The buzzer goes off. Three occupational therapy students are convinced they have worked out what should happen to their patient next. They are wrong.

Nobody is harmed, and no real patient is waiting. The escape room gives students a safe place to practise something healthcare professionals do every day: using their knowledge to make decisions when information is incomplete, situations change and the answer is not obvious. Getting it wrong and trying again is part of the learning.

Healthcare education has a challenge. Students can learn anatomy and physiology, theory and professional standards, but eventually they must use that knowledge with a real person. Real people rarely behave like case studies.

Healthcare can be fast-moving and pressured. Information changes, priorities compete and professionals may have to make decisions without everything they would like to know. The person at the centre may also have different priorities from those the professional expected.

Healthcare professionals therefore need more than knowledge. They need to apply it, adapt it and sometimes rethink it as a situation develops. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) standards for occupational therapists, for example, require practitioners to use professional judgement, analyse information, solve problems and make reasoned decisions.

So how can students practise that before their decisions affect somebody for real?

I designed an escape room for occupational........

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