Purpose: The competency of soft, interpersonal skills within the SLP profession is essential to clinical preparation and career success. However, it is often not implemented into the curriculum. Clinical simulation training can be an effective method used to fill this current clinical gap. The literature review presents information on traditional SLP training, current soft skill gaps, and possible solutions. Method: Three first-year SLP graduate students participated in this A-B-A withdrawal design investigation to examine the impact of clinical simulation labs to improve self-rated empathy in difficult conversations with patients and caregivers. The dependent variable was measured with a 5-question Likert. The scale was administered to quantify the participants’ self-rated empathy levels. The clinical simulation lab included pre-training, scripts, patient files, simulation, and a debriefing period. Results: Results indicate that the clinical simulation labs had a positive effect on students’ self-rated empathy. After the simulation intervention experience, all three participants demonstrated a self-rated empathy increase of two standard deviations above the baseline. As students participated in simulations, empathy skills increased. Conclusion: Participants’ empathy levels were observed to be directly related to participation in the clinical simulation labs on empathy. Further, participants demonstrated empathetic responses with undertstanding and support towards the patient and/or caregiver in the difficult conversation scripts and scenarios. Future research should examine simulation training on other soft skills.
