Abstract

Background: Clinical skills center provides an opportunity for students to increase their clinical skills   and communication in a calm and controlled environment using a variety of teaching aids and models. The purpose of this study is to survey the midwifery students’ opinion about the benefits of this center in Ardabil.

Methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study on the midwifery students (n=39) of Nursing – Midwifery Faculty in Ardabil, who have had the experience of clinical education at  Clinical Skill Center Data was collected by a questionnaire including demographic information and 14 questions about the characteristics and advantages of the two sections of the Clinical Skills Center, which were graded (from 5 to 1) based on the Likert scale, Results were analyzed using spss statistical software and statistical tests.

Results: Results showed that students of midwifery entering in 1385 (66.7 %) totally agreed and 6 students of midwifery entering 1386 (46.9%) agreed with the benefits of clinical skills center. The mean score for 1385 students, (88 ± 25) and 1386 students (82 ± 38) was not meaningful. All of these students’ idea about the fact that practicing in Clinical Skill Centerincreases the ability of communication (0 / 04) and that training in Clinical Skill Centerboosts practical training  of professional ethics  was meaningful (P<0.01).  But in the rest of the questions there was no meaningful difference in the two midwifery groups

Conclusions: The results showed that the use of Clinical Skill Centerin clinical education and clinical skills is helpful for improving the midwifery students’ (and even other clinical fields) skills. In other words midwifery students should train in this center before entering the actual clinical environment.  To achieve this goal, proper planning by those involved in clinical education will be important.

Key words: Midwifery students-clinical skill center