Vital Pursuit, a new online game, challenges players to navigate the real-life decisions and obstacles that many Kenyans face in pursuing careers in health care. IntraHealth International launched the beta version of Vital Pursuit yesterday at the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health.

Vital Pursuit puts you in the shoes of Irene Mwende, a fictional 16-year-old girl who lives with her family in Garissa, Kenya. Your dream is to become a nurse and help people. But you quickly encounter obstacles and have to make decisions that may steer you off your intended path. The game challenges you to make a positive impact on people’s lives while maintaining your own morale, integrity, and reputation.

Vital Pursuit leads players through decisions that many aspiring and practicing health workers face—as well as their consequences. Some of the questions you’ll encounter include:

• Should you marry your sweetheart before attending nursing school?
• Should you take out a loan to pay tuition?
• When a male doctor makes lewd comments that make you uncomfortable, how should you respond?
• How can you raise money to pay for your license?
• When your facility runs out of gloves, should you take a chance and provide services without them?

Access to health workers who are present, ready, connected, and safe is vital to the health of every community. Yet the World Health Organization estimates that we need over 7 million additional skilled health workers to meet just the basic health care needs of the world’s 7 billion residents. Amidst this shortage, countries are focusing not only on increasing the number of trained and employed health workers, but also on maximizing the effectiveness of those they do have.

Vital Pursuit is designed to let players experience some of the complex issues that anyone trying to improve health systems must consider, all through the eyes of one aspiring nurse.  

“Vital Pursuit succeeds at something that is very hard to do—it helps individuals connect to the importance and difficulties of health workforce strengthening on a personal level,” says Meshack Ndolo, IntraHealth’s country director in Kenya. “And this is key to creating successful partnerships and advocating effectively for the health workforce.” 

Play the game at www.intrahealth.org/VitalPursuit