Using Simulation to Teach Spiritual Assessment as a Component of Culturally Competent Practice

Overview: Spirituality is an important component of cultural diversity, yet limited educational resources are available to help prepare social work students to address clients’ spiritual needs. This poster details a curricular innovation designed to enhance masters’ level social work students’ preparation for integrating clients’ spiritual values and beliefs into clinical practice.Proposal text: Spirituality is recognized as an important component of cultural diversity by the National Association of Social Workers (2017) and the Council on Social Work Education (2015), yet curricular content focusing on client spirituality may be overlooked in preparing social work students for culturally competent practice (Cole, 2021). A large majority of Americans consider spirituality or religion to be an important part of their lives (Pew Research Center, 2015). Incorporating clients’ spiritual values and beliefs into helping practices is associated with positive health and mental health outcomes (Koenig et al., 2012), plus clients prefer such an integrated approach (Lietz & Hodge, 2013). Education that frames spiritual integration as a vital aspect of the helping process is associated with attention to clients’ spiritual needs once helping professionals enter clinical practice (Oxhandler et al., 2019). However, although there has been heightened attention to including spirituality in social work practice (Hodge, 2018; Oxhandler, 2017), limited educational resources are available to help prepare social work students to address clients’ spiritual needs (Adedoyin et al., 2021; Cole, 2021).

This electronic poster details a curricular innovation project designed to enhance master's level social work students’ preparation for integrating clients’ spiritual values and beliefs into clinical practice. The project focused on students accomplishing three objectives: 1) recognizing spirituality as a key component of diversity; 2) articulating the importance of conducting a spiritual assessment to determine the role of spirituality or religion in a client’s life; and 3) linking spiritual assessment with effectively incorporating clients’ strengths into practice when spirituality or religion is valued by the client. The curricular innovation culminated with a simulated practice experience whereby students conducted a spiritual assessment with an actor trained to play the role of a Muslim client in a clinically complex health care situation. Simulation-based learning is an effective method for teaching specialized practice skills in health care settings (Kuehn et al., 2017). A primarily benefit of simulation is the realistic depiction of emotionally intense client situations that enable students to practice newly developing skills without risk of harm to actual clients (Kourgiantakis et al., 2020). Apart from the spiritual assessment simulation, the curricular innovation project incorporated four additional elements, three before the simulation and one after: 1) a talk show style instructor interview with an expert on spiritual assessment, which distinguished the social work role from that of clergy in terms of client spirituality; 2) assigned readings that elaborated on spiritual assessment in social work practice, reviewed various spiritual assessment strategies, and summarized core values and beliefs of the faith tradition featured in the cumulating simulation experience (Islam); 3) an in-class role play using a spiritual assessment strategy of the student’s choice as preparation for the simulation; and 4) after the simulation, student reflection on the experience followed by instructor feedback.

After completing the full spiritual assessment learning experience, students’ self-reflections indicated increased confidence in facilitating client comfort and rapport-building. However, they felt the client’s religious faith was the element of diversity most likely to challenge their engagement skills.