Search

The integration of evidence-informed practices in social work education can be difficult given the crowded curricula of most Master of Social Work programs, particularly for advanced standing MSW students who launch directly into advanced concentration year coursework after obtaining their Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). Several factors impact decisions about the integration of evidence-informed curricula, including the time, location, and order of infused material and choosing curriculum content that can be applied across a range of professional settings. Social workers frequently encounter clients who are reluctant to change or are mandated to receive social work services. Practitioners need the skills to engage and empower those clients toward change. This paper reports on the evaluation of a tripartite training module on Motivational Interviewing (MI) for advanced standing MSW students, which is centered around social simulation. Results of one-way repeated ANOVAs highlighted statistically significant increases in students' knowledge about MI, as well as enhanced Counselor Self-Estimate Inventory scores from pre-simulation to post-simulation, lending promising substance to social simulation as an effective, useful method in the education of advanced standing MSW students.

Approximately 45,000 people die by suicide annually in the United States with over 60% seeking help in the year leading up to their death. Of students receiving suicide-specific training in their degree programs, nearly two-thirds feel inadequately prepared for practice with suicidal clients. This study explores the outcomes of an educational pilot study (N = 29) integrating didactic instruction, readings, role-plays, and simulation for teaching suicide intervention skills. The Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) framework is used as a guideline to develop knowledge, skills, and confidence in working with clients who are suicidal. Repeated measures ANOVA results indicate statistically significant improvements in students' knowledge and Counseling Self-Estimate Inventory (CSEI) scores overtime (p <.05). Moreover, CSEI and the subscale of dealing with difficult client behaviors showed statistically significant improvements from pre-simulation to post-simulation (p <.05). While an abundance of research exists regarding the use of simulation within medical education, a limited amount of research examines the relevance of simulation within graduate education for helping professionals (e.g., counselors and social workers). These results suggest an added benefit of high-fidelity simulations in the training of helping professionals to develop clinical suicide intervention skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are multiple sources of maltreatment and household dysfunction with tremendous impact on health. A trauma-informed (TI) approach is preferred when working with patients with ACEs. The Professional ACEs-Informed Training for Health© (PATH©) educational program and simulation experience using standardized patients (SP) was developed to help healthcare professionals address ACEs with adults. PATH© is a 3–4 hour curriculum comprised of lecture and discussion, video-based demonstration, simulation experience, and debriefing. It was first developed for primary care (PC) residents in family medicine and internal medicine, and subsequently modified for occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) students. This study evaluates a preliminary dataset focusing on PATH© skills of PC residents and OT and PT students during simulation. Recordings of 53 learner-SP encounters from 15 OT and PT students and 38 PC residents were coded using standardized behavioral codes. A subset of ten recordings of PC residents who participated in simulations in the first and fourth year of the training program allowed for evaluation of training outcomes over time. Results showed that medical residents and OT and PT students demonstrated skills during SP encounters congruent with TI training on addressing ACEs with adults, particularly in explaining ACEs, demonstrating empathy, collaborative treatment planning, and stigma reduction. PC residents showed both positive and negative changes in PATH©-specific skills from year 1 to 4 of the training program. This study supports the PATH© model and simulation-based training in preparing clinicians to address ACEs with adults and provides insight into further curriculum improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field education is considered the signature pedagogy of social work education and the fundamental location for the implementation of learning into practice. Preparing students for the field is paramount to their success. This paper explores the use of field labs in combination with simulation conducted in a controlled environment outside of the classroom to prepare social work students for their first field placement. Students participating in the program (N = 22) completed both a pre- and post-assessment of their knowledge of safety as measured on an objective exam and self-estimate of counseling skills as measured on the Clinical Self Estimate Inventory. Results of a series of paired-samples t-tests with a Bonferroni correction indicated that knowledge and self-estimate of these skills had statistically significant increases (p < .007), supporting the concept of field labs in conjunction with simulation as valuable tools in preparing social work students for entrance into field education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]