SimScape – Integrating Novel Teaching Strategies in Medical Education

A shift is needed from a teacher centered to a more learner centered approach in medical education to meet the needs of our current generation [1, 2]. We have incorporated innovative opportunities for peer-group learning, in a psychologically safe environment, to enhance retention of knowledge, encourage development of leadership, empathy and teamwork skills. Escape Rooms are a team-based activity where a group completes a series of puzzles to achieve the goal of escaping. They are emerging as a popular educational tool to impart new knowledge and skills with entertainment [3]. Medical Simulation has become an integral strategy in medical education; it provides a risk-free environment to teach complex, high-risk, low-frequency events without involving human patients [5]. We created a unique experience for our 4th year medical students during their orientation to Advanced Medicine Sub-internship. They solved an Escape Room, followed by medical simulation cases using high-fidelity simulators where they responded to a rapid response call together. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on a survey that was conducted following the orientation. Among 111 students who have participated, 100% found these sessions helpful. With reference to the Escape Room exercise, 67.9% found it very useful, 20.2% found it moderately useful, 10.1% found it slightly useful and only 1.8% did not find it useful. In terms of the Simulation, 78.9% found it very useful, 14.7% found it moderately useful, 6.4% found it slightly useful and 0% found it not useful. Given these results, we are expanding our efforts and currently a pilot study is being conducted in our internal medicine residency program using these strategies. In our experience, incorporating play will innovate medical education for new learners. However, further studies are needed for successful integration into the medical curriculum.