Do you have what it takes to escape from Practicum?

With Practicum, Sweden’s largest environment for practical training in life sciences, Uppsala University has taken another giant leap in the education of future healthcare experts. In the heart of the premises we find the three authentically furnished training pharmacies that students award top grades and reviews such as “Best” and “Love it” – but today a different kind of exercises are taking place among the shelves with pharmaceutical packaging.

“We have created an Escape Room in pharmaceutical settings, which is attracting great interest. Right now, we have representatives from Uppsala Municipality, Region Uppsala, the Swedish Medical Products Agency, STUNS, Akademiska Hus and real estate company Vectura on site who are solving a number of challenges, so it is full action inside,” says Felix Hemström Trolin at the Department of Pharmacy.

The concept is developed in collaboration with Karin Johansson, the Department of Informatics & Media and Erik Allard, STUNS Life science. The tasks that the participants face draw inspiration directly from the world of pharmacy and require 30 minutes of focused work – however, no prior knowledge of the pharmaceutical sciences is needed.

“The structure is flexible and can be adapted to all ages and contexts. We often have our bachelor and master students of pharmacy here, a scout group is coming to BMC and several high schools have already registered for sessions. We can also set up the material outside Practicum and plan to participate with a stand at SciFest 2026,” says Felix Hemström Trolin.

In addition to Escape Rooms, Practicum offers a complete resource to train customer meetings, uniting a number of educations at Uppsala's Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine. Each environment is uniquely designed according to the needs of the various programmes, including a fully furnished home for the university's new Occupational Therapy Programme. All three pharmaciescome with advanced AV-equipment with strategically placed cameras, well-sized screens and adjacent rooms where teachers and fellow students can see and analyze ongoing role-plays without interrupting.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Magnus Alsne, Mikael Wallerstedt