Researchers with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) have found that an escape room that simulates a flu pandemic makes more people get vaccinated and wash their hands. They presented their findings at APIC’s 48th annual conference, which was held virtually.
How the escape rooms worked
The medical training tool used was developed by Gracia Boseman and Kristy Causey in 2017. The two were trying to boost attendance at voluntary infection prevention classes in clinics and hospitals around Temple, Waco and Austin.
Boseman and Causey turned these classes into zombie-themed High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) escape rooms. Their idea boosted attendance and made staff take safety precautions more seriously.
According to the researchers from APIC who used the model, class attendance improved, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) increased by 21% and hand washing by 61%.
Participants in the study encountered a flu scenario and had to choose the right safety gear before entering the escape room. When locked inside, they had to work in teams to find out about the disease so they would be let out.
In the escape room, they provided the staff with different specimen collection kits, and they had to choose the correct one. They placed white laundry detergent on various surfaces to show where germs were and how they could be transferred to other surfaces.
Attendance soon jumped from an average of 20 participants in one session to about 189 clinical and non-clinical attendees. Non-clinical attendees included engineering staff, clerks among others.
Casey explains that the more senses the participants engage, the more they learn and retain. The approach to the training was to enable participants to be more hands-on and immersed in the experience.
Escape rooms shut down because of the pandemic
Although these experiments can help with learning how to stay safe, researchers say the pandemic caused them to cancel classes. The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System had helped train more than 1,100 employees for three years using the escape rooms before the pandemic forced them to shut down. Hospital staff who had taken the training were more active in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
