Clinical decision making through game-based learning: Observations within a Radiography Escape Room

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Radiography Training
• Game-Based Learning

Background:

• Diagnostic radiography education requires effective methods for clinical decision-making skills.
• Traditional methods may not fully engage students in complex problem-solving scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement an immersive, multi-sensory escape room for radiography education.
• To evaluate the escape room's effectiveness in fostering clinical decision-making and professional capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Development of an educational Radiography Escape Room with sequential, radiography-based puzzles.
• Participants engaged in a simulated hospital shift scenario within a sixty-minute time constraint.

Main Results:

• Participants successfully completed tasks, with some escaping within the time limit.
• The escape room facilitated the testing of specialized knowledge and professional capabilities in a simulated clinical setting.

Conclusions:

• Escape room deployment enhanced participants' problem-solving, collaboration, and teamwork skills for simulated clinical decisions.
• Participants reported drawing on prior knowledge and improved clinical reasoning and justification.
• Escape rooms show potential as effective pedagogical tools in radiography education, aligning with use in other health disciplines.