Building Empathy and Clinical Intervention Skills in Dementia Care Through an Experiential Simulation

Purpose: The increasing prevalence of dementia poses significant challenges for speech-language pathologists (SLPs), who often lack specialized training in addressing degenerative disorders. Simulations can offer students a safe and standardized environment to develop essential skills. This study evaluated whether the Virtual Dementia Tour, a simulated learning experience, enhances empathy and understanding among health care professionals working with persons with dementia (PWD), which can, in turn, improve health care outcomes. Method: Thirty-four second-year speech-language pathology graduate students completed two simulations to build empathy and develop intervention skills. Student performance was assessed through standardized rubrics tracking simulation performance and behaviors, pre- and post-experiential surveys, and post-debrief surveys to provide simulation feedback. Results: Students indicated an increased empathy for PWD and an increased understanding of the support necessary to improve their quality of life in daily tasks. Compared to the baseline, students demonstrated significantly fewer negative behaviors and completed more tasks during the intervention portion of the simulation. Students provided positive feedback on the simulation design and recognized the effectiveness of the simulation in advancing their learning and refining their intervention skills. Conclusions: A scaffolded simulation experience showed significant positive shifts in student perspectives, knowledge, empathy, and skills related to serving PWD. Dementia training simulations can reduce anxiety and increase confidence for students in dementia care in the future. This simulation has implications for improving practical care for PWD by early-career SLPs.