Priming healthcare students on the importance of non-technical skills in healthcare: How to set up a medical escape room game experience

Abstract

Background: Non-technical skills (NTS) are essential for healthcare professionals. Earlier the students are made aware of this, the more time they have to acquire these skills. Escape rooms have been introduced in the medical literature but a detailed published manual on setting up and running such a learning modality is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of an escape room to create learning opportunities, including detailed instructions, as well as an evaluation from two settings.

Methods: A medical escape room focusing on NTS was developed and run in two different settings: a university summer school – EMSS17, and an international healthcare congress – EMS2018. Questionnaire data investigating entertainment value, self-evaluated use of NTS and ideas for further use of the escape room concept was obtained. Further, video analyses were conducted to triangulate self-rated analyses.

Results: Majority of the participants found the escape room psychologically safe and enjoyable and would recommend the concept to other students and healthcare professionals. Video analyses showed the same tendencies regarding the use of NTS as reported by participants.

Conclusions: This paper presents a fully applicable escape room manual, ready to implement, adapt, and modify. Evaluation data support the proof of concept.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Glossary

Escape Room: The term “escape room” describes settings where teams of participants solve puzzles and riddles in a closed space with a particular theme to achieve predetermined goals, in a limited amount of time.

Additional information

Funding

The present work was financially supported by the University of Copenhagen’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship student fund.

Notes on contributors

Oscar Rosenkrantz

Oscar Rosenkrantz, BSc. med., Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Theo Walther Jensen

Theo Walther Jensen, MD, Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Senay Sarmasoglu

Senay Sarmasoglu, PhD, RN, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.

Sophie Madsen

Sophie Madsen, MD, Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kristine Eberhard

Kristine Eberhard, MD, Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Annette Kjaer Ersbøll

Professor Annette Kjaer Ersbøll, MSc, PhD, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Peter Dieckmann

Professor Peter Dieckmann, MS, PhD, Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Department for Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway.