The escape room as evaluation method: A qualitative study of nursing students’ experiences

Purpose: Gamification or learning using game elements is a process that seeks to capture students’ interest. One of the most popular games in recent years is the Escape Room, but the study of its use in education and with health professionals is still limited. The aim of this study was to find out the perceptions and experiences of final year nursing students in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) by means of an Escape Room.

Methods: In January 2019, 9 focus groups (FG) were held, with a total of 95 final year nursing students. We applied a qualitative content analysis approach and ATLAS.ti version 8 was used for data analysis.

Results: The data revealed 3 main themes and 8 sub-themes. The three main themes, which were mapped to the conceptual framework, were student learning outcomes, emotional impact on students and conclusions on the serious games experience. Both the main themes and the sub-themes were illustrated using representative quotes from the participants.

Conclusions: These results can help to apply these methodologies, such as the Escape Room, alongside other pre-existing ones, complementing the way in which students are assessed and the development of important nursing skills, such as teamwork and communication.