Better together: utilizing an interprofessional course and escape room to educate healthcare students about opioid use disorder

Abstract

Background The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of an innovative interprofessional educational activity on healthcare professional students’ learning. The educational activity targeted student knowledge of opioid use disorder (OUD) and perceptions of working with an interprofessional team while caring for patients with OUD. Methods Students from nursing, pharmacy, physician assistant, dentistry, social work, and medicine programs were recruited to participate in the interprofessional educational activity. The educational experience included seven asynchronous modules and a virtual synchronous escape room. Prior to the educational programming, participants completed a pre-survey that assessed their knowledge and attitudes towards working on an interprofessional team and perceptions of patients with OUD. The asynchronous modules were required in order to participate in the escape room and each module contained its own pre/post quiz to assess student knowledge. Results A total of 402 students participated in the course. Prior to participating in the course, students disagreed that they had extensive educational experience with SUD (2.45 ± 0.79). The students displayed significant improvement in the knowledge based areas after completing the seven asynchronous modules. The largest significant area of knowledge-based improvement was seen in treatment of OUD where on the pre-quiz 65.54 ± 20.21% were answered correctly compared to 95.97 ± 9.61% on the post-quiz. Participation in the escape room significantly changed the students’ perceptions of working in interprofessional teams while managing patients with OUD. Of the eleven perception variables assessed, seven showed a significant increase in the post-survey. Following the escape room, participants also strongly agreed that they now would refer patients to colleagues in other disciplines. Conclusions An interprofessional educational experience including both an asynchronous course and virtual synchronous escape room can increase participant knowledge around OUD and may improve student perceptions of working with an interprofessional team and caring for patients with OUD.

Effectiveness of “Escape Room” Educational Technology in Nurses’ Education: A Systematic Review

“…However, studies of ER games in graduated nurses were not included, so the usefulness of ER games in the continuing education of already graduated nurses still needs to be explored in future studies. In addition, in some cases, nursing students were integrated into groups where there were students from other disciplines or areas [ 16 , 18 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

“…Interprofessional collaboration and education is precisely one of the thematic areas where the use of ER games has been most explored [ 4 , 16 , 43 , 44 ]. Four studies (Hursman et al [ 18 ], Wettergreen et al [ 22 ], Fusco et al [ 23 ], Foltz-Ramos et al [ 24 ]) focused on this topic.…”

Effectiveness of “Escape Room” Educational Technology in Nurses’ Education: A Systematic Review.

“…However, few studies of ER in already graduated nurses were found [15,16], so the usefulness of ER in the continuing education of already graduated nurses still needs to be further explored in future studies. In addition, in some cases, nursing students were integrated into groups where there were students from other disciplines or areas [17,19,19,23,24,25,26].…”

“…Interprofessional collaboration and education is precisely one of the thematic areas where the use of ER has been most explored [4,17,44,45]. Four studies (Hursman et al [19], Wettergreen et al [23], Fusco et al [24], Foltz-Ramos et al [25]) focused on this topic.…”