Abstract: FR-PO002
ESCAPE! A Nephrology Themed Escape Room Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents
Session Information
- Classroom to Bedside: Transforming Medical Education
October 25, 2024 | Location: Exhibit Hall, Convention Center
Abstract Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Category: Educational Research
- 1000 Educational Research
Authors
- Haggerty, Lauren, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
- Woodell, Tyler, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
- Arora, Nayan, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
Background
New generations of learners are increasingly utilizing non-traditional resources for educational purposes. In a survey of US Nephrology fellows, gamification demonstrated the greatest growth of any resource type. Escape rooms are team-based games in which players solve clues to “escape” a room within a time limit. We created a nephrology escape room curriculum (NERC) at the University of Washington, designed to engage internal medicine residents in nephrology topics and encourage interest in nephrology as a career.
Methods
We designed a NERC to accommodate approximately 50 internal medicine residents, divided into groups of 6-8, who completed each escape room simultaneously. We created two escape room sessions to teach acid-base disturbances and hyponatremia, topics identified in an internal survey as particularly challenging for incoming residents. Each session consisted of 30 minutes of content related lecture, followed by 1 hour of game play and debrief. We analyzed post-game survey results using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of open-ended response questions.
Results
A summary of post-game survey responses is displayed in Table 1. Sample responses from the open-ended questions are shown in Figure 1. Thematic analysis revealed that residents learned and enjoyed the innovative design and team building. Constructive feedback included a request for more lecture time prior to the game.
Conclusion
Gamification, such as medical escape rooms, are gaining popularity and acceptance as effective teaching tools. Grounded in adult learning theory, our escape room curriculum can be utilized to disseminate Nephrology themed content in an active and enjoyable atmosphere, while promoting Nephrology as a subspecialty. Future iterations will include additional topics and employ more rigorous evaluation methods to determine effective content retention.
Table 1: Post game survey results
| Question | Yes N (%) | No N (%) |
| Did this activity increase your understanding of the subject? | 48 (87) | 7 (13) |
| Was this an enjoyable experience? | 53 (96) | 2 (4) |
| Would you like to do this again with other topics? | 54 (98) | 1 (2) |
| Did this increase your interest in Nephrology as a career? | 10 (40) | 15 (60) |