Assessing and improving students' collaborative skills using a mental health simulation: A pilot study

People with severe mental illnesses have complex needs that require coordinated care. However, students in different health professions are usually educated in silos without an emphasis on collaborative skills. Students would benefit from exposure to other disciplines that would increase appreciation of collaboration. This pilot study sought to understand how a mental health simulation (SIM) would influence a student's perception of collaboration. The mental health SIM involved nursing, social work, occupational therapy and public health students who worked with standardized patients. Students were given the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale-21 (ISVS-21) that measures attitudes, values, and feelings about interprofessional collaboration. A baseline of 113 students in the four health professions were administered the pretest and a subset of nine who participated in the SIM completed the posttest. This study suggests that SIM may be a promising way of improving attitudes toward collaborative care, though it is important for the SIM to reflect real life treatment conditions.