Educational Escape Room Reinforcement of Infection Prevention in Third-Year Student Pharmacists

Infection prevention and control (IPC) competencies are essential to safe patient care across practice settings. This cross-sectional survey study aimed to describe the ability of an escape room to reinforce IPC concepts and knowledge retention rates for third-year student pharmacists.

An IPC-themed escape room using a mixture of online and physical puzzles was incorporated into a third-year student pharmacist course. Students in the course took knowledge assessment and perception surveys before the escape room (T1), after the escape room (T2), and for retention at the end of the semester (T3).

Statistically significant (p < 0.05) increases in knowledge occurred on four out of five of the knowledge assessment questions between the pre- and post-assessments (T1, T2) as well as between the pre- and retention assessments (T1, T3). Student confidence in their ability to provide patient care compliant with IPC practices also demonstrated statistically significant improvement between pre, post, and retention assessments (T1, T2, T3).

An IPC escape room is an effective tool to reinforce IPC concepts and increases student pharmacist knowledge and confidence in patient safety practices. Future study iterations should evaluate the role of an IPC IPE event for utility across multiple health professions curricula.