528 - Use of a Nutrition-Themed Escape Room in Pediatric Resident Education

Poster Number: 528
Publication Number: 528.3133

Background: Pediatric residents routinely encounter patients with nutrition concerns, but effective nutrition education is underrepresented in traditional residency curricula. We sought to develop a novel nutrition-themed escape room for first year pediatric residents.

Objective: Determine the feasibility, acceptability, and initial effectiveness of an escape room game compared to small group discussions and large group lecture.

Design/Methods: An escape room was developed with the following learning objectives: (1) Know how to access and navigate internal nutrition resources; (2) Recognize signs of common micronutrient deficiencies and initiate appropriate treatment; and (3) Define malnutrition and severity levels. Tasks included matching micronutrient deficiencies with symptoms and identifying criteria for severe malnutrition using clinical care pathways (Fig. 1). Physical props included packaged foods, locked boxes, and a password-protected laptop. To evaluate teaching effectiveness, a 9-question pre/post-test was conducted electronically before and 1 week after the session, and a feedback survey was administered at the end of the 3-hour session. The session included four 40-minute blocks: a large group lecture on disparities in nutrition, two small group case-based sessions on infant nutrition and obesity, and the new escape room.

Results: 24 residents completed the session in the second month of intern year. 22 completed the pre-test. 36.4% (n=8) chose the appropriate dose of iron for a child with iron deficiency; 8.3% (n=2) correctly identified children at risk of vitamin D deficiency; and 59.1% (n=13) knew that no consumption of fruits or vegetables is a risk for vitamin C deficiency. 17 interns completed the feedback survey. The escape room was rated an average of 3.8 out of 4 for teaching effectiveness. Regarding acceptability, comments included “Loved the escape room!!!”, “Amazing and fun and interactive!!” and “Very well thought out and carefully planned.” The large group score was 3.8, and the small group scores were 3.6 (obesity) and 3.9 (infant nutrition). General comments included “loved the collaborative sessions” and “liked the variety of teaching styles/methods so it didn’t get repetitive.” No residents completed the post-test.

Conclusion(s): An educational escape room was feasible to deliver, well-received by pediatric interns, and was rated comparably to traditional teaching tools. In the future, post-testing may need to be incorporated into later teaching sessions or include an incentive to encourage responsiveness.