Gamification to address the unique challenges of Transition to Internship: How to develop a fun, low cost, and engaging escape room.

Background<br/>The transition to internship (TTI) period comprises unique challenges as students develop new skills,<br/>have to apply knowledge in unfamiliar contexts, and must employ non-technical skills that they may not have had much chance to practice during placement.<br/>Given that TTI often occurs at the end of a busy year, and often post-exams, students can be reticent to apply themselves to learning, requiring novel approaches by educators to engage them and give opportunity to learn the skills they’ll need.<br/>Methods<br/>Over the past few years final year medical students at UWA have participated in educational escape rooms as part of their Transition to Internship activities, being given a set length of time to uncover a story and solve a case to escape a room adapted to the purpose. The rooms have been focused on solving medical problems using both intern-appropriate technical, and non-technical skills, and rely on low tech and inexpensive elements. Student feedback was collected informally during the first year by means of detailed oral and written feedback, and formally last year through pre- and post- activity surveys. Students from other year groups and interns who did the rooms themselves are now also involved in escape room development.<br/>Discussion<br/>Despite the low-tech nature of the escape rooms, student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, leading to an ongoing program of escape room development for final year students in their pre-internship activities. Students and<br/>interns are now involved in escape room development and delivery.