There is no I in Escape: Using an Escape Room Simulation to Enhance Teamwork and Medication Safety Behaviors in Nursing Students

Abstract

Background. Nurse educators are challenged to develop simulation activities that will engage interest and help baccalaureate nursing students administer medications safely. Students must be able to recognize and report medication errors and effectively collaborate with their patient care team to provide safe and competent care to patients across the healthcare spectrum. Escape rooms are an innovative learning platform where students can work as a team to build these skills. Aim. We report on the strategies and resources used to create and implement an escape room simulation for a problem-based learning activity to practice medication safety behaviors, using critical thinking, communication and team building skills. Methods. Using Kolb’s Learning Cycle and the International Association for Clinical Simulation in Learning (INACSL) Standards of Best PracticeSM, we developed a team-based, four-hour escape room simulation activity around detecting and reporting medication errors in the hospital setting. The escape room simulation included a high-fidelity patient manikin, two embedded participants in the roles of family member and health care provider (HCP), puzzles, riddles, clues and lifelines. The learning objectives were paired with essential Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies. Promoting Excellence and Reflective Learning in Simulation (PEARLS) was used for debriefing. Results. The result was a hybrid escape room simulation that mimics a situation nursing students might face in the hospital setting where they have to work as a team to assess a new patient, reconcile medications, perform medication calculations, problem solve intravenous infusion set ups, and communicate medication errors. Data collected for quality purposes indicated a positive student response. Discussion / Conclusion / Implication. The escape room platform served as a foundation for incorporating other simulation modalities and provided a stimulating learning activity. The next step is to conduct a multi-site study with pre-test and post-test data collected from students to gauge learning and behavior change.

Evaluation of a Postpartum Hemorrhage Escape Room: A Multisite Study

“…Both qualitative and quantitative results of this study were consistent with previous literature demonstrating that escape rooms are fun and enjoyable (Gates & Youngberg-Campos, 2020; Gutierréz-Puertas et al, 2020; Hardie et al, 2021; Reed & Ferdig, 2021; Sarage et al, 2021; Woodworth, 2021). All participants in this study reported that the activity was enjoyable (n=84, 100%), thus further contributing to the existing body of literature.…”

Planning an Escape: Considerations for the Development of Applied Escape Rooms

“…For example, number locks or word locks will take their solutions from numerical puzzles or word puzzles, respectively, to open the locks. An example of this can be seen in a study by Sarage, O'Neill, and Eaton (2021) where a crossword puzzle needed to be completed and the target word in the crossword was highlighted in blue within the crossword. That particular word was then used to open a word lock to allow the participants to proceed.…”

ESCAPE the Boring Lecture: Tips and Tricks on Building Puzzles for Medical Education Escape Rooms

“…Sarage et al used a high-fidelity mannequin to simulate an 84-year-old patient and a confederate to play the family member in an escape room where participants evaluate the patient, identify hypertension, and administer the appropriate medication. 35 Another twist was the order they received was incorrect and the nursing students had to recognize the error and correct it. 35 In another example, during our escape room, participants had to evaluate an academic poster on clinical disease in long COVID to solve questions which gave them a portion of a clue.…”