Welcome to the Playful Activity Library! We invite you to explore this curated collection of active, playful activities designed for use in adult education settings. This library supports our playful learning community by showcasing inspiring practices, sparking new ideas, and encouraging collaborative connections. We welcome all forms of playful approaches—whether it’s a quick icebreaker, a creative classroom activity, or a fully developed board game. Whatever your contribution, we’d love for you to share it with the community!
Understanding a person’s values and beliefs is a core principle of person-centred care which sits at the heart of nursing practice. Although a widely accepted theoretical principal Vales Based Care is practically difficult, due to limited time and opportunity to interact with patients outside of clinical tasks. Making meaningful connections and establishing therapeutic relationships hard.
Activity | 15 – 20 mins (depending on debrief).
To highlight this dynamic, I ask all students to write their name on a slip of paper along with one word that either sums them up / is important to them or represents the core beliefs or ideals.
I then ask the class to stand up and for students to go and speak to someone they wouldn’t usually talk to for 1 minute only, those students then exchange pieces of paper, and everyone returns to their original seat.
The students are then asked to plan a birthday party for the person they have just spoken with on the back of the paper. I give the students around 2-3 minutes to do this.
I then ask the students to swap their paper with the person next to them. All students will now have paper with the name of someone they haven’t spoken to and a plan for a birthday party written on it. I ask the students to then read what has already been written and then to plan a meal for the person written on the paper (again 2-3 mins max).
Once this is complete, I ask the students to reunite their paper with the original owner (persons whose name is on the front).
Debrief: I typically ask who is happy with their party or meal why and why not. I also ask if students found this hard and why.
This activity is designed to show student nurses that understanding someone as a person as well as planning care for them is difficult when based on such little personal interaction. This activity is designed to start a debate surrounding the barriers to Values based nursing such as time, staffing ect. As well as serving as a good opportunity to examine our own actions. such as how our own personal values can sometimes override others especially when faced with uncertainty. Or how we are often forced to makes choices on behalf of others without really knowing them. I have also used this debrief to talk about cultural competence, differences in healthcare based on age and sex, as well as service design in diverse communities.
David Collett
University of Manchester
Social Profile
Small (30 or less)
Interaction
Connecting, Sharing, Reflecting