NYU Silver, NYU Meyers, and LIU Pharmacy faculty posed as a group after evaluating students in a 2019 interprofessional simulation at NYU Meyers’ Clinical Simulation Learning Center.
New York, NY – Research has established that simulations, in which students address real-world problems in realistic environments, are a valuable tool for teaching social work practice. However, the financial and human resources required to mount simulations can be too high for some schools of social work. As innovators in simulation-based learning, NYU Silver Clinical Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Practicum Education and Community Partnerships Anne Dempsey and Clinical Associate Professor Nicholas Lanzieri spread the resource burden by partnering with colleagues at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (NYU Meyers) and Long Island University College of Pharmacy (LIU Pharmacy) to create an interprofessional simulation for students in all three disciplines. Among the benefits was the opportunity for all of the students to develop collaborative skills for working on an interprofessional team.
In a “Teaching Note” published in the Journal of Social Work Education, Drs. Dempsey and Lanzieri, with NYU Meyers Clinical Associate Professor Mary Brennan, and LIU Pharmacy Associate Professor Janna Roitman, describe how they integrated social work issues and first-year practice objectives in a simulation previously developed for nurse practitioner and pharmacy graduate students.
“We were able to create a realistic scenario in which our social work students acted as medical social workers on an acute care team in a large, urban hospital,” explained Dr. Dempsey. “They drew on first-year skills around assessment, engagement and understanding social determinants of health to bring valuable perspective to the medical team.”
The adapted simulation scenario involved a mock patient with chronic kidney disease. The original scenario focused on the patient’s physical symptoms and medical history relevant for the nursing and pharmacy students with little information about his relationships, living situation, economic and emotional well-being, or ability to function independently, which could affect his ability to care for his health. Drs. Dempsey and Lanzieri added such “psychosocial” details, including the fact that the patient is an undocumented immigrant, unable to work because of his medical conditions, without health insurance, who lives with his adult daughter and her family and has been depressed since his wife of 48 years died two years earlier.
During the simulation, which took place in NYU Meyers’ Clinical Simulation Learning Center, each of seven first-year, second-semester MSW students was paired with two nursing students and one pharmacy student. After being briefed on the scenario and expectations, the teams spent 20 minutes with the mock patient, during which the nursing students conducted a physical; the pharmacy students evaluated the patient’s current medications and needs; and the MSW students assessed that patient’s social, emotional, legal, and financial barriers and supports.
Each team then met for another 20 minutes without the patient to collaboratively develop a holistic, evidence-based treatment and aftercare plan, which they then shared with the patient. Throughout the process, they were observed by faculty raters from each specialty, who afterward provided the students with real-time feedback on their performance.
“In this simulation scenario,” wrote the authors, “social work students had the opportunity to understand how medical concerns and medications affect a patient’s emotional state and aftercare plan. Nursing and pharmacy students were exposed to how the patient’s immigration status might affect his health insurance and capacity to pay for medications, highlighting that when social workers address social issues, the effect of health disparities may be reduced.”
The full article is now available online first in the Journal of Social Work Education.
About NYU Silver
Founded in 1960 and renowned for a strong tradition of excellence in direct social work practice and dedication to social justice, NYU Silver has provided rigorous training to more than 20,000 social work practitioners and leaders in every area of the field, making it the leading destination for students who want to become innovative practitioners at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice. The School has four campuses in the heart of New York City, Rockland County, Westchester County, and Shanghai.