Operation Diagnosis: Applying Virtual Escape Room Construct to Clinical Reasoning Education

Clinical reasoning is an essential skill held by physicians that is taught and modeled throughout medical education. However, researchers have communicated difficulty associated with administering clinical reasoning instruction and assessments during medical student clerkship experiences. Challenges include lack of time and access to qualified faculty. Pandemic conditions introduced rapid need for the use of virtual environments including additional barriers with ensuring student engagement in this space. In attempt to address these factors, we utilized concepts of a virtual "escape room" to case-based sessions to promote learner interaction, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning skills among students in the internal medicine clerkship.

Gamification - defined as taking educational content and introducing a game element - has been shown to encourage interaction and student engagement often missing from online teaching. For this session, participants will engage in a gamified workshop where they will dDiscuss benefits of gamification and identify methods to adapt clinical cases into virtual escape rooms andarticipate in small groups sessions to analyze a clinical case and organize learning points into sections learners will progress through in escape room fashion. The presenters will act as sources of information and support as participants actively create an escape room lesson plan while also engaging in a gamified learning environment.