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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter July 12, 2022

Virtual patients: an option for future distance midwifery education?

  • Eva Urbanová , Martina Bašková ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Erika Maskálová , Lucia Mazúchová and Zuzana Škodová

Abstract

Background

The objective is to introduce the creating a set of virtual patients (VPs) to support distance midwifery education as well as the impact of distance education by means of VPs on knowledge, skills, motivation, clinical practice, and student satisfaction.

Methods

VPs were created using OpenLabyrinth (OL). The impact of the distance education was assessed using a feedback questionnaire.

Results

When creating our own VPs, the design and development phase can be considered the most difficult. On a scale of 1 (agree) to 4 (disagree), the student feedback rates were mostly positive (1.04–2.13). A high degree of agreement was associated with the acquisition of theoretical knowledge (1.15–1.28) and skills (1.43).

Conclusions

The creation of our own VPs is challenging for teachers due to its unconventional character. The students expressed great satisfaction with distance learning, but lacked face-to-face contact with the patient.


Corresponding author: Assoc Prof Martina Bašková, MN, PhD, Department of Midwifery, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava, Malá Hora 5, 036 01 Martin, Slovak Republic, Phone: 00421-905-971-986, E-mail:

Funding source: KEGA

Award Identifier / Grant number: KEGA n. 025UK-4/2018

  1. Research funding: This work was supported by Project KEGA n. 025UK-4/2018 ‘Multimedia support in the education of midwifery (virtual patient)’.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  5. Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee at Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Martin (protocol no. EK 75/2020).

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Received: 2021-07-28
Accepted: 2022-06-23
Published Online: 2022-07-12

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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