Outcomes of an Inter-professional Education Event for Social Work and Allied Health Professional Students Working with Families in Poverty: Implications for Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional education (IPE) aims to introduce students to the importance of team-based decision making. This article presents evaluation data from an IPE poverty simulation event. The goals of the project were to increase students’ understanding of the barriers faced by families in poverty, and to increase students’ confidence when working with families in poverty. Results show that students experienced enhanced confidence in their ability to work with families living in poverty, as well as an increase in the number of key practice behaviors they were likely to perform. These findings demonstrate that IPE simulations can enhance the understanding and confidence of social work students working with such families.

KEYWORDS:

• Simulation
• poverty
• interprofessional
• low-income families
• social work education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.