Bridging the Gap: Using Simulation to Build Clinical Skills among Advanced Standing Social Work Students

Abstract

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.

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