Comparing the Effect of Workshop and Podcast Training on Knowledge and Performance of Midwifery Students Regarding Legal and Religious aspects of Egg Donation

Background & aim: The increased prevalence of infertility and using assisted reproductive technologies including donation procedures has currently become a public concern. The familiarity of midwives with legal and religious aspects of these procedures is a salient issue in their care giving practice. However, this issue has been less considered in the curriculum planning for midwifery students. Thus, this study investigated the effect of workshop and podcast training on midwifery students’ knowledge and performance in terms of legal and religious aspects of egg donation. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted among 60 undergraduate midwifery students of Islamic Azad University of Mashhad and postgraduate midwifery students at Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad, Iran. The university students in the workshop group were trained through lectures accompanied by PowerPoint files for a total of 6-8 hours, while the podcast group received three separate 25-minute audio files and discussed them in a Telegram-based group. The objective structured clinical examination was also administered before and two weeks after the training course at four stations. To analyze the data, Chi-squared test, paired t-test, and independent t-test were run in SPSS, version 16. Results: The mean knowledge scores were significantly different between two groups (P=0.004); however, no significant differences were observed between them in terms of educational performance (P=0.63). Conclusion: Podcast-based training using Telegram was more effective in promoting the students’ knowledge regarding legal and religious issues associated with egg donation compared to workshop training; nevertheless, educational performance increased in the same level using both methods.