6869 An educational escapade – a novel method for improving human factor skills in clinical and non-clinical staff

Objectives Escape rooms are popular team-building activities used in both professional and commercial settings. The concept, where a team must work through multiple tasks to achieve a goal, has been incorporated into medical education and shown to enhance human factor skills amongst healthcare professionals.¹ The daily running of a hospital relies on medical staff and also their non-clinical colleagues, who are just as integral to the team. The GOSH Clinical Simulation Centre created their own 'Mad Professor's Escape Room' to establish whether this model can be used effectively by both clinical and non-clinical teams to improve their human factor skills, with the aim of ultimately improving their team's delivery of patient care. These skills include effective teamworking and communication, task prioritisation and role- allocation. Methods We held escape rooms on five dates between January to August 2023. Groups comprising both clinical and non-clinical staff volunteered to participate in the activity. Following each session, a structured 'debrief' was facilitated by trained educators, where it was discussed how individuals and teams could transfer their reflections into daily practice. Upon completion, participants were given a questionnaire, divided into two sections. The first section focussed on the participant's previous experience of escape rooms, their prior expectations, similarities and differences between the activity and their work, and how they can apply what they've learnt this escape room to their practice. The second section used the GAMEX scale² to rate participants more detailed experiences of the escape room. Results In total 41 participants completed the escape room and subsequent questionnaire. Participants included administrative staff, laboratory scientists, and technicians. 100% of the participants felt that the escape room was an innovative method of improving teamwork. The activity was highly enjoyed by the participants and exceeded their expectations. Participants described multiple similarities between the escape room and their practice, such as team-working in high-pressured environments to problem- solve multiple tasks and overcoming potential conflict. Participants also reported how the escape room improved their insight into facto rs affecting team dynamics. Comments included recognising individual strengths, maintaining situational awareness, and improving communication to ensure collaborative working. Conclusion Both clinical and non-clinical participants enjoyed the escape room and through the debrief reflected how they can transfer learning into daily practice to improve teamworking, with the common goal of improving patient care. We have demonstrated that this innovative simulation-based educational activity can also help non-clinical staff to develop their human factor skills to improve the delivery of patient care. We hope to continue running regular escape rooms for both clinical and non-clinical teams in the hospital with new innovative tasks. References Gucklan J, Eveson L, May H. The great escape? The rise of the escape room in medical education. Future Healthc J. Jun 2020;7(2):112–115. Eppmann R, Bekk M, Klein K. Gameful Experience in Gamification: Construction and Validation of a Gameful Experience Scale [GAMEX]. Journal of Interactive Marketing 2018;43:98–115.