Breastfeeding Consultant Training in the Metvaverse Universe

Plain-language summary

Although breastfeeding is an important and natural process in infant development, mothers may fail to manage the process. Nurses, who have an important place in helping to physically initiate and maintain breastfeeding, provide an in-depth knowledge of breast anatomy and breastfeeding physiology, practice and process breastfeeding techniques. Must have extensive management skills. Although the World Health Organization recommends that breastfeeding issues should be addressed in medical, nursing and midwifery schools, there is a lack of nurses' training curricula and breastfeeding training given in hospitals. Due to this deficiency, mothers have low self-confidence and insufficient knowledge about breastfeeding. The aim of this project is to develop a breastfeeding counseling model in the metaverse universe and to determine the effect of this model on nursing students' breastfeeding counseling skills, knowledge level and empathy skills. Giving breastfeeding education with the metaverse application compared to the application on real patients includes much less risk for the patient and the ability to practice until the right skill is acquired. In the project, it is expected that the breastfeeding counseling education model (LactaVerse), which is structured on virtual reality developed in the metaverse universe, is compared to the existing deficient and non-standardized breastfeeding education practice, enabling nurses to practice more and without errors during the undergraduate education, and to gain more effective skills in breastfeeding counseling. In this context, the project will support the ability of multiple users in the metaverse universe to examine the anatomy of the breast and apply breastfeeding counseling to the mother by transmitting their voices and movements with virtual glasses. In the preparation phase of the training to be developed in the virtual universe within the scope of the project, the breast anatomical modeling and the breastfeeding mother-baby duo project scenario will be developed and virtual glasses will be transferred. At this stage, expert opinions of the questionnaires to be used in the evaluation of educational effectiveness will be taken. Pre-application of data collection tools and LactaVerse training will be made. Experiment (n=40) and control (n=40) groups will be determined from the students by randomization. "Descriptive Characteristics Data Collection Form", "Breastfeeding Information Form", "Basic Empathy Level Scale", "Nursing Counseling Skill Scale" and "Presence Scale" will be applied to both groups. During the application phase, Lactaverse training method with virtual glasses will be applied to the experimental group, and a 2-hour theoretical classical training method will be applied to the control group. After 4 weeks of the training, the post-tests will be applied to the experimental group and the control group and they counseling will be given to the patient who plays the role of a nursing mother in the laboratory, and measurements will be made with the Breastfeeding Counseling Skill List and statistical analyzes will be applied. With the training developed in connection with the project, it is expected that nurses will have a high level of empathy development and breastfeeding counseling skills in a complex healthcare environment such as breastfeeding counseling before they graduate. In this way, the professional knowledge, counseling skills and empathy skills of nurses, who have an important role in breastfeeding, will increase, helping our society to increase the breastfeeding rates to the desired level.

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