THE EFFECTS OF DISTANCE EDUCATION ON MIDWIFERY STUDENTS BEFORE CLINICAL PRACTICE IN THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the positive and negative effects of distance education before clinical practice compared to midwifery students. Materials and Methods: The research was carried out with a total of 181 students studying in the 1st and 2nd year of the Department of Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, of a state university in Turkey. 54.7% of the participants are first-year students, all of them are single, 63.5% are Anatolian high school graduates, 76.2% have an extended family and 71.3% live in the city. Regarding the distance education evaluations, 72.9% stated that they did not approve. Participants also stated that the transition to distance education negatively affected the quality of laboratory and clinical applications of the courses and their participation rates. The learning tools that students found most valuable in the distance education process were online lecture notes (83.9%), smartphones (81%), internet access (76.1%) and computers (72.5%). The distance education process brought additional costs to 71.3% of the students and 29.3% stated that this cost was more than 500 Turkish Liras. This result shows that web-based distance education can be used in addition to formal education to reinforce the theory in midwifery education.