the effect of web-based and simulation-based education on midwifery students’ self-confidence in postpartum hemorrhage management

background & aim:  self-confidence, as one of the key elements of clinical competence, plays an important role in one’s actions and behaviours. selection of proper instructional methods influences students’ self-confidence. therefore, this study aimed to compare the effects of web-based training and educational simulation on midwifery students’ self-confidence in postpartum hemorrhage management. methods: this experimental study was conducted on 44 midwifery students of mashhad school of nursing and midwifery, mashhad, iran, in 2013. the subjects were selected via convenience sampling. the web-based group was trained at the clinical skill laboratory of school of nursing and midwifery; both groups were taught the same educational content. data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, visual analogue scale to evaluate students' self-assessment of their ability to manage postpartum hemorrhage and c-scale to measure students' self-confidence descriptive analysis, independent t-test, paired t-test, and two-way anova were performed, using spss version 11.5. results: both groups showed a significant increase in self-confidence in postpartum hemorrhage management one month after the training (p=0.003 and p=0.030 in web-based and simulation groups, respectively). no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of self-confidence in postpartum hemorrhage management. conclusion: since the two groups showed no significance difference in self-confidence, web-based education, which is a more accessible method, could be applied as an alternative to the conventional method of simulation.