Escape Rooms for Health Professional Education: A scoping review

Abstract

Purpose Escape rooms are a gamification tool that are increasingly implemented in educational contexts. The aim of this scoping review was to examine the breadth and depth of how educational escape rooms are being used in health professions education, what educational goals are being achieved, and how these objectives are being assessed.

Methods Following PRISMA guidelines, a search of six databases using the key terms “escape room” and “health professional” was conducted. The resulting publications were selected based on pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was extracted for remaining articles.

Results Seventeen studies were included in the scoping review. The results show that educational escape rooms are primarily used to reinforce and integrate knowledge with soft skills, clinical skills and didactic knowledge being the primary competencies being investigated. Researchers primarily examined participant experiences with escape rooms.

Conclusion Escape rooms were generally well received by participants and positively impacted motivation and engagement. Educators can greatly benefit from combining escape rooms with traditional teaching methods to improve the learning experiences of health professional trainees.