Gamification of ethical dilemmas in health promotion curricula – possibilities and pitfalls
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: For competent public health workforce, ethical decision-making is one of the core competences across the profession. Despite the overloaded curricula in health promotion and public health, the relevance of teaching ethics continues to grow. For ethics education, knowledge of ethical theories and existence of codes and guidelines is not sufficient, as this can stay abstract and not applicable. Cases and problem-based learning have shown more effectiveness in various fields. Gamification has emerged as a promising approach for ethics education in the research integrity field, exemplified by initiatives such as the Integrity game, Rotterdam dilemma game, and BEYOND cases. In the current approach, the methodology of discussion game about values was applied to cases related to health promotion. The cases include a narrative with 4 pre-given possible solutions (each of them is inspired by one of the ethical theories) without one “right” answer provided. The narrative presents the viewpoint of one actor facing a moral crossroad. The loyalties involved are explained. The information about possible motives of the actors is limited. The temporal dimension is limited for keeping the values dilemma clear. Topics include vaccine hesitancy; drug prevention in schools; injury prevention, upholding the health promotion values in personal life, etc. The cases cover the professional roles for public health professionals on personal, local, societal, and international level. The feedback collected from the health promotion students will inform of its educational relevance and practicality. Possible shortcomings to be explored include applicability of the methodology and possible oversimplification of complex ethical issues. By encouraging collaborative, theory-informed discussion without prescriptive solutions, this approach supports the development of ethical competence in a field where moral decisions are increasingly complex. Key messages • The methodology is suitable to be used in health promotion, and it is in line with the suggestion of avoiding cookbook solutions to complex ethical dilemmas. • The focus on gamifying the ethical dilemmas in health promotion makes ethics more approachable for people outside of the field of philosophy.
Author: M Parder
Institution: Tallinn Health University of Applied Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,181
OpenAlex ID: W7101408769
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