Escape rooms, a form of collaborative live-action gaming requiring participants to solve clues to escape a locked room, have grown in popularity across the nation. Games bring together problem solving, critical thinking, and teamwork. This game method has not yet appeared in nursing education literature. The authors describe two versions of the innovative escape room pedagogical method used in undergraduate nursing education. Theoretical bases, learning activities, and types of game clues that could be used are detailed. Future research will address the ability of students to reach learning objectives before and after the game.

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Background: Generation Z college students often prefer individualized, immersive learning experiences. Faculty designed an educational escape room to engage nursing students and improve knowledge in cardiovascular critical care. Method: This study evaluated the educational innovation's impact on changes in knowledge and perceptions of the educational innovation with a pre- and postknowledge assessment and a validated perception survey. Students discussed their experiences and reflections in a focus group. Results: Pre- and postknowledge assessment scores showed statistically significant improvements in knowledge ( p < .05). Student perceptions were statistically significantly higher than the mean value for the evaluation scale ( p < .001). Analysis of focus group transcriptions revealed four themes: Logistics of the Learning Activity, Cognitive Learning, Team Learning, and Professional Practice Skills. Conclusion: The cardiovascular escape room increased student knowledge and was positively received by students. The educational innovation encouraged student engagement in learning, content application, peer communication, and nursing practice skills. [ J Nurs Educ . 2020;59(2):111–115.]

Background. The implementation of educational escape rooms has shown great value in learner outcomes. The design of such simulations requires a thoughtful, well-defined process. Objective. The purpose of this article is to encourage educational escape room designers to use a thoughtful, methodical, iterative process to ensure quality, educational capacity, and a positive learner experience. Application. When designing an educational escape room, designers should consider implementing a cyclic design process: design, pilot, evaluate, redesign, re-evaluate, and repeat. Discussion. A methodological process for educational escape room design can promote deep learning and positive student perceptions.

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Background. Cardiovascular content is challenging for students to master in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. Educational escape rooms have been shown to be useful in increasing student knowledge, immersing students in the learning process, and facilitating the growth of soft skills among learners. Aim. This article details a cardiovascular educational escape room in an undergraduate nursing course, including educational objectives, design considerations, and all materials for seamless transferability into other curricula. Methods. Faculty designed, implemented, evaluated, and revised a nursing cardiovascular escape room over three years. In this sequential-style escape room, junior-level students worked together in groups to complete nine puzzles and activities. The student teams solved puzzles during the allotted 60 minutes to save a fictional patient at risk for further clinical deterioration related to cardiogenic shock. Participants complete activities including drug dosage calculations, rebus puzzles, multiple choice items, and clinical reasoning activities based around course and licensing objectives for the content area in nursing education. Upon game conclusion, faculty lead a guided debriefing to close the loop of learning. The escape room has been implemented for groups ranging from 31 to 68 students in each cohort. Results. Previously published results on this topic indicate that student content knowledge improved after the event. Students also reflected growth in confidence, critical thinking, and teamwork and also appreciated the real-life nature of the activity. The educational game can be adapted and transferred to other schools of nursing or clinical sites.

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Context: This study explored health care students' experiences after participation in an interprofessional simulation. Interprofessional education incorporates students from several health care professions in a controlled, collaborative learning environment. Athletic training students are not well represented in interprofessional education literature. Objective: This study sought to explore the attitudes of athletic training, nursing, and occupational therapy students toward other professions after their participation in an interprofessional simulation. Design: This article describes the results of the qualitative portion of a mixed-methods study. Focus group discussions related to elements of the Interprofessional Attitude Scale to explore participants' attitudes toward other professions. Researchers analyzed transcribed focus group discussions for themes. Setting: This study occurred in a private midsized Midwestern university. Patients or Other Participants: Seventy-nine students, representing athletic training, nursing, and occupational therapy, participated in the simulation; a sample of 13 of these participated in the focus groups. Intervention(s): Students in all professions cared for or observed the care of a standardized patient from the time of a spinal cord injury on the football field through an ambulance ride and subsequent emergency and inpatient care. Students collaborated and communicated with one another. Faculty conducted debriefing after the simulation and before the focus groups. Main Outcome Measure(s): Focus groups included relevant questions from the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale, and themes were identified from participants' responses. Results: Researchers identified 4 themes from the focus group discussions: collaboration, respect, knowledge of other professions, and communication. These themes also mirror elements of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative's core competencies of interprofessional collaborative practice. Conclusions: After the simulation, students expressed positive attitudes toward other professions. This study suggests that athletic training, nursing, and occupational therapy students have positive attitudes toward each other's professions after an interprofessional simulation activity.