Educational escape game in emergency medicine: what criteria are needed to increase satisfaction: a focus group study

The use of escape games in education is gaining in popularity, particularly in health teaching, and has already proved its effectiveness. However, the quality criteria for this type of format are not clearly defined.

The main objective of our study was to identify the elements that promote or limit satisfaction with an educational escape game.

Our team created a game for healthcare professionals and students, which was presented at an emergency medicine congress. Focus groups were conducted at the end of the sessions, then analyzed thematically to identify the determinants of learner satisfaction. Questionnaires were sent out 3 months later to study long term satisfaction.

The total recording time for the 19 interviews was 1h37min, i.e. an average of 5 min 06 s per interview (duration between 2 min 39 and 9 min 38). 43 people responded to the 3-month questionnaire. 17 out of 19 groups were very satisfied with the gamification experience Several quality criteria were identified for this type of tool, including playfulness, similarity to mainstream escape games, closeness of the experience to real life, and plausibility of the scenario.

The escape game was perceived as an engaging tool for training, but further studies are needed to confirm its impact on clinical performance Qualitative analysis has enabled us to identify quality criteria for this type of tool, aiding us to offer more suitable content in the future.