In an escape room, members of a team are locked in and must interpret clues to find a way out. Under pressure, they solve one problem, only to face the next one. For nurses on the job, piecing together information to help a patient in need can feel like being in an escape room.

“I read about a hospital in Pennsylvania using an escape room to train health care workers about sepsis and decided to try it in our nursing classes,” says Amanda Peabody, assistant professor of nursing. “We create a station for each disorder we’re studying. Students work in small teams to solve the clues that lead to the proper assessment. That lets them ‘escape’ to the next station, and the first team to escape all of the stations wins a prize. In the real world, quick teamwork to analyze patient clues, assess symptoms and implement nursing interventions can save lives.”

“It’s been one of the best ways to learn,” says nursing student Michael Corredato. “You have to figure out the main points of each disorder and proper treatment. There’s pressure to work together to figure it out as quickly as possible.”  

Shamicala Brown agrees. “It helps you retain important information when you have that ‘aha’ moment and figure it out. It’s also really fun with everybody talking and minds working together.”  

According to Jordan Luparell, “It makes you think critically while under pressure. We all want to be the first to get out of the escape room, but you can’t get to step three without figuring out step one and two. It demonstrates that you can’t get to the underlying problem with a patient if you don’t know what’s fully going on.”  

Bridgette Hudson, instructor of nursing, notes that the escape room mirrors the situation in an emergency. “By the time nursing students are in their final semester, they should be able to put all the pieces together to work through a critical or emergent situation. This escape room concept helps them practice that.”  

What skills are gained in the escape room? “Definitely critical thinking,” says Peabody. “You can see the light bulbs going off. They’re putting the pieces together to figure it out.  “This is active learning at its best.”