Rigor in authentic pre-placement assessment to strengthen student practice capacity
Creators: name: Jefferies, Gerard
Publisher: name: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Year: 2022
Subjects: social work
simulation
education
field placements
practice skills
pedagogy
field education
technology
Social work
Curriculum and pedagogy

description: Social workers work with some of the most vulnerable people in the community. The role of social work education programs is to train ethical and competent graduates to support people facing complex challenges. This research is designed to provide alternative opportunities for social work education to meet the challenges faced in practice today. The challenges addressed are both for practice and education. While the complexity in practice is evolving so is the process for training future graduates. Traditionally social work has relied on field education for student opportunities in direct practice. This has meant the development of practice skills is often lacking a uniform standard across all placements. The overarching research aim in this thesis was: To provide an evidence-based approach to improving the skills of social work students before they encounter real clients experiencing complex situations in their field placements.
description: An initial step in this research was to understand the extent to which simulation was currently being utilised and any potential barriers to further development. The findings showed that social work education in Australia had made limited advance in the adoption of simulation even though accreditation standards were altered at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With simulation potentially holding the key to advancing student practice skills, the next step was to gain consensus on the key performance indicators (KPIs) in which all stakeholders in the field education process were assessing students. These indicators would then support the development of simulation strategies to be tested with specific relevance to social work education.
description: The research highlighted that many other health disciplines have evidenced the value of including simulation in education practices and mandated this as part of accreditation standards. This, however, has not been the case for social work. Despite some small positive advances for the use of simulation, largely from overseas, social work in Australia has not progressed these training strategies. The impacts resulting from COVID-19 has given education programs an opportunity to think differently about how we train students and allow for opportunity to practise in authentic environments. These impacts have seen student exposure to core practice areas through field education decrease and result in less opportunity for students to develop confidence and competence by observing supervisors. Further research is needed to advance the application of simulation-based education in social work.
description: This research makes a case for simulation to be included in social work education in Australia. Current social work programs, without simulations, do not provide opportunities for students to develop the full range of expertise and skills relevant to their future careers. The research also makes the case for the development of a standardised national curriculum which includes simulation. The inclusion of simulation-based education in social work is needed for the profession to stay relevant with other health disciplines as well as addressing student confidence and competency. This finding was supported by evidence of students learning better when engaging with authentic video simulations compared with traditional written or live actor simulations. These findings have significant implications for the future of social work education in addressing student competency and ultimately ensuring graduates are practice ready.