The Geriatric Virtual Escape Room in Pharmacy Education: Female Students Escape Significantly Faster than Male Students

Abstract

Due to COVID-19 and the limitation of face-face teaching, electronic adaptation for formative and continuous assessment methods were greatly used and documented between 2020 and 2021. This study aims to implement a virtual escape room that will help assist and refine problem-solving skills in fifth-year pharmacy students by reviewing Beer’s criteria and selecting the most appropriate management. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted following the implementation of the virtual escape room using google form. Students had to unlock five puzzles using Beer’s criteria. To evaluate pharmacy students’ perception of this method, they completed a survey to identify their views of the game. Of the 128 students enrolled in the geriatric course, all were able to escape (100%). A one-sample t-test indicated statistical significance between gender. Female students escaped statistically faster than male students (p < 0.00002) and were more likely to recommend the game to other students and thought the game encouraged them to think of the material in a new way, whereas male students were more neutral towards it. In conclusion, the geriatric virtual escape room was successfully implemented as a pilot innovative method to assist in virtual learning. However, future studies should investigate virtual gamification in pharmacy education and its impact on learning, as well as identify if there were any gender-specific differences in using these tools.

Implementation of a hepatitis-themed virtual escape room in pharmacy education: A pilot study

“…Serious games such as escape rooms are an entertaining and engaging method of delivering learning materials and have become a popular learning tool in medical (Backhouse & Malik, 2019 ; Guckian et al, 2020 ; Wiemker, 2015 ) and pharmacy education (Badr, 2022 ; Cain, 2019 ; Caldas et al, 2019 ; Clauson et al, 2019 ; Cole & Ruble, 2021 ; Richter & Frenzel, 2021 ; Eukel et al, 2017 ; Gordon et al, 2019 ; Kavanaugh et al, 2020 ) due to the generational shift in the current learner population and the societal impact of gamification (Guckian et al, 2020 b). A good escape room activity allows for achievable goals, autonomy for freedom of choice for learners and incorporates teamwork (Guckian et al, 2020 a).…”

“…Students who did not have any part time work experience in healthcare sectors demonstrated significant improvement in their knowledge on the topic, similar to their peers who have previous work experience, corroborating the fidelity of the gamebased learning activity in augmenting students' knowledge gain. Serious games such as escape rooms are an entertaining and engaging method of delivering learning materials and have become a popular learning tool in medical (Backhouse & Malik, 2019;Wiemker, 2015) and pharmacy education (Badr, 2022;Cain, 2019;Caldas et al, 2019;Clauson et al, 2019;Cole & Ruble, 2021;Richter & Frenzel, 2021;Eukel et al, 2017;Gordon et al, 2019;Kavanaugh et al, 2020) due to the generational shift in the current learner population and the societal impact of gamification (Guckian et al, 2020b). A good escape room activity allows for achievable goals, autonomy for freedom of choice for learners and incorporates teamwork (Guckian et al, 2020a).…”

“…The current body of literature in pharmacy curricula predominantly discusses designs of escape room games implemented physically, whilst reports of digital escape rooms are limited. Badr ( 2022 ) describes a virtual geriatric escape room game designed using Google® forms for fifth-year pharmacy students. A gender-specific difference in students’ perception of the activity was reported while the impact of the activity on learning remains to be seen.…”

Simulation-Based Education Implementation in Pharmacy Curriculum: A Review of the Current Status

“…Most researchers have described the utilization of simulated SG in the early years of pharmacy education, including the first, second, and third years. Simulated gamification can be implemented to help students examine various pharmacotherapy topics, including diabetes, 75 , 81 heart failure, 80 cancer, 78 toxicology, 73 non-sterile compounding, 74 geriatrics, 82 and others, such as disaster preparedness, 79 skill-based leadership, 76 opioid medication safety, medication history taking, 71 and APPE readiness. 77 Moreover, in past experiences, SG has proven to be impactful on students’ knowledge and learning experiences.…”

Case-Based Virtual Escape Rooms: Using Feedback to Change Online Platforms

“…Virtual escape rooms (VERs) are adaptations of in-person escape rooms, which use online interactive environments where participants aim to solve puzzles within a designated timeframe [1]. VERs have been proven effective in healthcare education [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In this project, VERs were developed for medical education on pediatric ingestions.…”