Editorial: The Use of Simulation in Advancing Clinical Social Work Education and Practice

Abstract

Society’s commitment to the well-being of its members is demonstrated through the quality of its health and social services. These in turn are highly dependent on the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary practitioners who deliver these services. As a result, professional schools bear the responsibility of preparing graduates for “accomplished and responsible practice in the service of others...[students] must come to understand in order to act, and [students] must act in order to serve” (Shulman, 2005, p. 53). Professional education and training of clinical social workers therefore play an essential role in ensuring the delivery of high-quality services. Over half of all social workers in the U.S. and Canada (53%) engage in clinical practice across a range of settings—from hospitals, child welfare agencies, mental health and addiction programs, schools, to private practice (Association of Social Work Boards, 2017). As we write this editorial in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, this responsibility of professional education in ensuring the quality of health and social services and ethical, responsible and competent care provided by clinical social workers is most acutely felt. From fear of contracting the virus, heightened uncertainty over employment and finance, social isolation from physical distancing measures, to immense parenting stress over school closure and childcare, COVID has brought on widespread emotional distress and is expected to leave long-lasting mental health impacts among many individuals (Galea et al., 2020; Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). What COVID also exposed is the societal inequalities and disparities, in that not everyone is impacted equally by this public health and economic crisis. With a number of vulnerability factors prior to COVID– from poverty (e.g., precarious housing and employment, food insecurity), barriers to healthcare access (e.g., insurance) and accurate health information (e.g., language barrier, digital literacy), to overrepresentation in the essential work sectors (e.g., grocery stores, frontline healthcare, public transportation), historically marginalized communities, especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color, have carried significantly disproportional burdens of COVID infection and mortality, highlighting the serious realities of racial and other inequalities in the U.S. (Hardy & Logan, 2020; Parolin, 2021; Tai et al., 2021). COVID also contributed to a spike in the incidents of anti-Asian racism, xenophobia and related hate crimes in many communities (Haynes, 2021). These structural issues also point to clinical social workers’ important roles and responsibilities in this vulnerable time. Clinical social workers have served as the backbone of the health and social service systems during COVID, working with highly vulnerable and marginalized client populations (e.g., long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, child protection, emergency rooms, domestic violence shelters) as essential workers (Abrams & Dettlaff, 2020). Even prior to COVID, clinical social workers have long been called on to provide quality services for society’s vulnerable and marginalized. In taking on a biopsychosocial perspective as a theoretical lens (Berzoff, 2011) and commitment to social justice as a core value principle (National Association of Social Workers, 2017), clinical social workers are well positioned to conceptualize the linkage between structural injustices and one’s health and wellbeing, and implement effective interventions (Asakura & Maurer, 2018). The mission of social work education has always been to train the next generation of social workers. In the time of COVID, however, schools of social work are now more than ever called on to prepare clinical social workers to demonstrate competencies and provide services designed to address complex clinical issues among marginalized clients. As COVID affected the nature of in-class learning and field practicum experiences, simulation-based learning was able to provide a * Kenta Asakura [email protected]