TOTB-08: ONLY ONE WAY OUT: THE USE OF ESCAPE ROOM GAMES AS AN INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION TOOL FOR RESIDENTS
Alessandra Landmann, MD; University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
Evaluating resident performance requires attention to multiple performance measures beyond surgical skills, including communication, teamwork, professionalism, and leadership. We present a novel approach to both evaluate resident interpersonal communication and teamwork skills while building rapport between two departments through utilizing an “escape room” game by creating a low stress, low stakes environment while working on a common goal. Specifically, we focused on an individual’s ability to participate in a multi-disciplinary team environment and use this data to develop an assessment tool for their interpersonal performance in residency.

Describe the intervention:
“Escape room” games have grown in popularity in the past several years, players are locked in a room and each are given a hidden clue that allows their escape through teamwork and strategy: they are forced to work together to solve difficult logic puzzles in a time-limited environment, with each player possessing a key to the team’s success or failure. These games are planned after-hours, as a department-funded, resident-leisure activity and the games are recorded for review by independent observers. At the conclusions of the game, residents complete an individual communication assessment.

Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
This activity is easily implemented with financial support from the home institution as a resident boot camp or retreat activity. While the initial investment may be seen as a barrier, the effects on rapport-building between residents and the communication skills developed have profound effects, as can be seen by our preliminary results: “as a team we encouraged each other to look at our work from different perspectives” (4.4/5.0); “I felt satisfied with the way in which our team had conversations about our project” (4.5/5.0) and “team/group members elaborated on each other's information and ideas.”