One year after the Intensive Care Nursery, Labor & Delivery, and Mother & Baby teams at Pennsylvania Hospital participated in simulations to eliminate barriers to quality and safety, Women’s Health leadership wanted to provide a refresher that hit on all of the concepts — teamwork, sharing information and resources effectively, adapting to quickly changing situations, etc. — while also being memorable and engaging. Rather than planning a didactic lecture or working the discussion points into rounds, nurse manager Beth Ann Pyle, MSN, and clinical nurse education specialist Aida Schumacher, MSN, joined forces to develop a hands-on, out-of-the-box escape room that took participants through “A Day at Pennsy” and the clinical and non-clinical scenarios that could arise.
Practicing clear communication was key to solving the series of riddles, puzzles, and challenges — and to preventing the hypothetical adverse events. Some were related to the C.U.S. acronym and required participants to express that they were concerned, uncomfortable, and had identified a potential safety issue, while others involved quickly summarizing and sharing complex information by providing the S.B.A.R., or the situation, background, assessment, and recommendation. Like all escape rooms, it required participants to be aware of their surroundings, confident in their teammates’ abilities, and resourceful within only 20 minutes, though this version had the added bonus of testing their knowledge of best practices and procedures in a low-risk environment.
“We wanted to get creative and break out of traditional health care education strategies. Developing the escape room was a group effort, and we’re so excited that everyone had such a great time!” Pyle said. “It provided an opportunity to combine practice and play, and we’re looking forward to developing new escape rooms that touch on different topics and techniques. This is another part of Women’s Health’s journey toward improved patient safety.”