Dr. Connie Perkins, founding director of Nursing, delivered a podium presentation at the New York Organization of Nurse Leaders conference in Tarrytown, New York, on Sept. 8. Her presentation, “Tabletop Escape Room: An Immersive Experience to Transform Practice,” showcased an educational tool developed at SBU with Filane Crumrine.

The tabletop escape room was used with SBU Nursing, Occupational Therapy, and Master of Public Health students and faculty, as well as graduate nurses at Olean General Hospital, to gather data on their experiences. The results, presented at the conference, showed that this empathy-based activity increased players’ knowledge of care coordination while also influencing how they will practice medicine in their given profession.