Effect of Pregnancy Simulator on Midwifery Nursing Students’ Experience of Physical Difficulties and Attitude toward pregnant women

Background: Pregnancy simulations can be used as educational deep learning tools to help students and professionals connect what they know to what they see in real life. Aim: This study aimed to assess the effect of pregnancy simulator on midwifery nursing students’ experience of physical difficulties and attitude toward pregnant women. Subjects and Method: Study design: A quasi-experimental research design was used. Setting: This study was carried out at Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University. Study subjects: A non-probability purposive sample of 100 midwifery nursing students was allocated either to the control group taught by traditional lecture or to the intervention group taught by utilizing the Empathy Belly TM Pregnancy Simulator. Tools: Three tools were used for data collection; a structured interview questionnaire (general characteristics, physical difficulties questionnaire, student's attitude toward pregnant women questionnaire and satisfaction Likert scale. Results: After the application of pregnancy simulation, there was a highly statistical significant difference in experience of pregnancy physical difficulties among the control and simulation groups (p < 0.001).The students’ attitude toward pregnant women was improved before and after intervention among the pregnancy simulation students (P<0.001). More than two thirds of the students (68%) were satisfied and reported that the pregnancy simulator was better educational method. Conclusion: Applied simulation methods had an optimistic influence on the improvement of student's attitude, and experience of physical difficulties toward pregnant women thus the tested hypotheses were accepted. Recommendations: Simulation is an effective teaching method that enables students to improve their attitude toward pregnant women.