Time is brain: Utilizing escape rooms as an alternative educational assignment in undergraduate nursing education

Background: Nursing educators engage students using innovative active learning modalities. Escape rooms are an unconventional tool used to encourage teamwork and collaboration, while also promoting critical thinking. Purpose: While the utilization of escape rooms in healthcare arenas have grown in popularity, few studies used a formal evaluation process to analyze the learner's ability to meet the learning objectives. Methods: Twenty-four students completed this escape room experience. A standardized debriefing process and a formalized pre- and postevaluation process were utilized to assist students in meeting the key learning objectives. Results: The study found that there is sufficient evidence at the alpha = 0.05 significance level to conclude that the median score of the post-test is higher than the median score of the pretest using this educational format. Conclusion: Escape room experiences can be utilized in the preparation of associate degree nursing education to engage students while also ensuring that students meet key learning objectives. (C) 2022 Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.