Escape Room with a Twist: Designing an Interprofessional, Active Learning Experience with a Focus on Specific...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Interprofessional Learning
• Healthcare Simulation

Background:

• Regional medical campuses face challenges engaging diverse healthcare students in interprofessional learning activities.
• Limited discipline diversity can hinder the creation of inclusive and active learning experiences for all students.
• Effective interprofessional education (IPE) is crucial for developing collaborative healthcare professionals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement an engaging interprofessional learning event for all healthcare disciplines on a regional medical campus.
• To create an active learning experience that purposefully involves diverse student groups.
• To assess the impact of the designed learning event on interprofessional collaborative competency attainment.

Main Methods:

• A novel escape room/scavenger hunt learning event was developed to facilitate interprofessional collaboration.
• The event was specifically designed to ensure active participation from students across various healthcare disciplines.
• The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) was administered pre- and post-event for evaluation.

Main Results:

• All Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) metrics demonstrated an increase from pre- to post-evaluation.
• Learners perceived the escape room/scavenger hunt experience as valuable for their interprofessional development.
• The active learning strategy successfully promoted inclusion and engagement among targeted healthcare students.

Conclusions:

• An escape room/scavenger hunt format is an effective strategy for interprofessional learning on regional medical campuses.
• This active learning approach enhances student engagement and improves collaborative competency attainment.
• The findings support the use of innovative, inclusive learning designs to meet IPE needs across diverse healthcare programs.