Impact of an interactive, clinical decision-making workshop on student learning of antimicrobial stewardship principles

Abstract

Background and purposeEducational escape room activities are being implemented in various classroom environments to augment learning. These games are structured in a linear pathway, and all participants must complete riddles to arrive at the same answer and “escape the room.” Educational activity and settingInvestigators created a multi-directional interactive learning activity where students were presented with a patient case. The activity required students to identify the presented infectious disease, interpret microbiology results, and select antibiotic treatment options. Students were required to provide dosing and antimicrobial stewardship metrics based on their treatment selection along with rationale. Upon completion of the activity, students participated in group discussions explaining the reasoning behind their selected treatment option. They also completed a satisfaction survey. Knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship principles was assessed via a multiple-choice exam. Exam performance was compared to the prior year when a traditional lecture format was utilized to teach the topic. FindingsOf 194 students enrolled in the course, 138 completed the satisfaction survey. The majority (86.9%) indicated that they would recommend the activity and 88.2% considered it an effective tool for learning antimicrobial stewardship. There was a mean decline of 6.38% (P = .3) in correctly answered exam questions with the implementation of the activity compared to results from the previous academic year (N = 185). SummaryStudents perceived the game as a valuable learning experience, but it did not result in an improvement in knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship as assessed by multiple-choice exams.