Back in 2019, the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System began running escape room simulations to teach clinicians about the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection-halting measures in a highly infectious medical setting. Organizers Kristy Causey and Grace Boseman created the simulation as a fun and engaging way to improve health and safety measure adherence, but little did they know how relevant their experiment would become just a couple of years later.
Causey, who works as a simulation educator, and Boseman, an infection prevention specialist, came together to create the escape room after finding that presentations and lectures about PPE and protection measures just weren’t that impactful with staff. After witnessing the rise of popular escape rooms, in which participants must find clues to work their way out, they decided to adapt the idea for their purposes.
In their escape room, which is zombie apocalypse themed, participants must treat infectious patients in a hospital setting using proper personal protection and infection prevention measures. The patients are mannequins and the clues can be found by following hospital protocol. For example, Causey and Boseman put clues inside gloves so that participants have to remember to check their gear before putting it on in order to move forwards. Other clues drop out of faucets when clinicians go to wash their hands.
These measures are probably all starting to sound a little familiar, which is why the escape room happened to be the perfect preparation for the pandemic. The simulation even involves a nasal swab. It was a simple stroke of luck that tied this training seminar so closely to the Covid-19 outbreak, but it has turned out to be a great coincidence. During one iteration of the simulation (six versions have been rolled out so far), doctors had to safely transport overflow patients to a nearby Dallas hospital. This situation actually arose during one of Texas’ Covid-19 waves, and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care doctors we’re ready for it.
Play and active engagement are some of the most effective teaching methods for long-term knowledge retention, and in this case, the escape room game may have actually saved lives. Speaking to participants three months after completing the simulation, 61 percent reported washing their hands more because of the activity. Causey and Boseman presented the efficacy of their unconventional training method to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in hopes that more health care systems will take advantage of the power of play in clinician training.
