Comparison of the Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Education through Two Virtual Methods for Increasing Knowledge in Nurses

Abstract

Background: Virtual education today is about to become one of the most important educational methods in nursing. However, there have been few studies that have examined the effectiveness of virtual education to increase knowledge towards breast cancer among nurses in Iran.Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge towards breast cancer among nurses who were provided with two different methods of virtual training. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 182 nurses in two hospitals in Tehran, Iran, who were randomly selected and divided into two groups of 91 nurses. Participants of the first group got virtual training about breast cancer in two sessions within two weeks by Skyroom. In the second group, the content was sent as educational messages by WhatsApp within two weeks. Participants’ knowledge in both groups was measured using valid and reliable questionnaires developed by the researchers as a pretest and three posttests, and the satisfaction of the participants was also measured. To analyze the data, analysis of variance, standard deviation, t-test and Tukey test were performed.Results: According to the average score observed in the post-test period, the score of the WhatsApp group was 7.62, significantly higher than the Skyroom group of 6.25. The scores of the three post-test were higher than the pre-test in the two groups (with no significant difference between the two groups, p-value = 0.825 in the first post-test), but the scores declined from the first to third tests, showing a decline in the learning effect with time. However, the slope was gentler in the WhatsApp group, showing a more persistent learning effect.Conclusion: This study showed that teaching with educational messages through WhatsApp had a greater impact on the sustainability of learning than teaching via lecturing through Skyroom.