3 2 • O U T P A T I
E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1
T
here are several ways
to ensure your staff is
properly trained to
handle a malignant
hyperthermia emer-
gency. Making them sit through
yet another annual in-service or
having them read dry educational
materials would certainly get the
job done, but creating an MH
escape room would make the
training memorable, challenging
— and a lot of fun.
Escape rooms have been a pop-
ular form of entertainment for
years. They involve teams working
together to solve puzzles or clues
in order to "escape" the room. It's
a perfect team-building exercise,
and that's why I decided to use the
concept to capture my staff's
attention when it was time to
review how they should manage
an MH emergency. Here's what it
takes to pull it off.
• Order the materials. You'll
need some combination locks,
lockable boxes and a lockout
hasp, which can hold up to six
padlocks. These boxes are ideal
and can be bought on Amazon: osmag.net/kHt5BS.
These locks are also available on Amazon and work
great, because they allow you to set unique five-
character (letter, number or symbol) combinations:
osmag.net/DKEza2. The lockout hasp is another
Amazon purchase: osmag.net/cU7oBK.
• Come up with questions. You want to challenge
and test your staff's knowledge of MH, so don't
make the questions too easy. The website of the
Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United
States is a good place to find useful material (see
"Would You Get Out of an MH Escape Room?").
Make the questions multiple choice. Each question
should have at least three possible answers (unless
it is a true or false question) with each answer hav-
ing a corresponding letter, number or symbol.
• Set the rules. Spilt your staff into three-mem-
ber teams, and use the same type of combination
lock to secure a box for each team. The teams
receive the same series of multiple choice ques-
tions, work together to come up with the answers
and apply the corresponding characters to the lock
Julie Blakeley, BSN, RN, CNOR I Tyler, Texas
Make Malignant Hyperthermia Training Memorable
Participating in an MH escape room is a fun and
effective way to learn emergency response protocols.
CRACKING THE CODE Staff members team up to answer questions that provide the combination they need to unlock the
escape room's box.
All
photos
are
by
Julie
Blakeley
