Simulating Real Life: Enhancing Social Work Education on Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention

Simulation in Social Work Education: A Scoping Review

“…In terms of the aim of the studies, more than half ( n = 29, 56%) examined different aspects of student learning through simulation including student readiness for practice, self-efficacy, as well as competence in attitudes, knowledge, and skills (e.g., Carter et al, 2018; Manning, Skiff, Santiago, & Irish, 2016; Miller, 2002; Murphy & Nimmagadda, 2015; Osborne, Benner, Sprague, & Cleveland, 2016). Five studies (10%) had a specific focus on developing and validating instruments for the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), to be used in formative or summative assessments (Baez, 2005; Bogo et al, 2012, 2011; Lu et al, 2011; Sampson, Parrish, & Washburn, 2018).…”

“…With respect to practice models, motivational interviewing (MI) was noted in five studies (10%). Three of these studies (6%) had a practice focus on substance use (e.g., Baez, 2005), and two explicitly used MI combined with a Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment protocol which is premised on the transtheoretical model of change (Osborne et al, 2016; Sacco et al, 2017). The other two articles used MI for high school dropout prevention (Iachini, Lee, DiNovo, Lutz, & Frey, 2018) and child welfare (Pecukonis et al, 2016), respectively.…”

“…Of the 29 studies that examined using simulation for social work teaching, 6 studies (12%) focused on teaching generalist competencies and 23 (44%) on specialized competencies. Specialized competencies included mental health assessment (Badger & MacNeil, 2002), advanced care planning in health care (Bond et al, 2017), intimate partner violence (Forgey, Badger, Gilbert, & Hansen, 2013), child abuse (Wilcox, Miller-Cribbs, Kientz, Carlson, & DeShea, 2017), conflict resolution (Schreiber & Minarik, 2018), MI (Greeno et al, 2016; Iachini et al, 2018; Pecukonis et al, 2016), substance use (e.g., Baez, 2005; Osborne et al, 2016), social work practice with families (Mooradian, 2007, 2008), alcohol withdrawal (Gates & Brown, 2017), interprofessional core competencies in health care (Costello et al, 2017; Kuehn et al, 2017; Murphy & Nimmagadda, 2015), bad news delivery in health care (Pastor, Cunningham, White, & Kolomer, 2016), spiritual care in a pediatric setting (Robinson et al, 2016), and interprofessional communication of death (Galbraith et al, 2014; Youngblood et al, 2012). One study (2%) examined interprofessional core competencies, as well as competencies that were discipline specific in nursing and social work (Manning et al, 2016).…”

“…Recruiting and training actors is an important part of simulation activities, and some authors stated that systematic actor training procedures should be established (Badger & MacNeil, 2002; Olson et al, 2015), especially when using simulation for assessments such as OSCEs (Bogo, Lee, McKee, Ramjattan, & Baird, 2017; Sampson et al, 2018). As the costs of hiring actors may be prohibitive for some institutions, some studies identified strategies to reduce such costs by (1) recruiting former students to play simulated clients (Osborne et al, 2016), (2) working with actors who have already been trained (Miller, 2002, 2004), and (3) partnering with theater students/departments to have a mutually beneficial simulation-based learning plan (Dennison, 2011).…”

“…Many studies discussed the importance of feedback as a core teaching mechanism in simulation-based learning (e.g., Greeno et al, 2016; Kourgiantakis, Sewell, Bogo, 2019; Osborne et al, 2016; Youngblood et al, 2012). During simulation-based learning, activities feedback can be provided by course instructors, supervisors, field instructors, peers, and simulated clients (Greeno et al, 2016; Kourgiantakis, Bogo, & Sewell, 2019; Osborne et al, 2016). Feedback is also described as an important teaching and learning mechanism for developing holistic competence in students (Kourgiantakis, Sewell, Bogo, 2019).…”