Manage the Pain, Escape the Silo

Abstract : When managing acute patient pain, many healthcare workers are puzzled identifying how other disciplines’ scope of practice, resources, or knowledge can positively impact patient care. One of the primary reasons for this lack of knowledge is the current workforce learned in silos. This presentation will highlight an interprofessional escape room with a focus on pain management that levels up undergraduate learner’s patient centered team-based care. The audience will learn to develop clues to help learners work together and unlock their understanding to improve patient experience and health, decrease healthcare cost, and reduce the opioid crisis.

An interprofessional education committee comprised of medicine, pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy faculty developed an escape room focusing on specific interprofessional education core competency sub-competencies related to roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork. A meaningful escape room was developed using curriculum gaps and pain management tools as clues and optional distractors. Five academic cohorts consisted of 429 gamers divided into 36 teams participated in one of four sessions held in one of nine escape rooms.

The game masters determined through learner evaluations implementing an escape room is an effective means to influence the influencer to unravel the coded silo knowledge barrier. Interactive learning provided value, as one learner stated, “I liked how each profession had the opportunity to exemplify his/her unique skills and contribute uniquely to find clues.” Learners relied on their knowledge and each other to prepare them in providing team managed patient-centered care for a patient experiencing pain.