406 - Escaping the Monotony: Inpatient Resident Orientation via a Medical Escape Room

Poster Number: 406
Publication Number: 406.1166

Background: The goal of resident orientation is to prepare the learner to work effectively within their clinical environment. Standard didactic-based orientation practices re often perceived as monotonous and unengaging by both learners and educators. Medical escape rooms (MERs) are a new teaching modality that uses gamification techniques to engage learners and reinforce knowledge related to tactile and task-driven objectives. Using a MER, learning objectives for orientation were incorporated via gamified tasks and reflected the EHR utilization and hospital navigation required of residents.

Objective: The purpose of this project was to determine the educational impact of an inpatient orientation MER, specifically, comfort with foundational skills pertinent to the hospital admission and discharge processes and trainee satisfaction.

Design/Methods: A single-center survey-based pilot study of 12 incoming pediatric residents was conducted at a free- standing children’s hospital following traditional EHR classroom training and MER participation. A Likert-scale retrospective comparison survey assessed participant comfort level with the inpatient workflow, teamwork, entrustment, and satisfaction and MER completion times were tracked. Descriptive statistics, medians, and paired responses were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Survey responses are scored 1 to 5 (1= strongly disagree, 2= slightly disagree, 3= neutral, 4= slightly agree, 5= strongly agree).

Results: 75% of participants had previously participated in an escape room. 92% of participants had previous experience with the EMR, Epic. Pre- and post- MER surveys showed an increase in participant comfort with navigating the physical hospital (median score = 4 (IQR 2.5-4) to 5 (IQR 4-5, p = 0.008)) as well as an increase in participant comfort with using the EMR for an admission (median score = 4, IQR 4-5vs. 3, IQR 2-4, p= 0.004) and for a discharge (median score = 4, IQR 4-4.5 vs. 3, IQR 2-3, p= 0.001 ). Participants strongly agreed that that the escape room activity increased their trust (median score = 5, IQR 4.5-5) as well as their communication (median score = 5, IQR 4.5-5) with their co-residents. The average time needed to complete the escape room was 76.1 minutes (95% CI = 57.7-94.6).

Conclusion(s): Based on these results, the MERs can be used to enhance comfort with knowledge-based skills like hospital navigation and EMR use. MERs may also bolster entrustment amongst residents. Future studies will be directed towards the long-term impact and potential uses of MERs.