With the 2025 ANPD Aspire Conference just over a month away, community members and presenters alike are buzzing to learn more about what to expect during our week in Las Vegas. In today’s Aspire session preview, Michelle Emick, BSN, RN, NPD-BC, shares a sneak peek into her microlearning session “ICU Mobility Olympics: Using Gamification to Go for Gold.” Her session will show how gamification created friendly competition to engage an ICU team and their patients to improve outcomes and change unit culture.

What inspired the concept of the ICU Mobility Olympics, and how did it come to fruition?

In 2023 I attended the ANCC Magnet Conference in Chicago and I listened to a presentation about how a group of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) created a competition to improve multiple nurse sensitive indicators (NSIs) on a unit. The presentation immediately caught my attention, as prior to attending, I had discussed with our medical providers the need to increase mobility among our patients. As the presentation went on, a vision came to life. I immediately flipped over a piece of paper and started designing and mapping out a timeline for a practice gap improvement project.

At the time of the design stage in 2024, the summer Olympics was scheduled to be held, and the timing aligned perfectly for the theme. On the bus back to the hotel, I shared my idea and paper filled with notes to my unit lead and said "we’re doing this in our ICU. That’s how our ICU Mobility Olympics project was born.

Can you share a challenge you faced when bringing this idea to life? How did you overcome it?

The initial challenge that I faced was getting the team passionate about improving mobility. There were some misconceptions about mobility and responsibilities, and we had to debunk those notions. To excite our team, there were a few things we did:

1. Starting early on in our journey, we created interactive education boards and hosted “brunch and learns” to get people interested and understand the importance of mobility.
2. We got our hands dirty! Our team was nervous to do something new so I would assist with mobility (and cheerlead) on the unit while making it fun. We’d play music and dance with our patients.
3. Each week we would update the team in our newsletter on who mobilized their patients the furthest and who got their patients up the most times for both day and night shift. This then morphed into adding honorable mentions and celebrating more little wins. Highlighting these victories was pivotal in our success. The team was constantly talking about wanting to be recognized in our newsletter.

Gamification is a favorite for NPD practitioners—do you have any advice for coming up with fun topics?

We’ve been playing games since we were kids—we can make anything fun if we creatively think outside the box. When I’m brainstorming an idea, I first ask myself “would bedside nurse Michelle like this?” and if that answer is no, it’s back to the drawing board. I use our team for guidance, since they have so many creative suggestions. What better way to increase engagement than using their ideas? On our unit, we’ve also developed a mentality of starting with “yes.” Meaning, “let’s try it and see if it works.”

I am also a big believer in themes. For our ICU Mobility Olympics, we tapped into both the French and Olympic theme. We decorate our classroom with an Eiffel tower, different countries’ flags, and Olympic rings. During our “brunch and learns,” we provided snacks such as macarons, croissants, and fruit and yogurt. We even held an opening ceremony with a flag designed by our team. I think games and themes go hand-in-hand to help keep the team focused and connected while progressing through a change. Plus, it’s fun!

What do you think will surprise attendees the most about your session?

There are two main things that I think will surprise attendees. The first is that we successfully kept our team motivated for nine months. I knew from the beginning this needed to be a work culture change, and a longer timeline would likely be needed to do that. For nine months we highlighted different aspects of mobility, looking at it from different angles, and kept the team’s focus. The second thing was how our patients wanted to participate in the challenges. It was exciting to hear patients talk about our unit’s goals.

Can you share a memorable highlight from the ICU Mobility Olympics?

The most memorable highlight was how competitive our team and patients became in trying to win. I remember walking in the unit one Friday and seeing a nurse and their patient ambulating in the hall. The patient turned to the nurse and asked, “is that her?” The nurse replied yes, and the patient told me, and another nurse and patient walking in the hall, that they were going to win. I tracked data through reporting processes every Monday and after learning the results, I went on the unit to inform that nurse that they won the previous week. They immediately got up, walked into the patient’s room, and the next thing I knew I could hear them celebrating together with cheers and high-fives. Seeing the team invite our patients to participate was one of the most gratifying and memorable highlights.

How do you measure the effectiveness of the gamification approach in improving patient outcomes?

You can look at data to determine if an approach is improving outcomes, but sometimes those data points take time to change. When it came to determining if the gamification approach was effective, I listened to our team in real time. If the team was talking about the project and asking questions, I knew were on the right track because it had their attention. Now that time has passed and our project is over, our outcomes have remained consistent. I can reflect and confirm that the gamification approach worked for our team. I recently asked our team what made the ICU Mobility Olympics successful so we can replicate that in the future. Nearly all of them responded by saying they were motivated through competition because they wanted their name in the newsletter.

What advice would you give to other healthcare professionals looking to implement similar programs in their ICUs?

The biggest piece of advice I would give to someone trying to implement a project on their unit is listening to your team. Start with a simple idea and gauge their feelings and interest. Based on their feedback, know how much you can handle and start to map out a plan. Our original goal was simple: move our patients. Once we got our ideas in motion, we gained more traction from celebrating little victories than anything else and our simply goal evolved into so much more. We were consistent with education, provided updates at regular intervals, transparent about progress and opportunities, and made every win a big deal. I would not underestimate the power of friendly competition as motivation to improve patient outcomes.   

If you are attending the 2026 Aspire Convention, come see this microlearning session!