ETC 47 - Escape to Educate: A Guide to Creating an Infection Prevention Escape Room and Making It an Effective Education Tool

Background: Teaching new information to a wide range of learners and keeping staff engaged in compliance with infection prevention practices are ongoing challenges. Electronic learning management systems that are commonly used by healthcare systems to administer annual education assignments on various topics are often viewed as "boring" or "ineffective" by staff. In October 2023, a small Infection Prevention department at a community hospital secured a grant for financing and developed an in-person, interactive escape room with an objective of engaging staff in education and improving awareness of basic infection prevention practices for employees in every role in our healthcare system.

Methods: The Infection Prevention department collaborated with the nurse educators to develop three different pathways for staff to choose from based on their role within the healthcare system. We evaluated various education needs from several sources and developed the clues for the room from those needs. Staff had to utilize their knowledge and complete the clues in the correct order to obtain a specific code used to unlock a lockbox, thereby revealing that each person is the "Key to Preventing Infections" and escaping the room. The escape room was open and available 24 hours a day for five days to accommodate all shifts and those who work in areas off campus.

Results: A post event survey was sent out house wide with six questions. There were 322 responses and 76 comments. 76.8% of respondents stated they learned something new. 96.35% of respondents stated they were more likely to follow the infection prevention processes after having reviewed them in a fun way. Ongoing quality audits will be performed to evaluate continued effectiveness.

Conclusions: Use of a fun, interactive education tool achieved employee engagement, increased awareness of basic infection prevention protocols and increased likelihood of staff to follow those protocols in their daily practice.