Escape rooms are no longer just a mystery-themed game – the University at Buffalo (UB) has turned it into an interprofessional training opportunity to help improve teamwork and communication between nursing and pharmacy students.
Communication is critical between nurses and pharmacists because both professionals have key information about patients that can enhance patient care when combined strategically. UB encouraged nursing and pharmacy students to find a way to work together by placing groups of students in a simulation medical clinic with a goal to solve various puzzles to discover what ails their patient and provide proper treatment.
Kelly Foltz-Ramos, PhD, research assistant professor and director of simulation in the UB School of Nursing, tells Buffalo.edu, “Most people do escape rooms for entertainment, but they are also an objective way to evaluate teamwork and communication, something that we’ve struggled to do in our simulations.”
Researchers consulted with an escape room company, and even attempted one of their rooms, to help design their game at UB. The UB room is named Patient X and is similar to other escape rooms in that it features riddles, puzzles, combination locks, and invisible ink. The game highlights critical lessons in infection control, patient restraint, and medication safety. The game also occurs in conjunction with a home health simulation, allowing UB researchers to study the impact of the escape room on student performance.
To learn more about the University at Buffalo’s innovative escape room to teach interprofessional collaboration between nursing and pharmacy students, visit here.
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