Abstract
Due to COVID 19, Monash University’s Social Work Department moved all clinical practice skills teaching in the Master of Social Work (graduate entry level) fully online using synchronous audio-visual conferencing platform Zoom for the first time from March to June 2020. The innovations associated with this move included the development of clinical practice laboratories (CPLs) to prepare 154 students for a modified version of an Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) and their first field education practicum. The use of simulated clients to facilitate experiential learning of active listening skills, rapport-building and empathic communication in this mode of delivery is described in detail to encourage overcoming previous issues in teaching clinical practice skills to students located at a distance from campus.
Highlights
The Department of Social Work at Monash University was an Australian pioneer in the delivery of distance education (DE) to its off-campus Bachelor of Social Work students in 1989(Oliaro & Trotter, 2010; Afrouz and Crisp 2021)
Simone recalls that the ‘therapy’ was helpful to her in that she felt less anxious and depressed afterwards. This scenario was one of the many used as the basis for a two hours clinical practice laboratories (CPLs) where the instructors modelled the initial 15 to 20 min of the interview with the simulated client Simone in the role of the community health social worker. This modelling was to enable students to observe the interaction between the client and the social worker live on Zoom and to ensure the students gained some initial sense of the situation Simone was facing
In 2020, we conducted 176 modified Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE)’s online (22 students needed to repeat their OSCE, 12 passing on their second attempt) with a simulated client using Zoom to assess their preparedness for field education placement
Summary
The introduction of distance education modes in social work programs was very controversial due to the concerns about whether the acquisition of clinical practice skills and other requisite social work attributes could be achieved without regular face-to-face contact. This same controversy continues (Jones, 2015), though objections appear to be, in the main, ideological in nature. Regardless of the arguments for this mode of delivery and the concerns about its efficacy for training social workers in clinical practice skills, there is an increasing number of social work programs being delivered online across the world including, amongst many others, countries like Canada, USA, UK, India, Israel and Norway (Oliaro & Trotter, 2010). The availability of internet technology has enabled a replication of lectures, audio-visually recorded and/or streamed; and participation in tutorials and small groups for teaching clinical skills is possible on Zoom. We quickly moved all clinical skills training online for all students whether enrolled in on-campus or off-campus study modes during this world health crisis
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