Hierarchically Structured Role-Playing Simulation as a Tool for Promoting Soft Skills in Veterinary Undergraduates

TL;DR

A new role-playing simulation helps veterinary students improve communication, leadership, and teamwork skills through a structured activity.

Contribution

A novel hierarchically structured role-playing simulation was developed to train and evaluate soft skills in veterinary undergraduates.

Findings

Students performed significantly better after a lecture on soft skills, except for leadership roles.

Participants rated the leader role lower than other roles in the simulation.

Students found the activity highly useful for training and evaluating soft skills.

Abstract

Veterinary clinicians are required to correctly communicate with pet owners, as well as lead and work in complex and interdisciplinary teams. These non-clinical competences are not the primary focus of veterinary education and are not easy to evaluate or train. In this study, a role-playing simulation where students portray different roles in a hierarchical structure was designed. We tested the performance of the students before and after receiving a lecture about these specific soft skills. Students performed significantly better after the lecture, although problems portraying the leader role remained. Students had an excellent reception of this activity and considered that it was highly useful.

Soft skills such as client-oriented communication, leadership, and teamwork skills are essential for veterinary clinicians. However, they are rarely addressed in the academic curriculum of most veterinary schools. Role-playing has been previously used to train and evaluate communication skills in veterinary students, but leadership and teamwork are difficult to implement in this methodology. In this study, we designed a novel role-playing activity where groups of undergraduate veterinary students faced simulated pre-planned clinical consultations portraying different roles in a hierarchically structured group (leader, two veterinarians, and one client). We tested the performance of the participants before and after receiving a focused lecture on soft skills. While the overall performance of the students in veterinary roles was significantly better after the lecture, the number of mistakes related to leadership did not significantly vary. Students rated the role of leader consistently lower than the rest. Participants considered that this novel design was useful to train and evaluate these competences. Hierarchically structured role-playing is a suitable tool to improve soft skills in veterinary students, allowing for self-learning and training in a controlled environment.

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