Attitudes and perspectives of midwifery students towards distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

OpenAlex İngilizce

Objective: This study aims to determine the attitudes and perspectives of midwifery students towards distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The universe of the study consists of undergraduate students who continue to study in mid-wifery departments in Turkey. The study universe consisted of 488 midwifery students enrolled in uni-versity midwifery programs. Midwifery students were invited to participate in the study with a conven-ience sampling method through WhatsApp groups and social media accounts. The data were collected with an introductory questionnaire containing socio-demographic information prepared by the research-ers and the Attitude Scale towards Distance Education.Results: It was determined that the mean age of the students participating in the study was 21.86±9.29 years; 15% were first grade, 20.5% were second grade, 35% were third grade, and 29.1% were fourth grade. The mean score of the students on the scale was determined as 90.44±26.58. There was a signifi-cant difference between the scale scores and the region of the student's school and the classes they stud-ied. It has been observed that the scale scores of the students living in the Central and Eastern Anatolia regions and the second and third-year students are low.Conclusion: It can be said that the midwifery department students' attitudes towards distance education in the first period of the distance education process, which started with a break from face-to-face educa-tion after the pandemic, are at a moderate level of positivity.