Novel medication safety training module.

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PURPOSE: Escape rooms are effective educational tools for engaging learners and may serve as a strategy for medication safety training to increase perceived learned safety measures and knowledge retention. Escape rooms are lifelike environments in which participants work together to solve a succession of puzzles to escape a locked room in the allotted time. Novel medication safety training modules such as a pharmacy escape room allow medical errors to be simulated in a team-based, controlled environment focusing on system improvement to establish a culture of safety. This project was conducted to improve medication safety knowledge using a novel pharmacy escape room training module piloted within a large, integrated pharmacy department.

SUMMARY: Several pilot groups of 2 or more pharmacy employees took part in a virtual medication safety escape room as part of a training module at Advocate Aurora Health between January and March 2021. Participants included pharmacists and pharmacy technicians employed at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center, Aurora Sinai Medical Center, and Pharmacy Integrated Clinical Services. Assessments were administered before and after completion of the escape room module to evaluate medication safety knowledge and perceived learned safety measures by comparing scores. A total of 101 employees participated in the pharmacy escape room with an average escape time of 42 minutes. Overall assessment scores before completion of the escape room module ranged from 20% to 86.6%, while those afterwards ranged from 33.3% to 93.3%. Participant feedback was positive with reports that the novel escape room training module was more engaging and interactive than the alternative online self-paced learning modules.

CONCLUSION: Virtual escape rooms can be used as a novel medication safety training module to increase medication safety knowledge and allow medical errors to be simulated in a controlled environment. Incorporating high-reliability tools and tactics into development of the escape room can promote safe medication practices and reinforce principles of high-reliability organizations.