Escape room to enhance immediate and long-term healthcare workers' knowledge of multidrug-resistant organisms: a before–after study

Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) require specific infection control measures in healthcare settings. Escape rooms (ERs) are used in healthcare education but remain unevaluated for MDRO training and poorly assessed for long-term knowledge retention. This study assessed the impact of an ER intervention on healthcare workers' MDRO knowledge over the short and long term. A prospective, single-centre study was conducted in a French university hospital (May-December 2023). Nurses, nurse assistants, and medical fellows from 24 wards participated. An 11-item test was administered before, after, and three months post-intervention. The intervention consisted of a 60 min escape room session with MDRO-related riddles and a debriefing. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess factors associated with better performance. Among 141 participants (52.5% nurses, 44.0% nurse assistants, 3.5% medical fellows), correct response rates increased from 53.3% pre-training to 74.9% post-training (P < 0.001). Nurses improved from 55.9% to 78.5%, and nurse assistants from 49.6% to 71.4%. Nurses were associated with better post-test scores. Retained knowledge at three months was significantly higher than pre-intervention test in 44 participants (71.3%, P < 0.001). Satisfaction was high (9.3/10). An ER can enhance nurses' and nurse assistants' knowledge and retention of MDRO-related infection control measures. This gamified approach is not without challenges (time, equipment, logistics) but achieves great satisfaction among participants.