I’m A Medically Fit Patient...Get Me Out Of Here!

Introduction

The GMC requires medical graduates to “recognise and show respect for the roles and expertise of other health and social care professionals”. Despite this, we identified a gap in final-year medical students’ understanding of the roles of multidisciplinary team (MDT) members in older patients’ discharge (OPD).

Method

As Clinical Fellows at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, we provide near-peer teaching for undergraduate medical students at the University of Leeds. We surveyed final-year medical students’ knowledge of MDT members’ roles in facilitating safe OPD, specifically pharmacists, occupational therapists (OTs), physiotherapists, and social workers. Subsequently, we designed an innovative escape room (ER) comprising four rooms, each featuring a video created collaboratively with the aforementioned MDT members, outlining their specific role in facilitating OPD. Students will use information from the videos to complete tasks that reflect each MDT member’s involvement in OPD to ‘escape’ each room. The ER will be run ten times for approximately 120 final-year students across January-May 2026. 

Results

Before the ER, 0% of students were familiar with access visits and discharge-to-assess (D2A) beds, or which MDT member is responsible for submitting a D2A referral. Only 17% (N=27) of students correctly identified that OTs perform access visits. The greatest pre-existing knowledge was in recognising who required a warfarin clinic follow-up after discharge (18%, N=33), and that doctors are responsible for the referral (71%, N=28).

Conclusion

Overall, students showed confidence in the doctor’s role but lacked understanding of other MDT members’ contributions to OPD. We expect our ER to bridge these knowledge gaps and support students in meeting the GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates.