A Community Pediatric Camp Escape Room: An Interactive Approach to Applying Real-Life Critical Thinking Skills

Background. Escape rooms have been utilized to incorporate teamwork, communication, policy, and procedures reinforcement, as well as clinical care. Often themed, escape rooms challenge a team of players to discover clues and sequentially solve puzzles with the ultimate task of accomplishing a specific goal in a limited time frame, fostering critical thinking. Method. This learning activity incorporates legal implications for prelicensure nursing students in a pediatric community summer camp/after school care environment. Care and legal implications for a minor experiencing respiratory distress was the premise of this escape room. Outcomes. While this was not a research study, surveys were distributed for quality improvement and a deeper needs assessment related to the content and delivery of an escape room. Learners discussed the positive aspects of this activity through journal entries and a survey, noting the need for increased content related to legal implications for the medical team. This room engaged the learner in the forward-thinking that is needed related to emergency care, Good Samaritan Act, liability for cost, and permission to treat in a time-pressured environment. Future Plans. Testing the knowledge pre-post survey related to legal implications with implied care will be explored.

Automated summary

Escape rooms are used to enhance teamwork and critical thinking, with this study focusing on pre-licensure nursing students in a pediatric community setting. By simulating a scenario involving respiratory distress, legal implications were incorporated into the activity. Participants found that the escape room helped them to think critically about emergency care, legal responsibilities, and other related topics.