
“This team proves that when learning is fun, we can achieve better health outcomes, and that’s a win for everyone.” “Engaging healthcare staff in the basics of infection prevention and control is a cornerstone of patient safety,” said 2021 APIC President Ann Marie Pettis, BSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC. Ultimately, the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System trained more than 1,100 employees over three years using the escape room. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Boseman and Causey noted that hospital employees who had attended the trainings were more actively engaged in preparation for the pandemic. Planned trainings for 2020 were cancelled due to COVID. The team reported employee lines before they opened, took walk-ins during their lunch breaks, outfitted a bus to take the escape room to outlying clinics, and repeated the escape room for infection prevention training in 20. Non-clinical staff included clerks, facilities and engineering staff, and environmental services workers. We also placed whitening laundry detergent on surfaces to show where germs were and how they transfer from one surface to the other.”Īttendance at voluntary education increased from an average of 20 clinical attendees per training to 189 clinical and non-clinical attendees.

“We set up different types of specimen collection kits including viral transport medium and bacterial swabs, and participants had to pick the correct swab. “The more senses we engage, the more people learn and the higher the level of retention, so we designed a hands-on, immersive training environment,” explained Causey. Once inside, participants had to work as a team to find all the clues in the short amount of time. Participants were given a pandemic, novel flu scenario and asked to select appropriate PPE prior to entering the room. “Staff also became acutely aware that contaminated surfaces play a role in disease transmission as they carry viruses and bacteria, and the importance of wearing PPE - knowledge that would prove invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic.” “The escape room was successful beyond our wildest expectations,” said Boseman, who added that self-reported behavioral changes among participants include an increase in handwashing by 61% and personal protective equipment (PPE) use by 21%. Not only was their escape room a runaway hit, but the concept proved to be prescient as it preceded the coronavirus pandemic by three years. Seizing on the popularity of The Walking Dead and the fact it was almost Halloween, the team hit upon the idea for a zombie-themed High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) escape room to entice staff into the sessions. In 2017, Boseman and Causey aimed to boost staff attendance, especially among non-clinical staff, of voluntary infection prevention and control education at the health care system, which includes hospitals and clinics surrounding Austin, Waco, and Temple.

The escape room is the brainchild of Gracia Boseman, RN, MPH, and Kristy Causey, MSN, RN, who are presenting their findings today at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s ( APIC’s), 48 th Annual Conference, being held virtually. Staff there have used the concept for a flu pandemic escape room and are reporting increased staff handwashing and acceptance of flu vaccines as a result. The facility is based at a location known as Creepy Hollow and was.Presenters at APIC Virtual Conference show results of zombie-themed learning that is catching on elsewhereĪrlington, Va., J– Designed initially for entertainment purposes, escape rooms are proving their value as medical training tools as demonstrated by the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. The 288 Scare Factory is the mobile viral genetic research facility of Nouveau Genesis Corporation gone awry.
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