Traditional approaches to teaching clinical skills, such as didactic teaching methods and peer-to-peer roleplay inadequately prepare social work students for real world practice. Simulation-based learning is emerging as a promising innovative method for teaching social work practice in the classroom, gaining recognition, particularly in the United States, for facilitating the development of core social worker competencies to better prepare students for practice. Other healthcare professions have established a robust body of literature that provides educators with best practices in using simulation effectively for learning and training, but simulation is less developed in social work. 

There is a widespread acknowledgement that more needs to be done to better prepare students using research-supported educational frameworks that include best practices in simulation-based learning. While social work education can draw from simulation research and approaches in other health-care professions, it is important that approaches are tailored to the specific skillset required of social workers in order for beginning practitioners to be effective and competent.

This report presents:

• A systematic scoping review of evidence summarising findings from published evaluations of simulation-based 
  training for social workers.
• Results from a survey exploring Australia’s current approach to training social workers using simulation-based 
  training.

Training the Frontline project

The Susan McKinnon Foundation commissioned Impact Economics and Policy & Monash Social Work to examine tertiary-level training and skill-building for frontline workers in social work and education.

This project aimed to identify innovative solutions to address the identified challenge of teacher and social worker preparedness for the workplace. For both teachers and social workers, there is an identified disconnect between what is learned in a tertiary setting (the theory) and what they do in a classroom or client setting (the practice). Digital simulations are increasingly being recognised as a useful tool to address this disconnect, enabling trainee teachers and social workers to practice skills on real world problems and situations.

These reports provide a synthesis of the global evidence-base of ‘what works’ in immersive simulation training for both education and social work, and the sector-specific opportunities and barriers to the adoption of simulation training for tertiary-level teacher and social work training in Australia.