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Use of Commercial and Faculty Developed Escape Rooms to Improve Communication and Teamwork Skills (1090-004033) (To be presented during the session entitled, Research Abstract Oral: Debriefing, Communication & Teamwork)
Start time: Friday, January 22, 2021, 8:00 AM End time: Friday, January 22, 2021, 9:00 AM Session Type: Research Abstracts (Completed Studies) Cost: $0.00
Content Category: Researcher
Hypothesis:
Ineffective communication and a lack of leadership skills have been identified as significant contributing factors in the commission of healthcare errors (Agency for Healthcare Research And Quality [AHRQ], 2019). Typically, emphasis in healthcare education has focused on technical skills rather than the acquisition of non-technical skills including communication and teamwork. One approach to address this issue is to provide learners with interactive educational opportunities such as escape rooms. Escape rooms (ER) have been found to be an engaging experiential teaching method which promote the attainment of the critical skills needed to work as an effective member of a team (Hermanns et al., 2017; Monaghan & Nicholson, 2017). The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a commercial and faculty developed ER as an innovative educational method to improve leadership, communication, teamwork, and delegation skills in RN-BSN nursing students.
Methods:
As part of a RN-BSN course, two cohorts of students participated in an ER activity. One cohort (n=10) participated in a non-clinical commercial ER with a Sherlock Holmes theme. The second cohort (n=8) engaged in a faculty-developed ER activity with a medically based scenario involving a patient with a deep vein thrombosis. All participants were given clues, riddles, and puzzles to solve as a team. To measure a change in behaviors, participants were asked to complete a pre and post traditional simulation scenario. Pre and post ER simulation scenarios were rated by 3 trained raters using University of Miami Crisis Resource Management (UM-CRM) tool, which measures observed behaviors in the areas of teamwork, communication, leadership, situational awareness, resource management, and delegation (Sanko, Shekhter, McKay, Gattamorta, & Birnbach, 2015).
Results:
Commercial Escape Room: Inter-rater reliability using interclass correlation found excellent agreement among the 3 raters, r = 1.0. A significant intervention effect was found, pre-Mean = 6.5; post-mean = 23.0, p > .000. Faculty Developed Escape Room: Inter-rater reliability using interclass correlation found moderate agreement among the 3 raters, r = 0.667. A significant intervention effect was found, pre-Mean = 21.5; post-mean = 24.5, p = .003.
Conclusions:
Nursing students in the United States (U.S.) have allotted hours in the clinical setting for practice, but shortages of clinical placements and overloaded curriculum has created limited experiences to teach teamwork, communication, leadership, resource management, and delegation. Enhancing nursing programs with ER educational activities can bridge the gap of these limited experiences and may be able to useful in honing observable teamwork and leadership skills as was found in our pilot study regardless of the type of ER (commercial or faculty developed) utilized. Effective teamwork and leadership skills are critical in the provision of safe patient care.