While simulation has become an increasingly sophisticated and standardized method of clinical teaching and performance assessment in social work, unlike other clinical and health care fields, it is not generally used in other areas of social work research. Yet, it has the potential to address challenges and limitations in several areas of social work research. For instance, in the area of professional decision-making, research has demonstrated high variability in the conclusions of not only different professionals encountering the same case, but also in a single professional encountering a case at different times. However, research that would elucidate differences in professional decision-making is complicated by logistical and ethical constraints of real-life practice, and the fact that professional decision-making occurs outside the realm of conscious deliberation rendering the individual unable to fully articulate the process by which they arrived at their final conclusion. Simulation research methods can address some of these challenges through providing the opportunity to: observe professional decision-making in real time; reflect on the decisional process while reviewing recordings; and compare the approaches of professionals to standardized cases. This paper reviews the use of simulation research methods in clinical and health science fields and the types of simulation research. It then describes the manner in which simulation methods have been applied to a specific program of social work research that examines professional decision-making in high stakes situations, contributing to clinical practice.

中文翻译：

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模拟方法在社会工作临床决策研究中的应用

虽然模拟已成为社会工作临床教学和绩效评估的一种日益复杂和标准化的方法，但与其他临床和医疗保健领域不同，它通常不用于社会工作研究的其他领域。然而，它有可能解决社会工作研究的几个领域中的挑战和局限性。例如，在专业决策领域，研究表明不仅不同专业人士遇到同一案件的结论存在很大差异，而且同一专业人士在不同时间遇到案件的结论也存在很大差异。然而，由于现实生活实践的逻辑和伦理限制，阐明专业决策差异的研究变得复杂，事实上，专业决策发生在有意识的审议领域之外，导致个人无法完全阐明他们得出最终结论的过程。模拟研究方法可以通过提供以下机会来解决其中的一些挑战： 实时观察专业决策；在审查录音时反思决策过程；并将专业人员的方法与标准化案例进行比较。本文综述了模拟研究方法在临床和健康科学领域的应用以及模拟研究的类型。然后描述了将模拟方法应用于特定社会工作研究计划的方式，该计划检查高风险情况下的专业决策，为临床实践做出贡献。