Using a Poverty Simulation to Create Interprofessional Collaboration Within Higher Education

Overview: This presentation reveals findings from a mixed-methods study which assessed student’s perceptions of poverty through participating in a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS). Participants will learn how the impact of the CAPS experiential learning modality had on student’s understanding of poverty, attitudes towards poverty, confidence, and active learning styles.Proposal text: The United States Census Bureau (2021) reports the poverty rate increased by 1 percent between 2019 and 2020. Additionally, there were 37.2 million people (11.4%) who experienced poverty in 2020 (US Census Bureau, 2021). Poverty has continued to increase as there were only 33.9 million individuals who reported they were experiencing poverty situations in 2019 (US Census Bureau, 2021). Faculty understanding of how students view poverty and work inter-professionally in the community with other disciplines is a pertinent issue for higher education (Victoria & Keuhn, 2020; Peterson et al., 2021). Poverty simulation training has been found to be an effective method to increase student understanding about poverty and skill development in working with disadvantaged populations (Keeney et al., 2019; Johnson et al., 2015; Menzel et al., 2014; Noon et al., 2012). When students are exposed to an experiential setting such as a simulation, students are able to understand the complexity of poverty (Vandsburger, et al., 2010).

This study assesses interprofessional collaboration within higher education while utilizing a poverty simulation that captures student perceptions of poverty through participating in a Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS). Additionally, the purpose of this study was to evaluate student’s critical thinking skills through a team-based poverty simulation. The Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) is an experiential learning modality that focuses on student understanding of life within poverty (Clarke et al., 2016; Steck et al., 2011; Todd et al., 2011; Vandsburger et al., 2010). A total of four disciplines completed measures of understanding poverty, attitudes towards poverty, confidence, and active learning. Researchers used a cross-sectional assessment with a sample of college students across the disciplines of criminal justice, nursing, psychology, and social work. The data was gathered from pre and post questionnaires obtained from the Attitudes Towards Poverty Survey Short Form (Yun and Weaver, 2010), the Understanding of Poverty Scale (Missouri Community Action Network, 2008), the Confidence Scale, and the Evaluation of Continued Engagement with Experiences Gained Through the Poverty Simulation Questionnaire (Vandsburger et al., 2010). A statistical analysis was performed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Statistical tests included a Chronbach’s alpha, paired sample t-tests, and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Descriptive statistics was also used to analyze the nine demographic questions.

Results indicate difference in perceptions about understanding poverty, attitudes toward poverty, and confidence in working with individuals experience poverty. Additionally, results reveal student’s active learning aptitude after they complete the poverty simulation exercise and provide critical insight into the importance of interprofessional collaboration in implementing simulations as an effective teaching strategy for students entering into helping professions.