Dwell™: A Tabletop Simulation to Experientially Learn Poverty-Related Struggles

Poverty impacts the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals. It is certain that health care providers will encounter patients navigating an impoverished reality; however, few have the necessary skills to fully assist these individuals. Dwell™, a tabletop poverty simulation experience, was created with the goal of fostering players’ development of empathic service and care skills. In the game, players take on a character and household and have to stay afloat for a simulated 4-week in-game period. By engaging in perspective-taking as part of a facilitated experiential learning tool with compulsory debrief, health care students learn important lessons that can drastically improve their interactions with economically disadvantaged patients and thus enhancing patient care and professional success. The game has been evaluated with positive outcomes including when compared against other simulation-based tools addressing poverty.