Escape Rooms in Medical Education: Unlocking Realistic Simulated Clinical Scenarios Using Interprofessional Education

ABSTRACT

The delivery of medical education is a complex process, considering the vast nature of the syllabus, and multiple competencies are needed to be attained by medical students. Escape rooms are an innovative approach to delivering medical education and provide an enriching learning experience for students. These rooms are designed to replicate clinical scenarios, and they provide a platform for students to apply their theoretical knowledge to clinical practice. The employment of escape rooms in medical education has been linked with multiple merits for the students and helps them to attain multiple competencies. The participants in escape rooms are generally from different disciplines, and as mentioned above, it gives a chance to students from varied disciplines to acknowledge the role of each specialty and understand the need that for successful healthcare delivery, all professionals have to work as a team. In other words, these room offers a wonderful opportunity for students to come out of discipline-level segregation and work together to ensure the delivery of comprehensive healthcare services. In conclusion, escape rooms have the potential to deliver experiential and contextual learning for students from different disciplines. As healthcare delivery is a multidisciplinary approach, there is an immense need to explore the possibility of running escape rooms along with students from other disciplines and together move forward across the complexities of clinical practice.

INTRODUCTION

The delivery of medical education is a complex process, considering the vast nature of the syllabus, and multiple competencies are needed to be attained by medical students.[1] To produce competent medical graduates, we must deliver information and train students using a combination of teaching-learning methods that provide a chance for students to be actively engaged.[1,2] Escape rooms are an innovative approach to delivering medical education and provide an enriching learning experience for students.[3] These rooms are designed to replicate clinical scenarios, and they provide a platform for students to apply their theoretical knowledge to clinical practice.[4] The medical students who participate as a group in escape rooms are expected to solve the given clinical challenges (delivered to students in the form of puzzles or riddles) within the predefined period and eventually come out of the locked room.[3,4] This essentially requires critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, and teamwork to complete the realistic clinical scenario and eventually prepare medical students for future clinical practice.[5]

Merits of escape rooms

The employment of escape rooms in medical education has been linked with multiple merits for the students and helps them to attain multiple competencies.[4,5,6,7,8,9,10] The scenarios that are kept in escape rooms are designed in such a way that students must analyze the available information, including props and clues, and critically think to solve the given problems.[6] As healthcare professionals work in the form of a team in clinical practice, the same things stand true in determining success in escape rooms because the team members must work in close collaboration and communicate effectively to complete the given assignments.[7] Often students from different streams are put together in escape rooms, and this aids them in working together and learning from each other.[7] In continuation, considering that these are pressure situations, wherein students must effectively communicate with their peers to resolve the problem, an improvement in their communication skills has been reported.[8,9] Furthermore, as the designed scenarios target specific patients, students must adopt a patient-centered approach while making clinical decisions, and this helps them in delivering patient-centered care.[5,8]

This exposure ensures contextual learning because medical students must apply their theoretical knowledge to the given practical scenario to successfully finish the tasks within the given timeframe.[5] Medical students in escape rooms acquire knowledge and skills by doing, and thus, the learning remains long-term and positive, which also paves the way for continuous learning.[4] These rooms are designed in such a way that they appeal to students with different learning styles, and hence, the learning environment remains inclusive and promotes enthusiasm and motivation among the students.[10] As the designed scenarios mirror real-clinical exposures, that need to be tackled within the given time, students tend to experience a kind of stress (which they will also experience in their clinical practice), which must be addressed with the help of coping mechanisms.[10,11] Moreover, apart from being a wonderful strategy to teach new things to students, medical teachers can even use these strategically designed rooms as a tool for formative assessment, wherein students are assessed for their teamwork, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities in the given timeframe.[12] Finally, the learning process is further facilitated during debriefing sessions and using reflective feedback.[13]

Escape rooms and interprofessional education

The participants in escape rooms are generally from different disciplines, and as mentioned above, it gives a chance to students from varied disciplines to acknowledge the role of each specialty and understand the need that for successful healthcare delivery, all professionals have to work as a team.[7] In other words, these rooms offer a wonderful opportunity for students to come out of department/discipline-level segregation and work together to ensure the delivery of comprehensive healthcare services.[7,14] As students are expected to solve the given clinical problems in the given time, they learn the art of effective communication and also acquire the trait of problem-solving with the support and guidance from team members of other disciplines.[8,15] The decisions that are taken by interprofessional members in escape rooms pretty much are similar to the shared decision-making process that has been advocated worldwide by medical educators.[15,16] Furthermore, students from different disciplines also gradually learn the art of delivering patient-centered care, which is also been envisaged by policymakers.[7]

Owing to the varied ideologies, different knowledge levels, and heterogenous patterns of clinical acumen, there is a definite possibility of the emergence of conflicts in healthcare facilities while delivering patient care.[17,18] As these conflicts can compromise the overall effectiveness of healthcare services, once students from different streams are made to communicate and work in escape room settings, they get primed for similar sort of experiences in the future and simultaneously develop mutual respect and appreciation for each other.[17,18] In fact, participants in escape rooms gradually learn to apply their collaborative skills, especially in emergency settings.[14] Furthermore, this feeling of respect can be attributed to the realization that students understand the utility of each profession while being locked in an escape room. Moreover, this feeling of respect further results in building trust among participants from different professions, which is crucial in healthcare delivery.[14] In addition, it would not be wrong to state that participants in interprofessional escape rooms realize the significance and the need for the continuum of care, and the role of each profession right from the time of diagnosis, to the management and beyond.[18,19]

Furthermore, students from different professions also get oriented to the varied perspectives and approaches of each other and thus gradually learn to adapt to varied opinions and learn from each other.[7] This sense of mutual respect and thankfulness lays down seed for better interprofessional relationships and trustworthiness.[7,8] In addition, these learning opportunities also provide an ideal platform for students from different disciplines to connect (networking), which, once again, happens to be one of the crucial attributes that must be encouraged in modern-day clinical practice for better healthcare delivery.[18,19] At this juncture, we must not undermine the fact that these immersive learning experiences play a pivotal role in creating a collaborative culture in the health sector, which is determined by the interconnectedness and interdependence of professionals from different streams.[15,16] During the debriefing session, students can pinpoint the areas where people from different professionals failed to convey the message in an effective and efficient manner.[19]

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, escape rooms have the potential to deliver experiential and contextual learning for students from different disciplines. As healthcare delivery is a multidisciplinary approach, there is an immense need to explore the possibility of running escape rooms along with students from other disciplines and together move forward across the complexities of clinical practice.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.