Penn State Hershey Family Medicine - Escape Room - 02.15.23

Penn State Hershey Family Medicine got out of the facility for some team work and team building. The program tested their teamwork and problem solving skills with...

  ... a trip to the Escape Room in Hershey. The challenge made the residents work together as team, and gave them a clean break away from the stresses of emergency medicine. The team made a successful exit from the room.  

Results/Outcome Survey
1. What was the general understanding of the purpose of the project/program by participants?

“…to foster wellness and for an opportunity to grow with our colleagues.”
“To connect with co-residents, collaborating in a fun and engaging way.”
“To promote wellness and comradery amongst the residents, as residency can be stressful.”
“To come together outside of work to bond and work together.”
“It seemed like a great time to work with each other and have time to have fun, relax, and work as a team.”

2. During the project/program, what tangible tools or strategies were demonstrated or taught (i.e, coping skills for wellness and life balance)

“Upon reflection, the principle of the escape room may be extrapolated to problems in daily life. When solving problems in the room, we communicated with each other to elicit ideas on how to solve them. It was often through discussion that the problem was solved. Reaching out to friends and family in times of personal troubles can be solved in this same manner.”
“Demonstrated that I can continue to engage in fun activities, even during stressful times of residency.”
“I felt that our group had a great time, really enjoyed working together. I think we worked well as a team to solve the puzzles.”
“Learned to work together, hear each other's ideas.”

3. What word(s) best describes how you feel when you are experiencing stress or well-being imbalance?

Anxious, burnout, distress, easily irritable, fatigue, frustration, flustered, indifference, stressed, tired, unhappy, upset easily

4. What suggestions do you have to increase the probability of success for the project/program for other institutions?

“Doing them more frequently!”
“For other institutions I would only recommend good advertisement of the event and scheduling at a time known to be convenient for all / most planning to attend. I think the rest takes care of itself.”
“Keep it short and sweet. Don't make it a scheduling burden.”
“Designating time for wellness during residency would be helpful.”
“Resident buy in.”

5. What do you intend to do, upon returning to work, that you learned and practiced during the activity, that will improve your response to stressful situations?

“I think it stresses the importance of communication and I will remember its importance and bring that to my professional life.”

“Continue to work closely with colleagues, and allow myself to trust them.”

“Open communication is important in order to be successful. I will continue to practice this.”

“Listen.”

“I think when we're in a stressful situation, we need to remember we are not alone and can always ask our peers for help.”