together with the game master’s ability to adapt the scenario in real time, teamwork, and realistic situations, encouraged strong participant engagement. This serious game is a useful continuing education tool that complements theoretical training and helps professionals improve their ability to respond quickly and effectively to chemical risk situations, including unexpected ones.

Keywords: continuing education; immersive simulation; chemical risk; adaptive learning.