President Gabel participates in health care escape room during inauguration week

University of Minnesota President Joan T.A. Gabel joined an interprofessional team of students in an innovative health care escape room at the School of Nursing during the weeklong celebration leading up to her official inauguration on Sept. 20.

The escape room is part of the University’s 1Health interprofessional education program and requires health students to use critical thinking skills, work as a team and be creative to solve health care-related scenarios. The emphasis of the escape room scenario that President Gabel participated in was communication, according to Clinical Associate Professor Cheri Friedrich, DNP, APRN, CNP. “We wanted President Gabel to experience the innovative simulation we are using for building communications skills within an interprofessional health care team,” said Friedrich.

The case scenario involved an 85-year-old man who had a heart attack in a dental chair, which required them to send him to the emergency department for a heart catheter procedure. Students in the fields of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health and social work participated in the escape room and the debrief after, where they talked about the importance of leadership and clear communication and how those relate to their clinical rotations.  

“I think it was really important for President Gabel to see what’s happening at the ground level with learners across the university and the health sciences,” said Friedrich. “I think it was important because we know interprofessional education is key to improving health care outcomes for patients. The more activities and experience that we can have that are interprofessional for our learners, the better off our students are going to be in terms of their preparation for providing care.”