Trust introduces a gaming application to educate staff members about the severity of flu, resulting in 84 per cent hesitant staff getting vaccinated

Synopsis

The Flu Bee Game. The Flu Bee Game is designed to improve vaccination rates by engaging, educating and encouraging staff to get vaccinated. The game presents flu facts, busts vaccine myths and tells players where and how they can get vaccinated in their organisation.

The game is an HTML5 web app with a supporting website. The game works on any device through a web browser and only takes a few minutes to play.

Ambition

Every year 8,000 people die from flu in England 1 in 5 people are infected by some form of flu each winter, but it’s a fact that 7 out of 10 people carrying virus have no symptoms, but they could infect other people. The Flu Bee Game is designed to improve staff flu vaccination rates by engaging, educating and encouraging them to get vaccinated. It’s a unique online game, which helps players understand why the flu vaccine is so important, in health and social care, it’s vital that staff get their flu vaccination to protect themselves, family, colleagues and patients from the virus. Additionally, a 10% increase In Influenza vaccination rate is associated with a 10% fall in sickness absence rate. The FluBee game makes the hospital a safer place.

In the NHS and social care, it is vital that staff get their flu vaccine. In England, the target for NHS trusts in the current season is 90% uptake of the vaccine among staff. Many Trusts are struggling to achieve this.

Some staff have doubts about the severity of flu and/or have concerns about the vaccine itself. These doubts and concerns are sometimes based on myths and misconceptions.

The FluBee Game is a digital quiz style game designed to improve vaccination rates by engaging, educating and encouraging staff to get vaccinated. The game presents flu facts, busts vaccine myths and tells players where and how they can get vaccinated in their organisation. The game’s content is based on challenging the top reasons that staff give for not getting vaccinated.

The game was created by Joan Pons Laplana. In 2017 Joan was leading the Flu Campaign at James Paget University Hospitals. The game was piloted there and was a huge success. The following year was launched in 25 other NHS Trusts and a large care group. Flu bee has gone viral. Last year was used in France, Spain, Scotland and Ireland

Outcome

The game was launched in 2017. The trust increased uptake by 81% and is now one of the most improved trusts in the UK and sits near the top of national rankings, a remarkable transformation in under 2 years.

In the 2018-2019 season, more than 25 NHS trusts used the game and the Scottish Government supported a trial and study of the game in all Scottish NHS Boards. Queen’s University Belfast also ran a study of the game with its nursing students. A French and a Spanish version of the game has also been produced.

2018/19 Season Flu Bee year 2: A survey has been added to the game. Players are encouraged to complete the survey after playing the game. As of November 19^th 2018 2,200 responses have been received from staff in NHS trusts. 370 nursing undergraduates have played the game and completed the survey. Their feedback suggests that the game increases knowledge and may lead to behavioural changes.

NHS employees working in a range of clinical and support roles answered the following question: ’has the Flu Bee Game changed your perception of flu vaccination? 84% of staff with Vaccine hesitancy^’ decided to get vaccinated after playing.

On a parallel evaluation done at the Queen’s University Belfast suggest that the game was able to change perceptions about the flu and the vaccine and also increase intention to get vaccinated. The highlight of the survey results are:

• Do students believe that FluBee Game increased their knowledge about the flu vaccine?
• Level of knowledge before game: Very Good = 8.67%
• Level of knowledge after game: Very Good = 48.78%
• Do students believe that Flu Bee Game increased their intention to get vaccinated?
• Intention before game: Definitely would = 29.81%
• Intention after game: Definitely would = 60.43%

These responses are broadly mirrored in the submissions from NHS staff who played the game. The data will be collated, analysed and published towards the end of the Flu season. However, as of 19th November of all NHS staff responses:

• Has the Flu Bee Game changed your perception about flu vaccination?
• More positive = 30%
• About the same = 70%

Flu Bee Game helped to persuade 26% of students who had not intended to get vaccinated to get vaccinated. This is a significant cohort of people who could be considered ‘hard-to-reach’ in any vaccine education programme.

Spread

Flu Bee Game is very easy to customise and deploy in any organisation. FluBee was introduced in the 2017/18 flu season and was used by 12 NHS trusts and 350 UK care homes. It has now has gone viral. In the 2018/19 over 25 NHS trusts are using the game and the Scottish Government is supporting a trial and study of FluBee Game in all NHS Boards. A major university is running a study of FluBee Game with nursing students. The game has been translated into French, Spanish and other versions are planned.

The game was created by Joan Pons Laplana. In 2017 Joan was leading the Flu Campaign at James Paget University Hospitals. The game was piloted there and was a huge success. Flubee has gone viral.

The following year FluBee was used by 11 other NHS trusts and a large care home group.

Several other organisations using FluBee have seen a significant increase in flu vaccine uptake among staff. A clear example is Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. Last year it was recognised by NHS Employers as having delivered the most improved flu fighter campaign in England after they nearly doubled their vaccination uptake following the introduction of Flu Bee.

In the 2018-2019 season, more than 25 NHS trusts used the game and the Scottish Government supported a trial and study of the game in all Scottish NHS Boards. Queen’s University Belfast also ran a study of the game with its nursing students.

FluBee was born at James Paget Hospitals in 2016 and after a very successful pilot the following year was introduced to 11 NHS Trust and a large Care Home organisation.

Flubee is also creating a buzz internationally and has been now used in Spain, France and Northern Ireland.

FluBee is helping to protect staff and loved ones from the Flu Virus on a global scale. Not bad for a little bee.

Value

FluBee is helping Trusts to increase their flu vaccination uptake.

Engaging staff and getting their attention is the starting point for any flu vaccination campaign. Employers cannot address myths and misconceptions about flu unless they can engage staff for long enough to present their messages about flu and the vaccine. Those messages must then be presented in a manner that is easy to understand and likely to effect a change in attitude leading to vaccination. The game harnesses the power of serious games and gamification. Players can share their success on the game’s leader board and invite colleagues to play and compete via social media. The objective is to create a local, regional and national buzz through social media and word-of-mouth that raises awareness and increases uptake of the vaccine.

The game was inspired by Joan Pons Laplana. In 2017 Joan was leading the Flu Campaign at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2016 the uptake for the flu vaccine had only reached 39%, putting the Trust near the bottom of national rankings and so Joan’s team were looking for more effective ways to raise awareness about the flu jab.

The game was launched in 2017. During that Influenza season the James Paget University Hospitals increased their staff vaccine uptake by 82% and is now one of the most improved trusts in the UK and sits near the top of national rankings, a remarkable transformation in under 2 years.

The games was created in partnership with Focus Games and cost nothing for the James Paget University Hospitals. Focus Games can customise FluBee to suit the needs of any other organisation.

The implementation of FluBee was a roaring success and helped the James Paget University Hospitals to achieve the target set by the government. Also by increasing the vaccine uptake they protect the staff patients and love ones.

Involvement

Flu Bee Game was created by Joan Pons Laplana and the transformation team at James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (JPUH). In 2016 JPUH staff uptake for the vaccine was only 39% putting JPUH near the bottom of national rankings. The team were given the job of addressing this issue and over the past 2 years they have transformed the situation at JPUH.

During the previous year’s Flu campaign, the team discovered that many staff believed they didn’t need, or couldn’t have, the jab. Staff offered a variety of reasons for not getting vaccinated like “I’m healthy so I don’t need it”, “I’m 12 weeks pregnant so can’t have it” or “I’m allergic to it”. These are among a longer list of common myths, and so the team decided they needed to tackle these myths head-on to improve uptake of the vaccine.

They looked for a fun way to raise awareness of the importance of the Flu jab and to bust these myths. ln 2017 Joan approached Focus Games with the idea of developing a digital game to help encourage staff to get vaccinated against Flu. Joan explained his bee-themed ideas to Focus Games and they created a new game mechanism and design around Joan’s description and so, the Flu Bee Game was born. Focus Games created a website especially for JPUH that gave staff access to the game and offered clear advice about how and where to get the vaccine at JPUH. It also offered regular updates on the uptake of the vaccine by trust staff. The response from staff was incredible and on several occasions demand was so high that the team ran out of vaccine during clinics.

After the initial pilot at the James Paget the game was deployed in further 11 NHS Trusts.

Focus Games and Joan assessed the feedback from employers who used the game and individuals who played the game and used this information to create a new version of the game for the 2018-2019 season. This version offered employers more practical support to integrate the FluBee Game into their wider campaign and improve promotional activities. A user survey was also added to the game so that feedback could be provided more easily.