Operation Outbreak: A Periop 101 Exam Review Escape Room

Abstract

Background: Perioperative nursing is expected to see a 20% reduction in the workforce due to retirement within five (5) years. To recruit and retain nurses within this specialty, the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) Periop 101: Core Curriculum™ OR was added to an existing nurse residency program. Periop 101 is an online learning program providing evidence-based guidelines for practice and requires the learner to pass a final exam with a score of 80% or higher. Following a didactic final exam review session, most nurse residents at a midwestern community hospital failed to pass the final exam on their first attempt. Aim: To address this knowledge gap, the clinical educators decided to create a more interactive review session by creating an escape room. Current literature supports the use of escape rooms to increase knowledge and learner engagement. Method: Nurse residents participate in Operation Outbreak during the exam review session. A convenience sample of twenty-two (22) registered nurses were included in the quality improvement project. Group one consisted of 18 participants who received only the didactic review session. Group two had four participants who participated in the didactic review session as well as the Operation Outbreak escape room. Results/Conclusion: Overall, there was improvement in the average final exam scores and average percentage of residents to pass the exam on the first attempt after the addition of the escape room. Statistical analysis was not performed due to sample limitations.