Enhancing Interprofessional Collaboration through an Escape Room Activity for Nurse Practitioner and Paramedicine Students

Abstract

Introduction: Interprofessional education is essential in healthcare training, fostering teamwork and communication among disciplines to improve patient outcomes. However, despite their frequent interaction in acute care settings, limited literature exists on structured educational strategies for collaboration between paramedicine and nurse practitioner (NP) students. This project assessed an interprofessional escape room activity’s impact on leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills among NP and paramedicine students. 

Hypothesis: An interprofessional escape room activity will enhance teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills while improving participants’ understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities.  

Methods: A mixed-methods study was conducted at x University, involving nine NP students and an equal number of paramedicine students. The escape room, designed using International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning standards, simulated an emergency scenario requiring interprofessional collaboration to solve clinical puzzles and complete procedural skills within a 30-minute timeframe. The Creighton Interprofessional Collaborative Evaluation (C-ICE) instrument assessed teamwork and communication. A post-activity survey measured student perceptions of the activity, with statistical analyses including descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon tests. 

Results: All student teams completed the escape room activity within the 30-minute timeframe, with a mean completion time of 18 minutes and 21 seconds. The C-ICE results showed that three teams achieved perfect scores, while two scored lower due to communication issues. Surveys revealed that 84% of students did not find the escape room stressful, and 88% reported no barriers to collaboration. The median Likert response for overall satisfaction was significantly above neutral (p < .001). Nurse practitioner students rated the experience more favorably than paramedicine students (p = .0018), with no significant difference in perceived stress (p = .784). Within paramedicine, significant differences were observed in satisfaction and learning (p = .0464), with satisfaction ratings higher than those for learning and competencies (p < .05). 

Conclusion: This study supports using escape rooms as an innovative strategy to enhance interprofessional collaboration. The activity improved NP and paramedicine students' communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills, fostering a greater understanding of their respective roles. Future iterations will incorporate additional healthcare disciplines and refine debriefing strategies to maximize interprofessional learning.