Attitudes and practices of medical students regarding video-games: should community medicine educationists get serious about serious games

Background: Present medicos belong to a generation called ‘Millennials’ or ‘Net Generation’. They spend less time reading, and are more comfortable in image-rich environments provided by New Media.  The objective of the study is to identify knowledge, attitudes and practices of medical students regarding video-games, with the aim of prompting community medicine teachers to consider serious games as a teaching-learning tool . Methods:  The study was conducted among undergraduate medical students who self-administered a structured questionnaire eliciting their practices and attitudes regarding video-games, perceptions regarding impact of video-gaming on their academic performances and acceptability of serious games as a learning tool in community medicine. Results: A total of 255 medical students participated in the study, out of which 242 (94.9%) were current video-gamers. The students started playing video-games at a mean age of 11.72+3.63 years. Mobile phones were the commonest platform for video-gaming. The median duration of video-gaming was 150 minutes/week, with semi-inter-quartile range of 255 minutes.  57.4% of students reported that video-games helped them relax, while 26% felt that video-gaming increased their skills.  The study revealed that 43.6% students were aware of serious games and 22.7% had used them as a learning tool in last three months. Moreover, about 95% of medicos welcomed learning of community medicine through serious games. Conclusions:  The study reveals that contemporary medical students are spending considerable time playing video-games. It also shows that the learner is willing to learn community medicine through serious games. The study prompts community medicine educationists to consider serious games as a teaching-learning tool.