The Effects of an Escape Room Simulation on Learning-Based Outcomes Within a Respiratory Therapy Department’s Skills Day

Abstract

Background:

The use of escape rooms as a gamification educational tool has gained popularity in various disciplines in healthcare. Qualitative articles show that escape room educational simulations foster leadership, collaboration, communication, teamwork, as well as enhanced thinking and problem-solving skills during stressful situations. We aimed to quantify if the addition of an escape room simulation to annual skills day would improve learned knowledge of bedside RTs.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed pre- and post-tests that were completed by the RT attendees at the 2022 UC Davis RT Department skills days. A week prior to arriving at each skills day, the RTs were sent two videos to watch. One video on how to navigate through an escape room. Another video created by the RT Educator specific to the topics what would be tested on. On the morning of skills day, each RT filled out an anonymous pre-test via a Qualtrics system prior to the start of education. The two high-fidelity hands-on simulations were separated into escape room topics and non-escape room topics. For the escape room, two evenly distributed teams day and night shift RTs were assembled. The groups were tasked to solve the puzzles related to ALI sequelae to escape the simulation. At the completion of skills day, the post-test was distributed. Qualtrics data statistical analysis was performed using the Chi square test.

Results:

A total of 118 RTs attended a total of 8 skills days in 2022. Between 128 and 132 questions were answered in the pre-test and 102 to 104 questions in the post-test. In the video and high-fidelity simulation category there were 378 (72.6%) correct responses in the pre-test and 327 (79.4%) in the post-test (P = .02). For the video, high-fidelity simulation, and escape room category there were 335 (63.4%) correct responses in the pre-test and 285 (68.5%) correct responses in the post-test (P = .10).

Conclusions:

The video and high-fidelity simulation category demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in test scores. Based on this small, single-center QI project, there was little educational value provided with the addition of an escape room. More research is necessary to see if there is a more structured way to utilize an escape room simulation to improve knowledge outcomes.