Who is blocking access to PubMed? Educational ‘Escape Room’ for medical residents

Abstract

Teaching students how to conduct bibliographic searches in health sciences’ databases is essential training. One of the challenges librarians face is how to motivate students during classroom learning. In this article, two hospital libraries, in Spain, used Escape rooms as a method of bringing creativity, teamwork, communication and critical thinking into bibliographic search instruction. Escape rooms are a series of puzzles that must be solved to exit the game. This article explores the methods used for integrating escape rooms into training programmes and evaluates the results. Escape Rooms are a useful tool that can be integrated into residents’ training to support their instruction on bibliographic searches. This kind of learning stablishes competences like logical thinking and deductive approaching. These aspects aid participants to make their own decision and to develop social and intellectual skills.

Engaging with technology: Projects and research initiated by health information professionals

“…The Teaching and Learning in Action Regular Feature used gamification techniques to teach medical residents how to conduct bibliographic searches in health sciences’ databases (Álvarez‐Díaz & Grifol‐Clar, 2021). One of the challenges librarians face is how to motivate students during classroom learning.…”

In-person and online escape rooms for individual and team-based learning in health professions library instruction

“…Simultaneously, academic libraries are increasingly using escape rooms for various educational purposes including library orientation and introducing students to institutional services [18][19][20][21][22][23], observing students' information search behavior [24], and teaching concepts in information literacy [25]. Literature on the use of escape rooms to teach library skills is still limited, especially in health sciences libraries [26][27]. However, the "rise" of escape rooms in health professions education generally [28] offers librarians an opportunity to incorporate this method into their instruction.…”